With the news that On The Beach, Sunshine Co UK & Love Holidays have quit their ABTA membership this week, we thought it was a good time to explain the circumstances and why you should book with an ABTA travel company.
The ABTA travel association had launched an investigation into two of these online travel agencies, when clients were refused full refunds for holidays to Spain. These companies have refused to refund the flight element of their holidays, where the government advice was against travel to a destination, but the flight has not been cancelled by the airline. This stressful practise leaves the customers trying to contact the airlines last minute, to try and save their flights to use in the future, rather than lose the money.
ABTA’s code of conduct is that members should refund customers when the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advice is against all but essential travel to a destination. This is a longstanding practice of the travel industry which has not changed, despite the devastating impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. ABTA is sticking by its refund rules to maintain consumer confidence in package holidays. Although they were also supportive of the Refund Credit Notes introduced by the industry to help manage the cashflow of Covid-19 refunds.
Why you should book with an ABTA travel company:
When booking a package holiday you should use a reputable travel agency with ABTA membership and ATOL protection. The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 was also introduced to further protect consumers.
ABTA members must abide by their strict code of conduct which covers the whole holiday transaction including advertising, fair terms of trading, changes to bookings and managing customer complaints.
We are bound by their rules to give accurate information, advice and assistance to our clients.
Complaints have to be addressed within 28 days (currently extended to 56 days with the Covid-19 situation).
If a resolution can’t be resolved amicably, the situation can be escalated to ABTA for arbitration.
In summary with an ABTA travel company you can relax and travel with confidence. You can trust Camel Travel our ABTA membership is P6938.
We’ve got this, you’re in safe hands!
