ABTA and ATOL protection: why your travel agent and operators should have both.

ABTA protection - why is it important?

ABTA protection means that if your travel company goes out of business, you will be entitled to a refund which includes hotel costs. If you are abroad, your transport home will be covered. It provides a quick, clear and simple process to follow, so you are able to continue your holiday as planned, or get your money back. Protection from ABTA, or the Association of British Travel Agents, covers package holidays that don't include a flight.

ABTA also has a Code of Conduct which governs areas such as accurate advertising, fair terms of trading, changes to bookings and managing customer complaints, plus guidance on providing travellers with the right paperwork and handling complaints. An ABTA member cannot cancel your booking after the date for payment of the full price unless it is necessary to do so for reasons outside its control.

ABTA administers a scheme of financial protection for non-flight-based package holidays. All package holidays sold by ABTA members are financially protected if the company goes out of business. This means:

• If you haven’t yet travelled, you can claim a refund for the holiday

• If you’re already on holiday when the company goes bust, you can continue with your holiday as planned or, if you have to return early because of the company failure, you can claim for the parts of the holiday you missed

• If you haven’t yet travelled, you can claim a refund for the holiday

• If you’re already on holiday when the company goes bust, you can continue with your holiday as planned or, if you have to return early because of the company failure, you can claim for the parts of the holiday you missed

ABTA is a travel trade association for tour operators and travel agents who have been offering expert advice and guidance for more than 70 years. ABTA leads the way for ensuring high service standards among its members (travel companies like Blue Bay Travel), focussing on key issues such as health and safety for holidaymakers and encouraging responsible tourism both in the UK and abroad.

As an ABTA member, Ultimate Global Escapes through Blue Bay Travel are committed to maintaining a high standard of service to its customers by abiding by ABTA’s Code of Conduct, so you can feel confident that we offer package holidays you can trust. We are held to the highest standards. Being a member of ABTA means you can have confidence in us and the standard of services we offer you. This includes accurate advertising, a commitment to excellent customer service, fair terms of trading and changes to bookings.

What is ATOL?

The ATOL scheme (which stands for Air Travel Organisers Licence) is a financial protection scheme that protects you when you book a package trip that includes a flight. The scheme was introduced in 1973, following a series of high-profile business failures, and ATOL now protects millions of travellers each year.

If a package holiday company goes bust during a trip, ATOL protection will help you to continue your trip by:

• Ensuring you can stay in your holiday accommodation, if possible

• Reimbursing you for any money you spent to replace ATOL protected parts of your trip, e.g. car hire, transfers

• Arranging flights home, depending on the circumstances.

Bookings where a travel company / travel agent book flights and accommodation from separate suppliers and create a package themselves ("dynamic packaging") are NOT covered (unless they have ATOL permissions as a Travel Agent AND Tour Operator to create their own package which Blue Bay Travel do).

Ultimate Global Escapes Limited is an authorised agent of Blue Bay Travel (members of the Midcounties Cooperative Travel Consortium) who are ABTA and ATOL members which means we provide the highest level of Conduct and financial protection for our customers.

We do not support, nor will consider price matching for clients who are actively reviewing holidays with non-ABTA or TTA (Travel Trust Association) bonded companies. These companies do not offer full financial protection for their customers or adhere to a Code of Conduct. They can therefore refuse refunds or have a minimum trading period and lack of financial stability which puts you at risk.

With both ATOL protection and ABTA membership, you can rest assured that we’re doing everything we can to protect our customers and that you’re booking a package holiday you can trust.

How does this impact me?

While ATOL is mandatory for UK travel firms offering flights, ABTA is voluntary.

Firms who do not subscribe to ABTA or similar bonding schemes pay between £515 - £50,000 less a year which means they can afford to offer you bargain bucket prices as there is no financial security blanket if they become insolvent.

Firms who do subscribe have their membership fees allocated to a trust fund which allows the bonding company to refund customers.