Small claims court - travel agent or travel company

[WithIcePlease]

I booked a holiday, paid in full but cancelled by the provider due to Covid
Am I correcting thinking action via courts and tribunal service (previously small claims court) should be against the agent who sold me the holiday and I paid money to rather than the provider of the holiday?
Agent is ABTA if it makes a difference

Hopeful bump

Are they point blank refusing to refund you, or do you want to go to small claims because they’re dragging their heels over it? Because if it’s the latter it might be easier to just give them a little more time, I imagine there’s a massive backlog in the county court so it would probably take longer to get your money that way.

To answer your question, it’s the agent you have the contract with - but your contract might have a compulsory arbitration clause in it that you would need to exhaust first.

Looking into it a bit more it looks like your action would be against whoever’s name is on the ATOL certificate.

Thank you @GivenchyDahhling
I'll look at the ATOL stuff now
No not dragging their heels - the agents are saying they will forward my email to the operator
I'm worried the provider may go under

Thank you @GivenchyDahhling
I'll look at the ATOL stuff now
No not dragging their heels - the agents are saying they will forward my email to the operator
I'm worried the provider may go under

Who is your contract with?

Who is your contract with?

The provider is ATOL
The agent is ABTA
I'm going to get on to this now and file asap

@sittingonacornflake
I paid money to agent
The provider replied to us about booking but with our name on agents address
ATOL certificate is from provider, not the agent

It's a claim under the contract. You most likely contracted with the agent - check your paperwork.

It's so confusing
I'm getting the paperwork- I'm away at the mo
I've no idea which - the ATOL or ABTA - the claim would be against and from paperwork I have, it's not clear as yet
Thank you for bearing with me. I'll update as soon as I can
It's 5k so not insubstantial

You would claim against the provider not the agent as it's the providers T&Cs you sign up to. ATOL isn't relevant it's only for airline failure, the relevant legislation is the Package Travel Regulations. How long have you been waiting? There are very few operators not refunding but there are huge backlogs due to the volume of refunds to be processed. Feel free to DM I work in the industry so am happy to advise with more detail.

@EnglishGirlApproximately that's great thank you v much

ATOL and ABTA are industry organisations not travel agents or providers. Who did you actually book with ?

Paid money to agents
Booking confirmation was from the package provider