Cancellation due to force majeure- travel agent charge

winks

2010-04-17 19:41:15

Hi

i discovered this forum as i was googling to try to find out my legal rights for the following. would you please help? many thanks.

my flight was cancelled yesterday which means i won't be able to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday with him.

i understand that i could get a refund for my ticket and the airline has waived the cancellation charge. however my travel agent said they would charge me £30 to apply for a refund. i offered to do it myself but they said i couldn't approach the airline directly, which was confirmed by the airline.

when i booked the ticket, i was never told that i would need to pay for handling fee when the flight is cancelled due to force majeure. i only know that the ticket is not changable and non refundable.

i feel that it is very unfair that i have no choice but let the travel agent to charge me whatever they want in order to get a refund.

would you please let me know where i can find out about my consumer right for this? is this legal?

thanks a lot for your kind help.

kerry25

2010-04-18 09:50:41

Re: Cancellation due to force majeure- travel agent charge

Who was the airline you were travelling with , and the TA you have booked this through ?

Sometimes a travel agent will charge you an administration fee , schelduled airlines ( I am assuming that you are not on a charter flight) work differently than charter flights . this also depends whether they booked your flights through a consolidator 9 a sort of bulk buying flight company for want of a better description)

I suspect that this is the case that it is the travel agent charging and not the airline but i really don t think that there is anything illegal about it so to speak . However you must ask for an invoice showing the full details of the charges and ask for a full explanation what they are for ?

Oh and a word of warning until the TA gets the money back from he airline / consolidator , they in turn will pass the refund on to you. this could take a few weeks !

winks

2010-04-18 10:31:29

Re: Cancellation due to force majeure- travel agent charge

thanks for your reply. I booked the ticket via a travel
agent called sagitta travel. It's to fly with cathay pacific airlines. I called cx and they confirmed the charge's not asked by them.
I feel that the charge seems to be a bit random as i know some travel agents charge £20. Most importantly, i was not made aware of this at the time of booking. It might have affect my decision. It sounds like they are taking adventage of the situation!

kerry25

2010-04-18 14:23:01

Re: Cancellation due to force majeure- travel agent charge

Some travel agents do charge an administration fee to cancel flights, however they have to make you aware of those charges at the time of booking either by way of a notice in the shop or verbally .

I would take it up with them as you were not made aware of it at the time so technically you should not have to pay .

Hope this helps

Aliceadventures

2010-04-22 14:09:03

Re: Cancellation due to force majeure- travel agent charge

tell the agent you shall report them to trading standards, and (if members) ABTA. All cancelled flights will be rebooked or refunded free of charge by the airline to point of purchase, due to the volcanic disruption. They are profiting. Their position may change it you call their bluff. I don't know of anyone else doing this. The are simple charging you to get what is rightfully yours and which will be refunded by the airline.

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