Travel with Confidence

Why book with an ABTA Member?

Expertise

Our Members offer a wide range of holidays and are on hand to provide you with expert advice, information and guidance. Whether you want a week on the beach, a thrill-seeking adventure holiday or a weekend city break, they’ll help you find the perfect trip for you, giving you all the information and advice you need so you can book and travel with confidence.

Many travel professionals have lived in or extensively visited the destinations they advise on. This means they can offer an authentic insight into what a destination is like. They’ll also be able to explain how a holiday is likely to differ in light of the ongoing pandemic, including:

• Guidance on country requirements, including the latest Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) travel advice.
• Information on how the journey to and from the destination country may differ.
• Guidance on in-destination rules and regulations, such as social distancing or mask requirements.
• Guidance on accommodation specific rules or changes, such as mealtime protocols or which facilities are open/closed.

In addition, our Members will be able to offer guidance around entry and visa requirements, particularly for post-Brexit travelling in Europe. 

Support

Our Members continue to work tirelessly to help customers whose travel plans continue to be affected by the pandemic, including helping customers to find alternative destinations for holidays as well as rebooking and rearranging trips for future dates and issuing refunds. 

In the rare event that you have an issue with one of our Members, and you haven’t been able to resolve it with them directly, we are here to help. That includes access to our fast, cost-effective and independent complaints resolution service, which could save you time, money and hassle. 

Financial protection 

Package holidays sold in the UK are required by law to be financially protected. This means that, if your tour operator goes out of business (financially fails), you should be able to make a claim for your money if you are not on holiday yet, or continue your holiday as planned if you are on holiday when the company fails and you may also claim to be reimbursed for the parts of the package that can no longer be provided. 

If you book your holiday from outside the UK, this financial protection might not apply. You should ask your travel company whether your holiday is protected either voluntarily by the ABTA Member, or under another scheme, before you make a booking.

The financial protection arranged by tour operators for flight-based package holidays sold to customers in the UK is the ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s Licence) scheme which is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Tour operators are permitted, by law, to arrange other schemes of financial protection for non-flight-based packages. They may arrange bonding with ABTA or ABTOT, or Financial Failure Insurance with an insurance firm, or they may deposit your money in a trust which complies with the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.

ABTA Members may offer financial protection for travel arrangements which are not package holidays, such as accommodation only. Under the law, there is no requirement for them to be financially protected.

For more information about ABTA’s financial protection scheme, please click here.

From https://www.abta.com/tips-and-advice/planning-and-booking-a-holiday/look-for-the-ABTA-logo-when-you-book-your-holiday>