Zoom Airlines is in administration: How to get your money back

JShef

Me and my friend were stuck in Bermuda (there are worse places I know!) last Thursday when Zoom went under literally hours before our return flight to Gatwick. We managed to rebook on a (not cheap) British Airways flight via JFK to Manchester the following day, but received no discount whatsoever for being a former Zoom passenger. In fact, on checking the confirmation email from BA when I got home, I found the flight costs included a £10 charge for booking by phone rather than online!!

I am now in the process of trying to claim back the cost of the return part of the Zoom flight from my credit card company (Mastercard) but thanks to several useful posts, I was interested to learn that I might be able to claim for additional expenses, i.e. the alternative flight, extra night's accommodation (but not sure about this as probably classed as a foreign transaction?) and a hefty mobile phone bill.

But I am a little uncertain how to claim as I used two different credit cards (both Mastercard). Card 1 was used for the Zoom flight, and Card 2 for all the additional expenses when Zoom went under.

I'm assuming I should just submit a claim for everything to the issuer for Card 1, i.e. the one I used to book the Zoom flights? I know it's all my money I've forked out, and I'm entitled to try and reclaim it, but just feeling like I'm being a bit 'greedy' and should count my blessings that I am eligible to claim anything back - especially as many people are not in such a fortunate position. Could a credit card company turn down my whole claim (including the Zoom flight refund) on this basis?

Any advice gratefully received!

macsters

Prudence101 wrote: »

The Natwest bank branch was Marylebone High Street, London.

Thanks for that.

We still got nowhere with Nat West who advise that there is not a chargeback process in this situation.

I understand that the BBC made some comments on this issue which were subsequently found to be incorrect by Maestro themselves - check out this link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/7593369.stm

So we still don't know where we stand.

Is anyone finding other banks that are making refunds for Maestro Debit Cards on a disctretionary basis/ good practice following Mastercard rules?

Daisymabel_2

psalmon wrote: »

i also bought tickets with my natwest maestro card and was very encouraged by the things people were saying on here - unfortunately i'm in canada so i phoned natwest telephone banking to try and initiate a meastro chargeback and they totally refused to help claiming that this policy doesnt exist etc. I referred to the mastercard policy and the 'superviser' i was speaking too claimed not to be able to find that online - even when i gave her the specific address to the pdf file. she then fobbed me off saying i should e-mail and the e-mail address is on the contact us page of their website - so after the phonecall i went there and i cant find an email address! is there anything i can do or do i just have to wait til i'm back in england to sort this out? i do get back within the 120 day period i just could really really do with some money back asap and want to get the ball rolling now. any suggestions? thanks.

Hi, your response from Nat West is not unexpected. I have looked at how to contact them by email. Like you, I can't find anything for them on their website.

You could try the Financial Ombudsman [EMAIL="complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk"]complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk[/EMAIL]. They actually say on their website that if you don't know who to contact at the bank, they can tell you, which hopefully includes email addresses.

Do let us all know how you get on. Anyone else out there who is having success or otherwise, please update us all.

Good luck

fifi1007

Because of the timeline in making a chargeback claim, and because it will take 2/3 weeks for the Visa Dispute Team to send out the relevant forms, I have decided to put the basic details of my claim in writing to the Visa Dispute Team.

If anyone else would like to do the same, their address is:

Visa DisputeTeam
201 Grafton Gate East
Milton Keynes
MK9 1AN

Tel: 0845 601 7238

Tip: Remember to keep 2 copies of your letter, and send one of these in along with your completed claim forms.

ted_ted

My family were stranded in canada the day Zoom went "busted". We had to fly to Washington then UK single flights for 2 adult and 2 children $4100 as all the direct flights out of canada were booked with BA, Air Canada, Canadian affair. Rang BA in Canada was promptly told that they are NOT offering any discount for strandedZoom passengers had 2 flights left at $2220 When I book the flights originally 2 months ago I used maestro card. Rang my bank who promply said they CANNOT offer us anything whatsoever. Is there anything I can do please help me I had to borrow the money to get home. Please help. Thanks

Daisymabel_2

macsters wrote: »

Thanks for that.

