Flight Centre refunds for cancelled flights

[DC3]

Aunt Betty/FC. You don’t even get what you pay for. Little, or no, credibility.

 

[dimons]

Wow. Well that's obviously wrong and this policy is exactly why the ACCC was going to take Flight Centre Travel Group to court.

I have gone back to Aunt Betty pointing out the undertakings made to the ACCC and asking for a full refund without the cancellation fee. They are now saying that they can only presently waive the cancellation fee for flights departing before 31 July 2020 "based on our existing travel advisory". Ours is an August flight.

Never heard that one before..

 

[jarman_ah]

I have gone back to Aunt Betty pointing out the undertakings made to the ACCC and asking for a full refund without the cancellation fee. They are now saying that they can only presently waive the cancellation fee for flights departing before 31 July 2020 "based on our existing travel advisory". Ours is an August flight.

Never heard that one before..

I wonder what "based on our existing travel advisory" means; since "advisory" is an adjective, we can't tell exactly what it was on which they based their new decision. The person who spoke to you probably doesn't know exactly what it means either. Why not ring them one more time, and ask them to clarify, so that you will know how best to word your complaint about Aunt Betty to the ACCC? You could point out that it will save the officer from the ACCC ringing Aunt Betty to ask for a further explanation from them.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have gone back to Aunt Betty pointing out the undertakings made to the ACCC and asking for a full refund without the cancellation fee. They are now saying that they can only presently waive the cancellation fee for flights departing before 31 July 2020 "based on our existing travel advisory". Ours is an August flight.

Never heard that one before..

your flight has been cancelled by Finnair? If so, do a chargeback on your credit card.

Their travel advisory could only be meant to apply to passenger not wanting to travel after 31 July (ie a voluntary cancellation of travel plans). It cannot, logically, apply to flights that have been cancelled by the airline.

 

[Pug1]

your flight has been cancelled by Finnair? If so, do a chargeback on your credit card.

Their travel advisory could only be meant to apply to passenger not wanting to travel after 31 July (ie a voluntary cancellation of travel plans). It cannot, logically, apply to flights that have been cancelled by the airline.

Agree, see my earlier posts re my charge back.

 

[dimons]

A short update. Aunt Betty have agreed to process our refund without the $250 pp charge, which seems a fair result.
I have to say that their staff were polite and pleasant. It must be a very hard time for them right now.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A short update. Aunt Betty have agreed to process our refund without the $250 pp charge, which seems a fair result.
I have to say that their staff were polite and pleasant. It must be a very hard time for them right now.

Thanks for the update! Did they mention why there was a shift in their position? (did they say they made an error, or did they rethink their policy after your call, etc?)

 

[jarman_ah]

Thanks for the update! Did they mention why there was a shift in their position? (did they say they made an error, or did they rethink their policy after your call, etc?)

That is indeed good news, and congratulations on having called their bluff. You were right, they were wrong, and that was all that mattered. I would also be interested to read what you answer to MEL_Traveller re his comment above. Did Aunt Betty make it sound like she was doing you a special favour, or did she just say "Oops!"?

 

[dimons]

Did Aunt Betty make it sound like she was doing you a special favour, or did she just say "Oops!"?

The conversation was entirely by email and involved a number of AB staff at different times. Eventually they offered a 'one time exemption from fees', so not conceding any principle.

For anyone else in the same position, it's worth researching the Flight Centre and AB website for current policies rather than just accepting what the customer service staff initially say.

 

[dimons]

Flight Centre web page on booking cancellations:

Help Centre

www.flightcentre.com.au

 

[jarman_ah]

The conversation was entirely by email and involved a number of AB staff at different times. Eventually they offered a 'one time exemption from fees', so not conceding any principle.

For anyone else in the same position, it's worth researching the Flight Centre and AB website for current policies rather than just accepting what the customer service staff initially say.

"A one time exemption". So they were just acting out of the goodness of their hearts because you're such a nice guy, And, of course, their decision had nothing to do with the fact that you may have dropped the word "ACCC" once or twice in your communication.

 

[DC3]

The conversation was entirely by email and involved a number of AB staff at different times. Eventually they offered a 'one time exemption from fees', so not conceding any principle ....

So, they were doing you a favour?

 

[Jasperoz]

Hi folks,

armed with a printout of the latest EK and FC COVID19 policies (Attached here as MS Word docs that I copied and pasted from the two websites - areas in RED I highlighted as relevant), I went to my local FC Friday for a chat with the Manager about options for EK flights for 4 couples that were aiming to go to the Munich Oktoberfest in Sept/Oct this year. The Fest has been cancelled. We may try again next year; time will tell. Anyway, I felt I could understand about the EK 'Keep your ticket/travel voucher' conditions but I wanted clarification about the EK refund bit. As far as I could read, a full refund from EK would be possible as all the travellers fell into one or more of the clauses that covered refunds. The Manager pretty much agreed with me that this was possible. He also mentioned FC are no longer charging any cancellation fees (so I didn't produce the FC pages I had with me). But, he said that I/We would have to wait until EK actually cancelled the flight BEFORE FC could do anything, He said if FC went into a booking now and cancelled it (Sabre XI command) then that would show as a 'normal' cancel and the refund would then be based on the Fare rules that were applicable at the time of purchase. Meaning an EK cancel fee would be charged. I didn't really argue with him as I felt it best to keep on his right side for now, but surely there is a way for FC to tell EK that a customer wants to get a full refund without FC having to XI the booking? I had a booking MEL-SIN-BKK return in July that my other TA (Flatbeds in SA) was able to somehow tell SQ I wanted a refund and as far as I know that will happen (even though my Fare Rules shows the ticket as non-refundable). So are FC just leading me on and making me delay asking for a refund? If our group decides they want a refund, I reckon asking for it sooner rather than later will shorten the processing time. I'm a bit concerned that if FC don't do anything with the EK booking, the flights still operate, and the PAX get treated like a no-show and lose some or all of their $$.

