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

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

This issue of Travel Insurance is very important to the Consumer, particularly where they suffer holiday problems.  Many holiday complaints involve reports of holiday illness/sickness, holiday accidents, changes to holidays, flight changes and poor customer service, and there are times when the presence of a Travel Insurance Policy is vital to the holidaymakers well-being!  HolidayTravelWatch has responded to The Treasury review of the sale of Travel Insurance, and whether the sale of this important financial product, should be brought into Regulatory control by the FSA.  Read More

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? Read More

This major article first appeared within our own Travel-Zine – Get’Away – Your Route to Travel Rights. It attempts to calculate the cost of returning holiday illness to the holidaymaker, the NHS and British Industry. It was discovered that the cost to the Nation could be as high as £222m. The annual personal cost to holidaymakers on their return is calculated at £12.5m and the annual cost to the NHS is estimated at £25m. Read More

If you want to know what Consumer Rights you have if your flight is delayed, then read this article which discusses the rights contained within 261/2004 and the Montreal Convention – Watch Out For Further Announcements – The Flight Delay Rules.pdf Read More