Consumer Zone

The Consumer Zone is designed to give you clear guidance and advice both before and after your holiday.

Travel agent and tour operator failures

The following information is only relevant before you leave for your holiday.

If the travel agent you have booked with has ceased to trade, this should not affect your travel plans. However, you should contact your tour operator to check they have your booking on record.

If you booked through a travel agent and your tour operator ceases to trade, contact your agent for assistance. If you booked directly with the failed tour operator, you can check whether your holiday is protected by ABTA here.

Complaints

The following section offers you advice and guidance on how to complain about any holiday provider.

However, if the company is not an ABTA Member you’ll be unable to register the complaint on our website and you may wish to seek further advice from Consumer Direct. If you have a complaint regarding an airline, follow step 1 and 2 and if unable to resolve the dispute contact the CAA. Before you make your complaint, our FAQs and key facts about the law sections might help.

A step-step guide to making your complaint

Step one:
Send your complaint in writing to the travel company you booked with. The company should send you a full response within 28 days. This may settle the matter in a way that’s acceptable to both you and the company. If you’ve only spoken to the company over the phone we advise that you follow it up in writing.

If you are not satisfied with their response, proceed to Step two. 

If they don’t respond within 28 days please complete our online form. This only applies if you are complaining about an ABTA Member.

Step two:
Send a second written complaint to the travel company. Again you should receive a full response within 28 days.

If you’ve been unable to resolve the dispute and you feel that you’ve reached deadlock. Proceed to Step three.

If they don’t respond within 28 days please complete our online form. This only applies if you are complaining about an ABTA Member.

Step three:
If you’ve already travelled, or if your holiday has been cancelled, you will need to send us copies of your booking confirmation invoice and your correspondence with your travel company. We require your paperwork so we can give you general advice on your complaint and advise you whether we feel your case is suitable for our Arbitration Scheme. Whether your correspondence was by email, by letter, or both, please send all copies to us.

Please do not send originals, photographs, discs, cheques or anything of value as once your file has been scanned your documents are destroyed. 

Please note that if your case does proceed to Arbitration, you will be required to re-submit your paperwork along with any other supporting evidence for the Arbitrator to consider. As the Arbitration Scheme is entirely independent from ABTA, we are unable to put your papers together for you, therefore it is important for you to keep original copies for your future reference.

Register your complaint with us using our online form. This only applies if you are complaining about an ABTA Member.

When you submit the form please make a note of the reference number.  We will contact you directly, usually within 14 days.

Arbitration and mediation

If we can’t help you to settle the dispute, we can offer an arbitration scheme that’s administered independently of the travel industry. For personal injury and illness claims, there’s a mediation scheme.

The deadline for submitting your paperwork to us is within 18 (eighteen) months of the date that you returned from holiday. Please make sure that your complaint reaches us well before the deadline so that we have time to process it.

Contact us

If you want to speak to someone, you can call Consumer Affairs on 0901 201 5050 (UK calls only). Calls are charged at 51.062p per minute, plus any network charges. This line is open from 9.00-17.00 Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays.

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