ABTA Avis 

I had a dispute with Princess cruises to whom we have been loyal cruises for many years. Princess were not honouring a gesture of goodwill that had been given but instead the holding letter as they called it was actually an invoice and not a “gesture of goodwill” as they had given. I got very frustrated at the responses they were giving me so I took the case to ABTA. The process was easy to raise the dispute. It did feel at times ABTA were not responding but it worked as Princess finally resolved the situation which I don’t think would have happened if ABTA hasn’t been involved. I know there are a lot of negative reviews but don’t give up. If you know the company is wrong and you are right, then this is the only way that change may happen.

Thank you most sincerely to everyone who has posted reviews about their terrible experience of dealing with ABTA. I was just about to spend over £300 on their Gold travel insurance policy, but will now look elsewhere. If ABTA behaves as the reviews indicate in relation to mediating with travel companies and being the industry watchdog, then I have no doubt they will be equally poor in the event of an insurance claim. Organisations that wear you down with inadequate service should be chased out of town.

I'm trying to raise a dispute on the ABTA Website. I entered the company that I'm disputing, Jet2 Holidays, into the Search box and came back with "Doesn't recognise this company, and the company may not be a member of ABTA." This has stopped me from raising the dispute.

The assessment of ABTA's handling of our dispute resolution process raises significant concerns about their practices and consumer protection standards. As a CTSI-ADR approved body, ABTA's decision to direct consumers to HUNT ADR - a non-CTSI approved arbitration service - appears to undermine their own standing and responsibility to consumers. While ABTA processed our initial claim, their chosen arbitration partner focused solely on contractual aspects while failing to address the fundamental standpoints of our complaint. Most concerning is ABTA's apparent endorsement of a dispute resolution system that requires consumers to pay substantial fees (£350 plus VAT) to challenge decisions, exceeding typical small claims court costs for self-representation. For an organization that positions itself as a consumer protection body and holds CTSI-ADR approval, ABTA's choice to partner with a service that lacks equivalent consumer protection standards and imposes significant financial barriers to appeals seems to contradict their stated commitment to consumer interests. The lack of transparency in this process is particularly troubling, as consumers entering ABTA's dispute resolution system are not adequately informed upfront about these limitations and potential additional costs. Furthermore, ABTA's approach appears to create a two-tier system where access to justice becomes dependent on a consumer's ability to pay substantial fees, rather than the merits of their case. Their partnership with HUNT ADR effectively forces consumers into a position where they must either accept potentially incomplete decisions or face disproportionate costs to seek a fair review - a situation that seems to conflict with ABTA's role as a consumer protection organization. This raises serious questions not only about ABTA's judgment in selecting arbitration partners but also about their commitment to maintaining the high standards expected of a CTSI-ADR approved body.

I have experience of using ABTA twice with different companies.
I found the process of registering the dispute fairly easy via the website.
The previous dispute went to arbitration and I'm pleased to say my dispute was upheld and the company were required to provide compensation so well worth spending the money to take to arbitration.
My recent dispute was settled by the company after I registered the dispute with ABTA, despite them saying on numerous occasions that they would only offer money off another cruise!

Abta are toothless. Cannot believe they accepted the cruise company to distort what was said. Abta are no more than a batting service for its members. I would recommend that you don’t waste your time if you are looking for any compensation as the chances are at best a snowball chance

I recently had an excellent experience with the ABTA team that I want to share. While planning a trip with three friends, we discovered that one passenger's name was incorrectly listed on the e-ticket we purchased from World Airfares.
Unfortunately, World Airfares was unhelpful in resolving the issue.

Frustrated, we reached out to ABTA, and they quickly took our concerns seriously. The team was proactive and communicated effectively with World Airfares on our behalf. Thanks to their efforts, WorldAirfares agreed for the correction of the name on the e-ticket.
I am incredibly grateful for ABTA's dedication and professionalism. Their support made a potentially stressful situation into a smooth experience, allowing us to focus on enjoying our trip.
I highly recommend ABTA for their exceptional customer service and advocacy in travel issues. Thank you, ABTA, for making our journey stress-free!

The service provided was subpar and did not meet the expected standards. It is concerning that compensation is not awarded when a holiday experience goes awry, as this allows companies to engage in unacceptable behavior without consequence.

