Once a company has gone out of business, you need to establish if any financial protection applies to your travel arrangements and if so, who was providing it. You’ll also need to know whether that company was acting as a retail travel agent or a tour operator.
Retail travel agents take your details and make a booking on your behalf with another company, the tour operator. You’ll probably have chosen your holiday from the tour operator’s brochure and gone to the travel agent to make the booking on your behalf.
The identity of the tour operator who has your booking should be indicated on the paperwork you receive from the agent. If it’s a package holiday that includes a flight then you should have a document titled ‘ATOL Receipt’ which states that the travel agent ‘acts as retail agent for’ the tour operator and gives the operator’s ATOL Number.
In addition to your ATOL Receipt, you should have been provided with the tour operator’s own ‘Confirmation Invoice’. This document confirms that your booking has been made. For more guidance on the documentation you should look for see our leaflet Your Protection Checklist: Important Information When Making a Booking with an ABTA Member.
So, if the travel agent has gone out of business but you know who your tour operator is you should contact the operator to enable you to continue with your booked travel arrangements.
You’ll only be able to claim against any financial protection that may be in place if you were expecting a refund from the failed travel agent at the time of failure. This would apply where, for example, a holiday had been cancelled either by you or the tour operator and an amount was due back to you from the operator via the agent. Your contract with the tour operator will include cancellation charges so you should contact your insurance company to claim these.
If the travel agent didn’t place your booking as expected with a tour operator, hotel or other service provider (including activating any insurance policy), or if you’d bought vouchers which you haven’t used, or paid for foreign currency, you must contact the police or your local trading standards department for help. In addition, you may have a claim under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 if you’ve used a credit card to make the payment to the travel agent. Contact your card issuer to request more information.
If after reading these notes you believe you may have a valid claim against the failed company, please contact our Consumer Affairs Department for more information. For more detailed information regarding the documentation you may be required to submit to support any claim you may have, please click here
The tour operator is the company you’re in contract with and which undertakes to provide the services you’ve booked. If this company goes out of business it’s unlikely that your travel arrangements will go ahead.
The law requires financial protection to be in place when you buy a package holiday. If you have a flight involved in your booking and there’s an ATOL logo and/or number on your paperwork, you should contact the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to make a claim.
If you’ve booked a package, which doesn’t include flights, or there isn’t an ATOL logo on your paperwork, this protection may be provided by way of a bond held by a trade association, e.g. ABTA, or by way of an insurance policy or by placing your money into a trust account. You need to find out who, if anyone, is providing protection and contact them to make a claim.
If ABTA is the body providing protection for your booking then our Consumer Affairs Department will provide details of how to make a claim. For more detailed information regarding the documentation you may be required to submit to support any claim you may have, please click here.
Some travel companies offer protection for your money voluntarily. For example, accommodation-only providers may offer protection although there’s no legal requirement for them to do so.
Even if the protection isn’t provided by ABTA, if you’re having problems finding out what level of financial protection the failed company provided or making a claim, contact our Consumer Affairs Department. We may be able to assist you to obtain contact details for the organisation providing your financial protection or in taking the matter up with the relevant authorities. Where claims are referred to another provider of financial protection, that provider will decide how claims will be administered.
To support a claim against an ABTA administered financial failure, you’ll have to provide some or all of the following documentation depending on the circumstances and details of your claim:
Claims deadline
All claims must be received complete with correct documentation within six months of the date of failure. No reminders will be sent and it’s the responsibility of claimants to enquire as to progress within that period. Claims received outside this time limit will not be considered.
ABTA has no responsibility to meet any claims where security is held by someone other than ABTA, or where that security may prove insufficient or is not in place.