SBS Thai radio broadcaster Parisuth Sodsai is among would-be-travellers left reeling by the collapse of Bestjet.
"In the past two days, I have been very stressed. I thought we would be protected more. But now I just realised that for consumers we don't have anything."
In November Ms Sodsai and her partner, Benjamin Gayler, booked flights to Italy via the online ticket agent for a dream family getaway.
On New Year's Eve, their plans were thrown into disarray by a shock call from their airline, Emirates.
"Saying that they'd had a request from Bestjet for a refund. And then Emirates then refunded the money to Bestjet and we were out of pocket."
The family hopes to recoup the four-thousand-dollar loss with travel insurance linked to their credit card.
Bestjet went into voluntary administration a week before Christmas ((Dec 18)).
The administrators, Pilot Partners, say it Is too early to provide a strong view on the reasons for the collapse or the probability of a dividend return to creditors.
A travel writer at the consumer organisation Choice, Mr Jodi Bird, is advising customers left out-of-pocket to contact their banks - fast.
"Credit card chargeback is the best port of call because there is only a handful of travel insurers that cover travel agency insolvency. And you should do it as soon as you can because there is a time limit on when you can claim a credit card chargeback."
International student Vikram Jaglan cancelled a booking with Bestjet two weeks ((Dec 3)) before the company went insolvent.
The part-time Uber driver from India was promised an 11-hundred-dollar refund in two to three business days.
He has had nothing.
(Journalist: "How do your family back in India feel about it?"
Vikram: "I didn't tell them right now because they will angry with me about it. It's a big amount in Indian rupees."
A Facebook group set up to help people who have lost money already has more than a thousand members.
Amit Singh Jadon was the owner of a Melbourne based online travel agency.
He says, “Unless regulators or government do something about protecting the customers' nothing can be done against defaulting travel agencies.”
Amit told SBS Hindi, “If buying tickets online, try and get travel insurance.”
