XL Holidays/Flights to declare Bankruptcy (11/09/08)

tcem

advice needed re XL airways

I paid for flights using a mastercard been reading through various posts - what is the difference between s75 claim and the chargeback process? Would I be able to claim for holiday accommodation that I will be unable to use due to no flight and also train ticket to the airport? any advice would be appreciated.

thanks

Sagaris

We'd booked our honeymoon with them in November - well through another travel agent online, but the flights wre with XL. Paid the deposit so far on my credit card so I'll be on the phone to them later.
OH noticed that an EasyJet flight had been put up on our holiday as well as the XL one in the last week or so - it wasn't there when we booked the holiday a few weeks ago. Coincidence maybe? Wonder if we'll get transferred to it?

Debt_Free_Chick

Sagaris wrote: »

We'd booked our honeymoon with them in November - well through another travel agent online, but the flights wre with XL. Paid the deposit so far on my credit card so I'll be on the phone to them later.

If the flights were part of a complete package, go back to the agent.

You need only contact you CC issuer if you personally bought the flights, directly from XL and separate from the package.

If you bought a package, the agent is your supplier so it's their problem! They will have to find you another flight and "slot that in" to the existing package, in place of XL.

Debt_Free_Chick

tcem wrote: »

advice needed re XL airways

I paid for flights using a mastercard been reading through various posts - what is the difference between s75 claim and the chargeback process? Would I be able to claim for holiday accommodation that I will be unable to use due to no flight and also train ticket to the airport? any advice would be appreciated.

thanks

My understanding is that a s75 claim covers you for all losses - but you need to offset any refunds that you get. For example, if you cancel the accommodation, will you incur a loss? Or will your money be refunded? If you can replace the flight (with compensation from the CC issuer), then will the other parts of the holiday still be valid? I'm not sure of your position if there is another suitable flight which you decline to purchase - your other losses e.g. for accommodation might not be paid on the basis that the holiday could have gone ahead with the replacement flight, but you decided not to go ahead.

There's a good summary and some case studies in this article from the Financial Ombudsman

Remember that the cost must have been more than £100

I thought that the "chargeback" was the process only for Visa debit cards. Debit cards are not covered by s 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, but the T&Cs of some Visa debit cards give you protection like s75. I think it depends on the card issuer, though

Gaia_Angel

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I thought that the "chargeback" was the process only for Visa debit cards. Debit cards are not covered by s 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, but the T&Cs of some Visa debit cards give you protection like s75. I think it depends on the card issuer, though

Link via ManAtHome on another thread in MSE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ch/7347146.stm

I phoned up bank of scotland (=Halifax) twice and got told twice that they could not do a chargeback for the transaction as it is for fraud and receipt of damaged goods. Not to take no for an answer - stubborn little imp I printed the link out and took it into the bank who filled out the chargeback form. The bank staff were sooo nice and looked up an email telling them how to deal with chargeback and zoom airlines and followed the same procedure for me with Seguro (went bust 10 Sept). Don't take no for an answer!

Sagaris

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

If the flights were part of a complete package, go back to the agent.

You need only contact you CC issuer if you personally bought the flights, directly from XL and separate from the package.

If you bought a package, the agent is your supplier so it's their problem! They will have to find you another flight and "slot that in" to the existing package, in place of XL.

They were booked together through an online travel agent - we had to wait for confirmation of the rooms as we were upgrading, not sure if that counts as a package or not?
The Easyjet flight that appeared on the website last week was £20 less than the XL one - now the entire holiday is showing at £400 more than we agreed to pay!! So how would we stand with that - as far as the travel agent is concerned, will they say they are offering an alternative, even if we end up forking out the extra £400 (which we can't afford), so if we don't take it, could we lose our deposit?

Debt_Free_Chick

Sagaris wrote: »

They were booked together through an online travel agent - we had to wait for confirmation of the rooms as we were upgrading, not sure if that counts as a package or not?
The Easyjet flight that appeared on the website last week was £20 less than the XL one - now the entire holiday is showing at £400 more than we agreed to pay!! So how would we stand with that - as far as the travel agent is concerned, will they say they are offering an alternative, even if we end up forking out the extra £400 (which we can't afford), so if we don't take it, could we lose our deposit?

Contact the agent - have you not done that today?

Sagaris

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Contact the agent - have you not done that today?

Oh yes - we both have!

All they will say is that they can't comment on our case because they have to deal with the people that are stranded abroad, to get them back home. Then when they have been sorted, the people who are due to travel today and in the next few days, then they will sort through all their customers in date order - as our holiday is 6 weeks away, they hope to contact us in the 'next few days'.

So - as they will no doubt be offering us the new flights our holiday, the price has gone up by £400 so far, with a lesser baggage allowance and no meals included (the new flights are with Easyjet). I imagine their argument will be that they are still providing us with flights, so we will have to pay up or lose our £400+ deposit! :rolleyes: