Yes, you should have recieved a letter within 14 days, did you send the letter recorded or registered delivery?? if you didnt then the tour company can simply say they didnt recieve it. I would send them another letter (see below) which threatens them with abta. Abta clearly states that they should respond to you with 28 days. Good Luck

TOUR OPERATOR NAME & ADDRESS
YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

YOUR CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER

YOUR E MAIL ADDRESS

DATE


Dear

Re: Failure to respond to my letter of complaint
Booking Reference: [INSERT REF]
Hotel Cruise*: [INSERT HOTELCRUISE NAME *DELETE AS NECESSARY]
Holiday Dates: [INSERT HOLIDAY DATES]

I refer to my [letter/e mail* delete as appropriate] dated [INSERT DATE], and note that you have not responded by [acknowledging/responding* delete as appropriate] to my correspondence. You have not complied with your obligations under the ABTA Code of Conduct. For your convenience I enclose a copy of my original correspondence.

Please note that if I do not hear from you within the next seven days, I shall write a letter of complaint to ABTA complaining of your breach of Rule 3.1 of the said Code. You will note receive any further notice of my intended actions.

I would be grateful if you could kindly acknowledge receipt and in any event comply with your duties and responsibilities.

Yours Sincerely,

don't hold your breath with airtours! i had a 7 month battle with them for compensation. they never responded within the 28 day rule to any of my letters. i always followed my letters with a phone call to make sure they got it, and they did. they are crafty with replies because they date the letter then post it about 10 days later so it looks like they responded in time. always keep the envelopes with the date stamp from the post office. they first offered me a voucher for 100 pound which i returned, they then sent a cheque for £100 which i also refused. they insisted then that they would not increase the offer any further. i then sent all copies of letters both written by myself and airtours to abta to look at. they wrote to airtours on my behalf saying that i was considering further action and within days i had a letter from airtours offering me double the amount(£200). this was they only letter well within the 28 day rule!! i did accept this as 7 months is such along time to wait, i had had enough. don't give up though, it is worth it in the end but i would reccomend if you are not happy to contact abta. it certainly worked for me.

Hi Laudan

I'll briefly tell you of my experience of dealing with Airtours last year after they cancelled my holidays within 5 days of travel:

[list=]I write to them via recorded delivery on 1st July

I receive an acknowledgement letter on 22nd July (which was dated 15th July and was sent by 1st class post)

Another letter from them dated 30th July not addressing my complaint

Me firing off another letter requesting answers

3rd September - result a letter from someone who had obviously read my first letter and addressed it but basically saying that they acted within their brochure conditions by refunding the cost of the holiday plus 40pounds compensation each (which incidentally they slipped into my bank account).

Another letter from me disputing their account of events [/list]

Then I realised I was banging my head against a brick wall and gave up

To be fair though, I lost my Dad in the middle of all this and realised life was short enough without wasting time chasing my tail and Airtours.

Hope I haven't put you off, just don't expect a satisfactory response first time round.

Good luck.

they are crafty with replies because they date the letter then post it about 10 days later so it looks like they responded in time.

How very true. Hadn't read your reply when I posted mine. Good advice there Ali.

i also had a similar problem with airtours, they didnt reply to my complaints even though i sent them via the travel agent who faxed them and got confirmation fax was received , they denyed all knowledge of receiving any faxes , even though the travel agent faxed it about 3 times, in the end i sent complaints recorded delivery and still they didnt reply within the 28 days, i contacted abta who were totally useless and did nothing to help me despite airtours breaking their rules, i had a serious complaint of our apt being gassed and my children were very ill. in the end it went to court nearly 2 years later as they only offered me about £100 which was an insult despite 2 years of letters, faxes, phone calls i got nowhere. however i did win the court case, it was a nightmare and ive never booked with them since. i had no apology or any letter indicating how terrible it was, just a real to the point letter insinuating they didnt fully believe me, even with 2 lots of seperate witnesses, we could have all been killed. good luck and persevere

Just to add that letters are probably best sent via the Royal Mail "Signed-for" service. Adds about 60p to the cost of a letter.

That said, I once wrote a complaint letter to Adam Crozier about failure of Royal Mail to deliver some "signed-for" items. I sent the complaint to Mr Crozier by signed-for service of course - even though it was sent to a Freepost address there was still a 60p (ish) charge.

It never was delivered and signed-for - I kid you not.

Rang them on Tuesday and they said the letter was scanned onto their system on 25.08.06, still have not received my confirmation letter but at least I know they have got it.