If you discover that you are unable to resolve the complaint directly with the tour operator, you have the option to present your case under the ABTA Arbitration scheme. 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

Problems associated with DIY or Dynamically Packaged Holidays accounts for the second most popular holiday complaints we receive!  Many Travel Consumers believe that they are booking a Package Holiday and this was accepted by all (except for some the British contingent) at the recent Stakeholder Conference in Brussels on 22 April 2010!  It is quite clear that the Package Travel Directive was intended to cover so-called DIY holidays, but unfortunately, the British Travel Consumer has been disadvantaged by a series of legal cases exercised before the Court of Appeal!  In the May 2007 edition of Get’Away, we examined the dilemma for one holidaymaker, faced with suing 2 online ‘agents’ and a hotelier in a foreign jurisdiction!  We explored whether this is a Package and offer a problematic solution to his dilemma!  It should be remembered the Package Travel Directive is currently being examined by the EU Commission with a view to importing a greater certainty into its provisions! 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

The recent article (4/6/2010) in The Independent, highlighted a ‘league table’ of offending airlines, who it is claimed, are more prone to losing, damaging or delaying the baggage of airline passengers (note the vehement rejection by one airline of the survey’s findings).  Lost, Delayed or Damaged baggage are some of the common complaints we receive; the principle difficulty is that airline passengers do not appear to know what to do if they should suffer with any of these problems!  We attended a recent meeting at The Department for Transport, where this very issue was discussed and it was agreed amongst Consumer Groups, that the airline passenger suffers with a lack of access to timely information, in what is obviously a stressful time for them!  The Air Transport Users Council (AUC), which is part of the CAA has a useful guide to this thorny problem!  In the May 2007 edition of Get’Away, we summarised the rights of passengers under the Montreal Convention for Destroyed, Lost or Delayed Baggage due to the fault of an airline. It should be noted however, the limits for compensation have been increased since that article!  The new limits of compensation are now – Lost, Delayed or Damaged baggage 1,131 Special Drawing Rights Per Passenger – or – the limit for claims for delay is 4,694 Special Drawing Rights Per Passenger! Read More

Time and time again we receive plaintiff calls from holidaymakers with genuine holiday complaints, who have decided to enter into an Arbitration or Court process.  Time and time again we discover that not enough preparation is made by holidaymakers to present their case correctly!  Is it the fault of the holidaymaker? Most definitely not!  The reason that holidaymakers get into trouble when they try to resolve their own holiday claims is that they are in some ways lured into a process which in some ways promises to be easy and non-legalistic.  The reality is that if you are trying to make a claim for holiday compensation, the travel company will usually employ a solicitor or barrister to protect their interests.  The holidaymaker is then often faced with a process that becomes very legalistic and at times incomprehensible!  Preparation is the key and unless you have a pressing limitation date less haste and more research is the order of the day!  In the May 2007 edition of Get’Away we asked, “Are You Ready for Court?” - It was the first of a series of articles which explores the evidential trail and experience of holidaymakers who decide to go it alone, and take their case into the Small Claims Court.  The moral of the tale is to learn from other holidaymakers experiences! Read More