The FC Manager is a nice bloke so I want to keep the discussion civil for all our dealings so next time I visit I'd like to have more info that I hope someone can help with.

Thanks.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi folks,

armed with a printout of the latest EK and FC COVID19 policies...

The Flight Centre policy clearly states it will waive its cancellation fees in cases where the airline has cancelled.

In your case, EK hasn't cancelled the flight.

I agree that EK says you can cancel if there is likely to be a travel ban in place, but I suspect here that FC would treat this in the same way as a fully refundable fare... they'd still charge their cancellation fee even if the airline allowed a full refund.

I agree it is best to wait until EK cancels the flight, then apply to cancel.

(And in future, if possible, avoid Flight Centre and third party agents in general)

 

[DC3]

... (And in future, if possible, avoid Flight Centre and third party agents in general)

Unfortunately, the average punter will go back to their old ways.

 

[Jasperoz]

The Flight Centre policy clearly states it will waive its cancellation fees in cases where the airline has cancelled.

In your case, EK hasn't cancelled the flight.

I agree that EK says you can cancel if there is likely to be a travel ban in place, but I suspect here that FC would treat this in the same way as a fully refundable fare... they'd still charge their cancellation fee even if the airline allowed a full refund.

I agree it is best to wait until EK cancels the flight, then apply to cancel.

(And in future, if possible, avoid Flight Centre and third party agents in general)

Dear SydneySwan,

thanks for your input.

This part from the latest FC COVID page -

3. Refund

We can help you cancel a booking for a refund, subject to the supplier's terms and conditions.

The Flight Centre cancellation fee will be waived for bookings where:

• If the supplier has cancelled their service, OR
• Supplier has updated their Coronavirus cancellation terms and conditions to include your departure date, OR

Government restrictions (in line with Smartraveller) specify the following “COVID-19 AND TRAVEL: Do not go overseas. A travel ban is in place.” Based on these Government restrictions, we will not charge a Flight Centre cancellation fee for bookings up until 31st July 2020. We will continue to review our cancellation fee policy in line with Smartraveller.

I believe that we would qualify for refunds now under the Clause starting with 'Supplier....' as our departure date is within the EK period.
The FC Refund policy contains 3 parts but they are separated by an 'OR' so I still believe that we should be able to get FC to commenced the refund process now. There is a chance that EK will not cancel our flights as the Dept date is 3 months away and that flights may well be back in some type of operation.

I take your point in not dealing with FC anymore. This was just a one off as I have young friend who started working for FC and I wanted to pass some (simple) business her way. In the end she was laid off from FC and may never get her job back.

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2020

Apologies to SydneySWan - I meant MEL Traveller!

 

[pomona]

Thanks to Mattg for the ACCC link, "slipping back to their old ways is an understatement".

We paid $7605.83 for tickets, BNE/KEF on QF & AY metal, to BYOjet back in Feb this year. The locator was <redacted>, BYO <redacted>.

If I had known at that time that it was associated with Flight Centre I would not have touched it with a bargepole !
We had to cancel the tickets as our vacation provider pulled the plug, not surprising.
We received an email from "Jones" in Customer Support ??, telling us that they had received our cancellation request & would be charging us the princely sum of $850 cancellation fees for each ticket, as follows

Airline Fee $600 per person
Aunt Betty $250 per person (who the hell is she I thought at the time)

Would appreciate any comments about course of action, eg.,# reply to "Jones" & remind them of the ACCC undertaking, # lodge this case with ACCC under "make an enquiry", etc etc

Also, is the airline cancellation fee kosher ?

As pensioners we consider such actions as obscene & cannot afford to lose $1700. All we can say is that we will not forget such attitudes in the future & their Boss should get out quick.

 

[dimons]

Airline Fee $600 per person

If you are being charged an airline cancellation fee, this indicates that your cancellation is being treated as 'voluntary' by BYOjet. That's why you are being hit for both an airline charge and the $250 Flight Centre charge.

We had bookings with AY but have received notice of flight changes and cancellations. This was enough to get the cancellation reclassified as being 'by the airline', therefore no charges.

If you haven't received anything yet I'd suggest holding off for a bit in the hope that AY cancel your flight.

 

[pomona]

Thanks dimons.
Checked the AY website & they say for flights in Sept we should be advised by June 14 so will give it a few more days.

 

[mannej]

Pomona, I'd suggest you remove the PNR from your post, as the personal identifying information isn't required for your post.