In 2006 I booked a cruise on the QM2 from Rio de Janeiro to New York with Voyana trading as Cruise Classified (CC). Shortly after I booked the cruise the itinary was changed due to an accident the ship was involved in when leaving Fort Lauderdale. As this new itinary was not acceptable to me I tried to either rearrange to another date or cancel the cruise - both Cunard and CC did not answer my letters, faxes or emails so I was forced to take the cruise.

On my return I took both Cunard and Cruise Classified to the Small Claims Court and won compensation. CC did not turn up at Court but some very interesting facts were revealed and these were as follows, Cunard wrote to CC and informed them that I should be allowed to cancel the cruise - CC did not communicate this information to me and Cunard also revealed that the changed itinary was made known to CC before they placed the advert for the cruise that I booked. This is why CC had to pay all of the compensation and costs.

After the court case I made a complaint to ABTA about how the booking had been handled by CC and after their investigation I received a letter from the Manager, Consumer Affairs that stated" The Legal Department (ABTA) has advised me that your complaint has been carefully considered. However, it has concluded that the issues in your complaint do not give rise to a breach of the Code of Conduct". I was not surprised by this reply because a friend in the travel industry had advised me that ABTA nearly always favour the travel agents and very rarely the traveller. I have written back to ABTA and asked them to explain in more detail how someone can win a court case and yet they still exonerate the travel company. Whilst the travelling public are always being told to raise complaints via ABTA my experience clearly shows that if you have a valid complaint go through the Small Claims Court.