Thailand cancellation fees

hannah-mv

Hi! I was due to fly to Thailand tomorrow morning but due to the current situation in Thailand the flights were cancelled by the airline. The airline is offering full refunds and have waived all refund fees. However, I booked the flights via travel agent... mistake.

I would have received full refund from the travel agent if my final destination would have been Bangkok. Mine is not, so now I'm subject to £100 fee for cancelling the flight, even though my connection flight has been cancelled too by the airline. This feels slightly unfair. I'm sure there are others in the same situation out there, is there anything I can do in order to get full refund?

sturll

hannah-mv wrote: »

Hi! I was due to fly to Thailand tomorrow morning but due to the current situation in Thailand the flights were cancelled by the airline. The airline is offering full refunds and have waived all refund fees. However, I booked the flights via travel agent... mistake.

I would have received full refund from the travel agent if my final destination would have been Bangkok. Mine is not, so now I'm subject to £100 fee for cancelling the flight, even though my connection flight has been cancelled too by the airline. This feels slightly unfair. I'm sure there are others in the same situation out there, is there anything I can do in order to get full refund?

F-ing Travel agents. Just when you think they can't possibly stoop any lower.

Id be on the phone to your travel insurance - id expect you would be covered.

Hopefully this will serve as a warning for all those who still use Travel Agents - especially given that cheap prices tend to be online. Care to name and shame the TA?

hannah-mv

I'm afraid my travel insurance doesn't cover civil commotion. I will speak with them though.

The TA is STA Travel. Never again, this is so upsetting and feels unreasonable. I've had flights cancelled before but I've never been in a situation where I've been forced to pay a relatively high fee for absolutely nothing. The TA didn't even bother to contact me to inform the flights have been cancelled.

I've been trying to find more information for this all day, and it does look like people travelling to Bangkok can claim full refund from travel agents (I might be wrong). I saw an article in telegraph.co.uk where they quoted ABTA spokeperson saying people due to travel to Bangkok in the next few days will be able to re-route their holiday, rebook at a later date or claim a full refund (although in the previous sentence it was mentioned tour operators are within their rights to impose the cancellation penalties in the small print). So us with tickets to Bangkok and then continuing flight might not receive full refund despite the flights being cancelled. I so wish I would have spent couple more pounds and booked directly with the airline.

globetrotter_77

We were supposed to fly out this morning to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi. Like yours, our flight was cancelled. We booked the tickets with Expedia and we have been told that we will receive full refund from the airline. But then again our final destination was Bangkok.

However, they said to us on the phone that all flight to/from/via Bangkok which are cancelled will be refunded in full, because that's how the airline is agreed to do. Worth calling the airline and if they say they would refund in full, you can ring TA back to confront them. Good luck.

hannah-mv

The airline was my first point of contact as the TA wasn't giving me any information of the situation. STA Travel also quoted £170 cancellation fee (incl. airline fee) even after the airline had confirmed on thier website they are issuing full refunds and waiving the fees. Only after I mentioned to the TA this they dropped the fee to £100.

The airline has confirmed to me the flight to BKK and the connection flight have both been cancelled. They have been very helpful but I suppose there is only so much they can do when I didn't buy tickets directly from them.

Moonchild

STA won't keep your money. Of that there is no doubt. You are speaking to the wrong person. You will get your money back.

hannah-mv

After 6 phone calls and couple of emails to TA I've been finally promised full refund. All I can say is that I've been in tears because of this since the flights were confirmed cancelled. Not so much because I couldn't travel but because the fee felt so unfair.

There is an article in (Sunday) Times online where ABTA spokeperson says if you are flying via Bangkok tomorrow, the tour operator will offer full refund as one of the options. He seems to be speaking about package deals but seeing that made me call TA one more time. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article5250748.ece

This is solved now.

alanrowell

1) a good reason for using a CC to book

2) if you still didn't get the money back then go to the Small Claims Court - and complain to at least one of the major Saturday newspapers

hannah-mv

Although I'm really hoping this case is ok now I'm bit curious about he CCard. I've understood chargeback unlikely to be possible if you are dealing with third party, i.e. someone who isn't actually providing the service. How would using CCard help in this kind of situation help (I did use Credit Card to book this)?

jaymac_2

At least you're not stuck out there! People on packages are in a stronger position than individual travellers because tour operators at least are looking out for their clients. The Thai tourist office is now offering to accomodate stranded travellers as long as their expenses are no more than 2000 bhats a day - about £40 I think. Spain and Australia are organising flights to get their nationals home but the Uk isn't doing anything yet.