What is ABTA?

Not many people are familiar with what ABTA (The Travel Association) is. You may have seen the logo on several travel-related websites, but what does it mean? Read on for more information about what ABTA is and what it does, how to make a claim if your holiday company fails, how to make a complaint against an ABTA member, and other things you can do to protect your trip.

About ABTA

ABTA was once known as the Association of British Travel Agents, but changed its name to the Travel Association in 2007. In the same way ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s License) offers protection for travellers taking flight-based package holidays, ABTA covers land- and sea-based package holidays. Many tour operators and travel agents have ABTA memberships, which upholds them to high professional standards and ABTA’s code of conduct.

What Does ABTA Do?

As previously mentioned, ABTA covers land- and sea-based package holidays. A package holiday is travel and accommodation (and sometimes excursions) that have been purchased together through a travel agent or tour operator. To qualify for ABTA cover, your package holiday must include travel by bus, hire car, rail, ferry, or cruise. If your package holiday includes flights that were booked through an ATOL member, you will be separately covered by ATOL as well.

ABTA provides financial cover to individuals whose holiday company has gone bust. If this happens to you, you should receive a refund but you’ll need to book a new trip yourself. You must make an ABTA claim within 6 months of the company going out of business to ensure that you get your refund. The claims process can take up to 6 weeks.

ABTA also provides advice and information to customers about what their rights are if their ABTA-registered travel agent or tour operator doesn’t follow the Code of Conduct. If you need to make a complaint, the you can reach out to ABTA who will facilitate dispute resolution, arbitration, and conciliation to ensure that the you are offered appropriate alternative travel options, a refund, or compensation.

How Do I Make an ABTA Complaint?

There are many reasons a person may need to make a complaint about their tour company, this includes (but is not limited to):

• Poor quality of accommodation, transportation, and other services
• Misleading information and false advertising
• Services in the contract that were not provided
• Not making reasonable adjustments in terms of accessibility
• Not providing receipts and invoices to the customer
• Not informing customers about major building works that will disrupt their trip
• Booking errors (such as double booking or moving a customer to a smaller room than they paid for)

ABTA require customers to go through a multi-step process when making a complaint against a tour operator or travel agent with an ABTA membership. If you find yourself in a position where your trip isn’t what you were expecting or think the ABTA member hasn’t keep to the Code of Conduct, here is ABTA’s complaints process.

Make a Customer Complaint to the ABTA Member
The first step you should take before making an ABTA complaint, is to reach out directly to your travel agent or tour operator or fill out a customer complaint form to try to resolve the issue. If you are not happy with their initial response or offer of compensation, give them a second opportunity to rectify the issue. The holiday company should acknowledge your message within 2 weeks and respond within 28 days. If you don’t hear from them after that period or if their second response doesn’t resolve the issue, you can register a complaint with ABTA.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Resolving disputes is a two-step process. In Stage 1, you must go through ABTA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). In this process, you will need to provide your ATOL and ABTA certificates as well as documented evidence in the form of receipts, invoices, contracts, booking information, photographs, phone conversation transcripts, copies of emails, and copies of customer complaint forms. It will take approximately 50 days for the case to be reviewed. If you and the ABTA member manage to resolve your dispute yourselves, then the case will be closed. If it is not, then you will proceed to the second stage, which is arbitration or conciliation.

Arbitration

During the arbitration part of Stage 2, the arbitrator will review the evidence and investigate the matter. To apply for arbitration, you will need to estimate the amount you’re claiming (between £1.00–£7,500 or £7,501–£25,000). The unsuccessful party will need to pay the registration fee, which is determined by the claim amount. If you and the tour company agree to a settlement before the end of the end of the arbitration process, the arbitrator will consider the claim to be settled and the case will be closed. If you are the unsuccessful party and aren’t satisfied with the arbitrator’s decision, you must apply for an appeal within 14 days.

Conciliation

If your complaint has anything to do with an illness or personal injury that was caused by the company, you and the ABTA member will go through the conciliation process during Stage 2. This process also takes approximately 50 days. During conciliation, an ADR official will try to come up with possible solutions and help you both to reach a settlement. Unlike an arbitrator, the conciliator doesn’t determine the outcome of the settlement; they simply help each side negotiate. This process is done over the phone or in writing. You’ll need to submit evidence, and if you and the tour company or travel agent reach an agreement yourselves, the case will be closed. If you reach a settlement with the conciliators help, you both will need to sign a written statement. If you don’t reach a settlement through conciliation, you can take the matter to court. The fee for conciliation is paid by the ABTA member and is free to the customer.

What if the Company I Booked With Isn’t an ABTA Member?

Unfortunately, not all travel agents and tour operators are ABTA members, and if you book a trip with them, you will not receive any financial protection from ABTA. If you book with a non-ABTA tour operator through an ABTA travel agent, you will not be covered. To ensure you do get protection, check their website for the ABTA logo before purchasing your package holiday and read their terms and conditions carefully.

If I Have ABTA, Do I Need Travel Insurance?

ABTA only provides cover to travellers if their tour operator or travel agent goes out of business or if they don’t follow the code of conduct, but it doesn’t cover you for everything, which is why it’s important to purchase travel insurance for your trip.

Travel insurance will cover your medical and expatriation expenses; missed connections; cancellations and delays; and the loss, theft, or damage of your baggage, personal belongings, and valuables. If a part of your package holiday includes a cruise and you want to be covered for missed port, cabin confinement, and unused excursions, you’ll need to pay the additional premium for our cruise cover add-on. If you can recover your money via ABTA, ATOL, or a chargeback, you will not receive further funds from your travel insurance provider. To ensure your travel insurance covers every aspect of your trip, you’ll need to read the policy wording.