As our article in 2009 proved, many British holidaymakers experienced a ’holiday from hell’, or a less than satisfactory holiday experience!  Many holidaymakers suffered a holiday with serious or catastrophic consequences!  Our latest articles for the 2010 holiday season (20 holidaymakers comments and a list of 40 current complaints), demonstrate that this year is unlikely to be any different for British holidaymakers!  So if you have a holiday complaint – what can you do about it? Do you put it down to ‘just another experience’? You may have a holiday food poisoning claim, the facilities in the hotel or cruise ship were not up to standard, or your suffered at the hands of an airline! Did you suffer from a holiday accident?  These same questions are as relevant in 2012, particularly after a 2011 where it appears that travel companies had little regard for the Consumer and their complaints! Read More

Many holidaymakers find that when they are abroad and have holiday complaints to make, they have difficulty in accessing information that is timely, free and of some assistance!  To counter this problem, HolidayTravelWatch has created its own ‘Calling Card’ – www.holidaytravelwatch.tel !  The ‘card’ is electronic based and contains all the necessary contact numbers that you will need, to obtain our assistance!  It also provides links and access to up-to-date holiday complaints and of course our useful ‘Holidaymakers Backpack™’, which links you to all the holiday complaints guidance and material that you will need, to kick-start any complaints or problems you may have!  All you have to do is to copy the link for the ‘Calling Card’ into your favourites on your PC or Mobile Phone, that way you are never far from help wherever you may be! Read More

The greatest advance in British Consumer Travel Law is undoubtedly The Package Travel Regulations 1992, implemented for consumer protection. Read More

Many people cannot afford the services of a lawyer.  Sometimes the facts dictate that their case benefits would be outweighed by the cost of legal representation. In those cases it may be appropriate to use the small claims process – before doing so, you should always obtain independent legal advices. The process of the small claims court is fully described on the Court Service website. Read More

In the final series of ‘Watch Out For Further Announcements’, we examine passengers rights under 261/2004 & the Montreal Convention following a flight cancellation. We look at the issue from the perspective of the British Experience of Fog and Industrial Disputes during the winter of 2006/7! Read More

Are You Ready For Court? considers the impact of the argument that we have become a ‘compensation culture’ and examines the Arbitration process and the experience of one holidaymaker and their holiday complaints.  It should be recognised that the main reason why holidaymakers fail, is that they do not prepare their case and documentation properly!  We have written an article on this very issue and should be read in conjunction with this article!  The various links in that article will help you consider what you need to do, along with the guidance and commentary in the article below! Read More

Since 2005, the issue of Significant Change before departure, accounts for the second most popular of all holiday complaints received by HolidayTravelWatch (it is joint second with DIY/Dynamically Package Holiday Complaints – the top complaints we receive are holiday illness claims)!  Significant Changes occur usually when some aspect to the holiday is radically changed, for example, a change of hotel, overbooking of a hotel, a change of resort, closure of facilities, a change in a ship’s or tour’s itinerary, natural or man made disaster’s affecting a destination, outbreak’s of illness at a hotel, resort or on board a ship etc!  We have seen through Regulation 12 how a travel provider, when they become aware of a pre-departure ’Significant Change’ to your contract, must advise you of those changes, to give you the opportunity to cancel without penalty or to accept the changes with a rider to the contract!  However, Regulation 13 takes Consumer Rights further!  It obligates a travel provider to provide important options for you the travel Consumer!  In the May 2007 edition of ‘Get’Away’, we set out the consumer ‘benefit’ of Regulation 13 of the Package Travel Regulations and detail the rights that should be given to you before departure! Read More