Trying to raise a dispute with ABTA going round in circles as ABTA cannot take calls from customers unless a dispute has been raised, very frustrating as there is no other way of getting in touch with ABTA

I can't even register a complaint about…
I can't even register a complaint about Easy Jet. I keep getting a 422 error. The boxes are definitely completed correctly. Someone complained about this in September and they said the error had been resolved. Not correct . this is very frustrating

UPDATE - Now able to press the Register button, but on the next page, I have not received a text message or email to allow me to progress further.

Also the downtime of the ABTA website was more than a few minutes. I was trying to access it from Monday evening and all day Tuesday and Wednesday.

Having tried unsuccessfully to seek compensation from our villa company, I've been trying to register the complaint with ABTA for two days but keep getting the Error 422. However, I'm positive there is nothing incorrect about the first two pages of my dispute form that I've filled in. ABTA customer service won't help me unless I've registered!! So I'm going round in circles.

However I enter information their system keeps reporting an error code 422 and it is impossible to contact them to change this

ABTA successfully gained a positive response and refund from Rail Discoveries after my failed attempts, and a somewhat degrading response from Rail Discoveries, to my request for a refund in rail travel, booked after a misleading document in flight change times and airports was sent out to me.

Pointless existence with no power
Don’t bother with abta ….they have no interest in the customer ….waste of time they can’t do a thing

Very worried I’ve wasted my money now.
Disgusting cabins on Britannia. Two months wait until p&o offered a hamper although my photos show how bad the cabins were.
Hoped ABTA would be able to help but P&O refuse to change their offer. Today I filled in arbitration form at cost of £150.
Reviews for the arbitration look as bad as ABTA.
Just not right that companies can treat people like this.
ABTA did respond quickly but just seems pointless after filling in the forms and attaching photos nothing can be done to make a company belonging to ABTA to even investigate a complaint

ABTA completely ignored the details of my complaint against Paramount Cruises. They tried to fob me off with a completely deflected response, blaming the airline rather than Paramount (who booked an international connecting flight in the full knowledge that the time allowed for that connection was highly unlikely to be sufficient). Other travel agents mitigate against short connection times, but not Paramount.
Sharp practice, fully endorsed by ABTA.

Like the majority of other reviewers, yet another 1-star review and like them we too are puzzled as to exact purpose of ABTA.
Not one of our complaints was acknowledged or addressed including evidence submitted that, in our opinion the travel company had breached several of the ABTA guidelines. The only response we received was that the travel company had replied to ABTA saying
“(we) will not be changing our position"; no commentary, explanation or justification, just one short sentence. We were offered the option of going to arbitration but again, looking at others’ experience this just seems to be a way of throwing more good money after bad.
Should we be in a similar situation in the future we would not waste time with ABTA but issue a Section 75 claim or go straight to the small claims court.

I wish I had never taken ABTA’s advice to go with Hunt Travel Arbitrators , one of the worst experiences of dealing with incompetent and unprofessional individuals. If they recommend Hunt DO NOT DO IT. Waste of time and waste of money. ABTA needs to evaluate these companies before they recommend them and people lose money.

I can't even register a complaint about TUI as I keep getting a 422 error. The boxes are definitely completed correctly. It's frustrating as there's no email address or telephone number to call. I did notice that there's no issue with the members number however.

Reading feedback on here, it looks like I might be wasting my time anyway 😔

It's pretty poor that's the system is so rigid and shows that it needs improving.

The rating is for my experience so far and will be revisited once I've had ABTA actually look at my complaint.

UPDATE
ABTA responded quite quickly and I now have access. I'll revise the score once I've been through the process.

UPDATE 10th October
ABTA aren't an ombudsman and have no power to issue compensation, this is done via an independent arbitrator when disputes aren't resolved at stage 1 of the complaints process.

ABTA prvides a code of conduct for its members, but don't appear to police it, they do appear to facilitate a portal to start the complaints off and a structured complaints system.

I'm upping my score to 3 as the process to contact them when the portal wasn't available, was via Trustpilot as they have no alternative contact methods.

About as useless as BA
Not much point as the review has been removed 🤷‍♂️