BestJet in Administration

[Mark Brown]

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but if your credit card was charged by BestJet then they took your money and bought the tickets on their own credit with the airlines. If the airlines don't receive payment, the tickets get cancelled, it's not that BestJet are refunding and not paying the money back it's that BestJet received the money from the customer and haven't paid the airline. The email sent by BestJet to customers is pretty defamatory.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Mark Brown, I agree. Again I hope the relevant authorities are aware of all the information posted in this thread, particularly the parts pertaining to the individual who seems to have been running the operation despite many reasons why that shouldn't have been the case.

It's all so strange.

 

[goldenhorn]

Just got this bizarre email from BestJet:






BESTJET ALERT

IF YOU BOOKED WITH BESTJET PRIOR TO 11 DECEMBER 2018 YOUR BOOKING SHOULD NOT BE CANCELLED.

HAS YOUR BOOKING AND E-TICKETS BEEN CANCELLED?
Bestjet used CVFR consolidation to issue e-tickets on behalf of numerous airlines. This is due to Bestjet getting better commissions from CVFR than from the airline direct.

If you booked prior to 11 December 2018 and received your e-ticket your booking and e-ticket was confirmed, the airline has received your funds from IATA and your booking should NOT have been affected. If your booking has been cancelled you need to take action immediately.
CVFR has worked with airlines to cancel your booking so they can get a full refund but the WON'T refund the money to you, they are also covered by insurance. CVFR will keep your funds and make you submit a charge back even though your booking is confirmed, e-tickets have been issued and the airline has received your funds. IATA does not permit this and the airline should never cancel your booking unless advised by you.
CVFR IS ACTING ILLEGALLY, SHOULD NOT HOLD AN IATA LICENSE AND SOME AIRLINES ARE SUPPORTING THIS. HELP US STOP THEM ACTING ILLEGALLY & MAKE THEM HONOUR YOUR BOOKING.

Airlines which were ticketed via CVFR:
Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, Virgin Australia, Malaysia Airlines, China Southern, Cathay Pacific, Hawaiian.
These airlines should honour all reservations booked prior to 11 December 2018 where the customer has received e-tickets as IATA has collected the customer funds and paid the airlines.

What to do if your booking and e-ticket are cancelled:
Email your Bestjet Receipt along with your e-tickets to the following emails advising that your tickets should remain and not cancelled. The airlines should honour your e-tickets.

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Please email all CVFR & IATA email address along with your airline your reservation is with. If your booking has been cancelled please send an email to all parties and then call the following numbers:
1300 244 777 or 0408 883 367.

If you booking has been cancelled please immediately contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission: 1300 302 502, www.accc.gov.au

All prices indicated are subject to availability and may change or be withdrawn without notice. Price is not guaranteed until full payment has been received and you have received a confirmation and E-Ticket from Bestjet.com. Every effort is made to ensure the information provided is up to date and correct. In the event the advertised price is no longer available, is incorrect or withdrawn Bestjet.com may refuse or cancel any purchases placed for an airfare which may have been affected. If this occurs Bestjet.com will make every effort to source a comparative flight and fare to replace the original selection. *Prices in AUD and include taxes and fees for payments made with Visa Debit. Card surcharges, Paypal 1.5%, Visa Credit & Mastercard 1.9% Diners & Amex 3.5%. Fares exclude any local taxes that are payable at the airport. You have received this email as you have signed up for the Bestjet.com newsletter.

Phew. NZ booking was completed 21 Nov. Looks all good in QF dashboard and eticket issued. Thanks for the info.

 

[Revenge]

Unfortunately my wife and I have been stung as well.

Here are the facts:

• On 4 December, used Bestjet to book CX premium economy tickets BNE-HKG-LHR//FRA-HKG-BNE, about $5500 worth.
• (BestJet came up about $400 cheaper than CX website. Was going to book with CX direct and request a price match from CX based on their best price guarantee, but the site was glitchy that day and didn't allow me to get past the seat selection screen, and I didn't want to wait because sale fares were about to finish. So I decided to go with BestJet.)
• BestJet says that they can take up to 72 hours to issue eTicket and to contact them if you do not receive eTicket. T&C's say that reservation is not confirmed until eticket is issued.
• Booking appears on Manage My Booking on CX website but with a note that it has not been paid for and may be cancelled if eticket payment is not received.
• On 8 December I emailed bestJet because I still hadn't received my eTicket. No response.
• On 10 December I email again. "You have taken payment almost one week ago and have not yet confirmed my reservation." No response.
• On 10 December I also called up. After 90 minutes on hold, and a queue of 58 callers finally talked to someone. He said there was a backlog due to Christmas and January bookings and that my booking is at the front of the queue, and an eticket will be sent within 24 to 48 hours.
• On 13 December, still no etickets. I tried calling again. Was on hold for over an hour and the call dropped out. Emailed again.
• Decided to take to social media and contacted BestJet on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The facebook message resulted in a response and my e tickets were finally issued. (13 December). I thought everything was now OK.
• On 24 December I head about BestJet going into administration. Called CX to find out if my booking was valid. They said they have refunded BestJet, so if I want to keep my reservation I need to pay again. They offer to hold the booking for me for a few weeks to allow me to sort out payment. They honour the original price from 4 December (though obviously the more expensive rate from CX website, not the BestJet rate). Initiated a charge back with CBA same day, hoping it goes through.
• I also checked my travel insurance policy (the free travel insurance that you get with CBA Diamond Mastercard). It excludes losses due to providers going bust!

