Dreadful Holiday? Cheer Up, at Last Your Moans Are Being Heard ; Three Schemes Aim to Make It Easier for Travellers to Complain. Oliver Bennett Reports

Beginning of article

MAKING A complaint about your holiday is becoming easier, thanks to a new raft of initiatives. The first is from ABTA, the Association of British Travel Agents, which has re-launched its arbitration scheme alongside the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), to provide "a lower- cost and more effective alternative to going to court".

Under the scheme customers will be able to submit claims via the internet - and get them dealt with more quickly. ABTA promises that claims will now be processed in less than two months, compared to the usual eight to nine months, and it does not involve going to the small claims court. The maximum amount that can be claimed has …