We still got nowhere with Nat West who advise that there is not a chargeback process in this situation.

I understand that the BBC made some comments on this issue which were subsequently found to be incorrect by Maestro themselves - check out this link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/7593369.stm

So we still don't know where we stand.

Is anyone finding other banks that are making refunds for Maestro Debit Cards on a disctretionary basis/ good practice following Mastercard rules?

Macsters, very frustrating for you. With regard to Working Lunch they have updated their webpage today on this with Maestro saying the exception is when a cardholder makes a purchase from an overseas website. Check it out on the same link above. As previously discussed on this forum, Zoom is a Canadian Airline, based in Ottawa, Canada.

Jazzy_B

I have trawled through several posts regarding the collapse of other airlines, and found this by Moonrakerz.
I found it very useful, and have submitted a further claim to my credit card company. To save anyone else trawling through, I thought it might be useful here

Claiming From Credit Card Issuers
I have had several PMs, asking for copies of my letter, regarding my successful claim against my credit card issuer for the additional costs I incurred following the failure of Maxjet.

It is probably easier for all if I post the outline of my letter, then people can "tweak" it to suit their particular circumstances.


"I understand, from the Financial Ombudsman Service, that my claim against you, under Sect 75 of The Consumer Credit Act 1974, is not limited solely to the amount of the credit card transaction referred to above, in that I am entitled to claim for all losses in incurred as a result of this breach of contract.
In English Law the general rule on the quantification of damages, is that they should put the injured party in the same position as he would have been in but for the breach of contract.
This contract was for two one-way Business Class air travel tickets from London to Los Angeles on ** ****** ****. My actual loss is therefore, two business class air tickets to Los Angeles, not just the fare that I contracted to pay MAXjet/MorganStanley for these two tickets.


Since I received notification from MAXjet of their bankruptcy, I have managed to re-arrange Business Class seats on British Airways on the same date for a fare of £1998.

I would therefore be grateful if you could inform me as to how you intend to reimburse me for the additional cost of the BA tickets, ie: £971.24.


I will, of course, be willing to provide you with copies of all the documentation showing correspondence and transactions to place me in the same position I would have been if MAXjet had not gone into bankruptcy.
Yours Faithfully,"

I did have one very silly telephone conversation with some one who obviously had no idea about the CCA - they do now !
Also, one letter from the card issuer asking me to supply details of Maxjet's ABTA/IATA bonding - I wrote back and said that this was totally irrelevant to my claim and that the Financial Ombudsman had previously made card issuers pay compensation to customers for delaying their quite justified claims with tactics like this.

I would suggest that people do read up on the CCA Sect 75 and also have a look at the Financial Ombudsman site before "putting pen to paper" as all cases may not be as simple as mine was - such as booking through a third party etc, etc.

In general I was pretty happy with the response I got from Morgan Stanley/Goldfish - much better that some of the tales I have seen on this site with other card companies.


Please thank him here Post 63, if it's any use to you

Road_Hog

fifi1007 wrote: »

If anyone else would like to do the same, their address is:

Visa DisputeTeam
201 Grafton Gate East
Milton Keynes
MK9 1AN

Tel: 0845 601 7238

Thanks for your post, I've a completely unrelated claim to this thread but needed the Abbey info, which has helped greatly. As was very concerned that they might have moved it over to Spain like they have with their fraud dept.

Seiken

I got my money back from Bank of Scotland, I paid via a visa electron card. I phoned on the 28th of August and had the charges refunded on the 1st of September. One day after I sent them a snotty letter complaining which I feel really embarassed for. Hopefully they won't take the refund back!

Woodyrocks

Bumear wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place for this but I work for one of the big travel companies in th UK (Not mentioning any names) and the buzz about the Finance department where I work is that XL Aviation is close to going out. Will have more when I know more.

Really sorry to hear the situation you are all in and I hope you get the desired results from the chargeback process and section 75 too.

Apologies for taking the thread on a tangent but quite worried about all the developments lately and how it is likely to effect me. If XL are also going down do you think Easyjet are also going to be closing shop in the next 3months? Bough plane tickets on a Maestro card yesterday but not due to fly out unti December and I know we shall not be covered if they go into administration