I would be interested in hearing if if and when anyone else's credit card chargeback requests have been successful.

 

[Virgin Bart]

I would be interested in hearing if if and when anyone else's credit card chargeback requests have been successful.

It seems the CC companies are all over this. Mine (Virgin Money/Citibank) knew all about it, money back within 5 days. Noting officially they give a credit pending an investigation whichntakes up to six weeks. It couldn't go any other way though .

 

[ozfflyer]

Bestjet seemed to take payments automatically but issued tickets manually, which cuased problems if eg. made a booking on Friday & tickets were in q to issue Mon, by which time fares could have changed drastically.

 

[OZDUCK]

ABC News is covering this now. Seems to be lots of "interesting" things happening. 'Cheated, robbed and angry': Missing refunds, booking chaos as Bestjet goes under

 

[RooFlyer]

For what its worth, if you are following: ABC.

 

[drron]

For what its worth, if you are following: ABC.

Experienced travellers who thought bestjet was a reputable company.

 

[OZDUCK]

For what its worth, if you are following: ABC.

With the same time of posting I must have beat you to hitting the post button by milliseconds

 

[Scott K]

Experienced travellers who thought bestjet was a reputable company.

That caught my eye too. Reputable? Even when I used them I always felt I was taking a gamble. There’s nought online suggesting anything like ‘reputable’.

 

[MH_fan]

I think I'm a reasonably experienced traveller and I've booked tickets through OTAs like Bestjet and Flyfar. Never had any problems before but that's because I rarely need to make changes to my bookings. It seems most of the disgruntled customers were the ones that needed to make changes to their itinerary after they'd booked their tickets.
Anyway, I booked flights with CI for May through Bestjet back in late Sep and I managed to contact them today to check on my flights and they've told me my tickets were good, which is a relief.

 

[OZDUCK]

More in the ABC 'It's upsetting': Bestjet nightmare as woman loses $16,000 on dream trip

I don't understand this bit "but Ms Riley said Visa's conditions mean there are no refunds if a company goes into liquidation." That is certainly not what I understood about a charge-back. It sounds more like a rejected claim on Credit Card Travel Insurance. However there is an interesting note in Citibank's conditions - "Please note that if a cardholder uses your account to make a BPAY® payment, you cannot claim a chargeback. BPAY® only allows refunds of mistaken, unauthorised or fraudulent payments."

 

[Spongbob]

Last time I looked, QBE's policy had a clause that covered the insolvency of a travel provider. But it may not apply to the BestJet situation.

 

[DC3]

Why do so many people use OTAs. I'll never understand it...

Just reading about this bestjet stuff. I have never used an OTA as I make my flight bookings direct with the airlines. However, my bookings are always simple (mostly single/return segments, occasionally more). Nothing complicated though.

What would be the advantage to me of using an OTA in the future?

Edit: Just went back over the posts in more detail, and saw a post by JohnK:

Zuji and even Expedia had some really good deals for routings one couldn't find/book on QF site. Not so sure about Webjet.

 

[cvmceg]

What would be the advantage to me of using an OTA in the future?

price...

 

[PLANT]

What is the greatest $$$$$ loss to a AFF member from this bust?

 

[tdimdad]

Now ABC has a story about the links to Air Australia and Mr Michael James.

 

[RooFlyer]

And a follow-up story.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

And a follow-up story.

And the finger pointing continues.

The article reminds me very much of the same fate of Dick Smith Electronics.

The previous owner of the business before its final demise (Woolworths) was slowing running the company into ground with 3-4 years of poor decision making. The new owners - Anchorage Capital were blind- sided by just how much the business was in terminal decline.

In other words, the new owner’s due diligence only skimmed over the books and didn’t dig further into previous business decisions and how those effect the business moving forward.

I suspect the same situation happened with Bestjet.