Cancellation fee on flights/non refundable ticket?

charlie_says

Not sure whether to put this in the banking forum or here..

I booked some flight tickets with TerminalA.com, a booking agent, recently. After I went ahead with it I got an interesting email from them with the itinerary, which included a stopover on both legs of the trip which was not mentioned anywhere when I was purchasing the tickets.

According to the airline website the ticket is non refundable and non transferable (that isn't legal is it?), and according to TerminalA's woeful internet support (oh and you have to call Spain to talk to the helpdesk) there is a €50 euro charge to cancel booking unless you took out the insurance they offer.

Can I just contact my credit card company and refuse payment for the whole lot?

darc

scraper sites like that are an utter rip off anyway. - Far better to use a real travel agent than such a site.

comparison

Dublin to Birmingham tomorrow.

Aerlingus direct booking €215 inclusive of all charges
Aerlingus with Terminal A - €475.26


The chances are that they had it in the "Flight detail" part of the website. If you clicked the flight detail button, the airlines & times would have been shown.

As for non refund - this can be done once its mentioned in teh terms.

jor el

They should have given you an opportunity to read the terms before you finalised the payment, in fact, it's usual that you check a box saying you have read them. If this was the case, and the terms state no refund, then that's that. If there really wasn't any detail of a stop over, at any point pre-payment, then you could claim they sold under false pretenses. Don't know how exactly you'd go about making a claim though, if they're based in Spain.

You'll have a very hard time reversing the payment, or getting any kind of refund.

dudara

Can you go through the process of booking again (without paying), checking all along the way if there is any mention of a stopover. Look closely for "Flight Details" or "Itinery Details" type things.

If you can't find anything, then you may have a case as the goods/services are not as advertised.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that there is little you can do as you probably agreed to the T&Cs when booking.

BTW, do you have your own travel insurance?

charlie_says

Thank you for the replies.

dudara wrote: »

Can you go through the process of booking again (without paying), checking all along the way if there is any mention of a stopover. Look closely for "Flight Details" or "Itinery Details" type things.

If you can't find anything, then you may have a case as the goods/services are not as advertised.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that there is little you can do as you probably agreed to the T&Cs when booking.

BTW, do you have your own travel insurance?

I did go through the booking procedure again, and there is NO mention of stopovers through any of it that I can see. I would have noticed the first time to be honest, it just came in the booking confirmation email. :eek:

Who would I have to get in touch with with the goods/services not as advertised?

Is it actually possible to claim the money back though from visa? The goods have not been delivered (that would be me being delivered by plane) so to speak.

jahalpin

You wont be able to claim from your credit card company as the supplier has reserved a ticket for the flight in your name and this is deemed to be a supply of services. If you decided not to fly, they still provided what you contracted them to. Most cheaper tickets are non-refundableand non-changable and this is set by the airlines themselves

As for the stopover, a lot of airlines, especially in the US, market flights as non-stop even though they land at an intermediate airport.

A lot of flights require you transfer at a hub such as Heathrow or Frankfurt as only the larger cities have the numbers required to justify operating flights to certain destinations

dudara

This is a tough one. I'd advise calling the National Consumer Agency and seeing if they can offer any advice.

axer

jahalpin wrote: »

You wont be able to claim from your credit card company as the supplier has reserved a ticket for the flight in your name and this is deemed to be a supply of services. If you decided not to fly, they still provided what you contracted them to. Most cheaper tickets are non-refundableand non-changable and this is set by the airlines themselves

As for the stopover, a lot of airlines, especially in the US, market flights as non-stop even though they land at an intermediate airport.

A lot of flights require you transfer at a hub such as Heathrow or Frankfurt as only the larger cities have the numbers required to justify operating flights to certain destinations

I would agree with this.

You paid TerminalA for the service of purchasing the flight which they did. You will find it very difficult to get money back from this. It is much like the way people use paypal, paypal only provide a service of paying the 3rd third party so this makes it impossible to charge back the credit card since paypal provided their service fully.

Looks like you will have to put up with it and call it a life lesson. Use the flight scrappers for only searching for flights - there is no reason to actually purchase through them.

jhegarty

Which route are you flying ?