You’re absolutely right about this. ABTA stopped paying out to consumers at the end of last year and it has not been without controversy in the trade although the mainstream consumer press has been slow on the uptake.

ABTA’s line is that it can’t continue to open itself to potentially unlimited claims on the bonding system that it operates particularly as new ways of selling on the Interent have opened up the travel industry to some major cons.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of bookings can be taken over a single weekend by con men who advertise incredibly cheap deals that don’t actually exist.

ABTA says even with the old system it rarely paid out direct to consumers because in the event of a company collapse what would happen is other ABTA members would step in and honour the bookings. Therefore it has retained the bonding system that pays out to member operators so indirectly there retains a consumer promise.

However, ending full consumer protection is felt by many in the industry to have taken away ABTA’s raison d’etre and threatens to undermine its standing with the public which, as you suggest, has been one of its main assets.

ABTA is making many changes (there is a story in our publication this week) that is moving it away from a travel agent member organisation, indeed it is proposing to officially change its name to Abta, and so ommitting any reference to agents.

The other problem consumers have is that even the ATOL system can be circumavigated by travel companies that sell packages in such a way that they are not, in law, considered to be packages.

ABTA and the Civil Aviation Authority that runs the ATOL system went to court over this last year and ABTA won and although there remains dispute over the implications of this it did open a potential loophole in consumer protection.

A review of ATOL and the European regulations that underpin it is underway but until we have a conclusion consumers are advised to be cautious. It has suggested the system could be scrapped and a voluntary insurance scheme brought in meanig consumers purchase travel without insuring it against failure at their own risk.

The Government recently, under intense lobbying from airlines, rejected calls for a £1levy on all transactions that would protect all consumers saying buying travel should be no different from buying anything else, like a sofa for instance which you don’t pay extra for to guarantee delivery.

Darren

ABTA was set up over 50 years ago and in this time it has changed several times.

Since 1973 all air holidays including those book though ABTA members have been covered by an ATOL.

Law changed ABTA financial protection in 1992 with the introduction of the Package Travel regulations. At this time ABTA said it members would work the same way in regards to bonding.

After ABTA went though a series of frauds in the last few years it changed its mind. ABTA bonding is still there, but is now not unlimited in the same way as before. I already gave the link to explain this. All ABTA Travel agencies can at request of the customer protect anything booked though them, if it is not protected already for a small fee (normally £3-£5 per person)

So what does ABTA do?
It has a set of enforced rules, called the Code of Conduct. (It is worth noting that AITO has a smaller version of this)

Did you know that every ABTA office must have trained staff (not all staff have to be but most are). This is a 2-year course to a degree level, also there are other ABTA qualifications such as any person selling travel insurance must pass its insurance exam.

To give you an idea of other things ABTA does here’s a short list.

Controls how members print there brochures including booking conditions.
Set rules covering complaints. And helps customers against members.
Tell members how long they must take to reply to letters from customers and each other.
Set and controls emergency procedures.
Runs consumer helpline.
To name just a few.

This is all on top of the role it plays as a trade association for members.

In my opinion it is not the best way of doing things but as the travel business changes and more people book unprotected trips each year things change with them.

Nicholas, no matter how you put it, ABTAs role is near redundant nowadays and whilst I do agree that they need to change with the times, they should of done that a few years back. Too little, too late.