Follow THIS LINK.

Best of luck, you deserve a hell of a lot more.

Robby

Your complaint is with Travelbag. They are the people who have contracted to get you to your destination.

The fact BA are prepared to offer compensation is nothing to do with it. It may be that they made a mistake, but if you wish to sue, then it must be the company who you booked with. That is the law.

I would suggest you take the advice of robbyw and follow the link.

fwh

The Air Transport Users Council have confirmed that because we booked a flight only, our contract is with the Airline, therefore, we must take up the complaint with them. I was dubious about this to begin with, however, I have done a lot of research and this is the case, hence the reason I am pursuing the case direct with BA. I will, however, have no hesitation in claiming from the agents as well if I can. If you book a flight only your contract is with the airline, if you book a package holiday then your contract is with your tour operator.

I have taken robbyw's advice and followed the link and I have e-mailed Ros.

Many thanks

I can only assume that you were issued tickets to fly.
Something similar happened to us a while back. We had somehow managed to get to Phuket with Singapore Airlines. There we were happily enjoying our holiday and had just upgraded to a beautiful direct pool access room and was thinking "this is the life" when the local tour rep told us our return flights were full and we were on stand by. Flights were full for days ahead. How could this be as we had paper tickets stating 'confirmed' ?
The next week was manic trying to arrange flights and something I'd already done months ago. We made lots of frantic phone calls and faxes to Tour East, Silk Air, Singapore Airlines and our travel agent back home... the worse was constantly waiting for replies. When they did reply they all told us different things and what a wind up, it totally ruined the last week of our holiday.
Our travel agent at home kept saying the flight was not full, so we rang Singapore Airlines in Singapore and yes! the flight was full (they should know) and they had placed us on the priority wait list.
Somehow flights from Phuket to Singapore became available and we continued our journey as we was staying there for 2 nights. Again we were unsure if we could get home or not. At the 11th hour we got confirmation that the travel agent had got us seats in business class and we got home on the date they were contracted.
When I got home I rang Singapore Airlines and asked them to retrieve our booking from the computer and they told me that we were never confirmed and that travel agents are NOT ALLOWED to issue tickets on wait list and I must take it up with them.
Armed with this gem of information I marched down to the travel agents and travel agent agreed it was his error, ... he never once admitted that on the phone when we was stranded in Phuket, he just wanted to be the good guy bringing us home in business class. That does not impress me at all I'd much rather have a stress free holiday. I did a head count in the business class cabin and he must have bought the last 2 seats because it full.
I put in a claim for compensation which was the cost of the second week and the travel agent agreed to it, but said it would have to go to head office for rubber stamping. They knocked it back and all we got was $500 which seems to be their standard offer. In the end I couldn't be bothered fighting any longer and excepted it. I wouldn't touch that travel agency with a barge pole... it's their loss as we travel overseas on long haul twice a year.

Your contract was with Travelbag.

They may have acted as agents but by taking your booking they entered into a contract.

I do not dispute what ATUC say , however by failing to confirm the booking Travelbag are in breach of that contract under English Law.

The sensible approach is to contact Ros Fernihough as per the link. She is the expert.

fwh

Thanks Gerib. Its just so frustrating, like you say, when you save all year round for a trip and in good faith you pay your money to a reputable airline to try and protect yourself from instances such as ours. What really wound me up about this was that BA did not even apologise and the imrpession I got was that it was tough luck and that we should accept it. I personally think BA should take long hard look at themselves as they have had a lot of bad publicity recently and they no longer rank top of the airlines. In my job I am responsbile for a travel contract and I have ben more or less told by my contracted Travel Agent that BA are not interested in anyone other than business class passengers that pay over the odds to fly. I would certainly think twice before flying with them again in the future and booking via Travelbag. Regards Tracy

Hi fwh

I agree with what you are sayig, however, Travelbag say they have a recorded telephone conversation of the confirmation booking with BA, therefore, our complaint needs to be taken up with BA. BA, in an e-mail to me, express that they accept that Travelbag have that call recorded, and therefore in my opinion are accepting liability. BA are not trying to blame Travelbag anymore and have offered the £200 compensation, which i feel is insulting. As suggested i have contacted Ros and await her response. Will keep you up to speed with what i call a messy situation ! Many thanks Tracy

Tracy.....I think you may be confusing;-

1. Whom you have legal redress against

with

2. Who was to blame.

You have no contract with BA, so you have no recourse against that company. You have received excellent advice from others to the effect that your claim is against the TA (of course if BA is to blame the TA will have recourse against them).

You have now contacted Ros so she will keep you right. Good luck

Tracy
When you first arrived at the check in desk did they inform you then there was a problem with your tickets? If not they should have because they would have known then the status of your tickets.
Do you think you were bumped off the flight??
Keep us informed on how you go and good luck.
Cheers Geri

Hi GeriB - No they didn't inform us at the check in desk - in fact we were sitting in the departure lounge having a drink when they called us back !

I have gone through a lot of information regarding being bumped off a flight and part of me thinks thats what has happened but I can't understand why Travelbag and BA expressed that the booking was cancelled.

I have e-mailed Ros, so I will now wait for some advise from her as the whole situation is really confusing.

Will keep you up to spped. Tracy

Hi bigeckster - Talk about confused !!!!

I understand what you are saying and I completely agree, but the advice I have sought already from various sources, expresses that as we had a flight only booking our contract is direct with the airline. I personally cant accept this as, like you say, I had an agreement with the TA and paid them my money. I woud also then query why BA have responded to me and not re-directed my back to the TA.

I will wait to see what Ros says and keep you informed. What a minefield !!!! Regards