Amending a flight booking

mrposhman

My partner and our daughter are booked on a flight to leave on 22nd April flying to Orlando and then onwards about 5 weeks later to Melbourne. They got a great price of £871.30 from opodo flying with AA.

We have had a death in the family in the last week and the funeral unfortunately is booked for the 22nd (no possible dates before she leaves).

We have been quoted by Opodo that to change the booking, each passenger (including infants - my daughter will not be 1 until May) will have to pay $250 each, then a £25 admin fee and on top of that any fare increases which basically amount to £821.90 to modify the flight details.

As this is nearly the same price as the initial flight all the way to Melbourne it seems rather extravagant to me but can anyone help?

Are they right to charge a $250 fee for an infant that isn't having her own seat? Does the charge seem proportionate to you?

Any help would be great, I can't seem to find the fare rules, opodo FAQ's seem to suggest they should be in the confirmation email but I can't find them.

Could I claim anything from my travel insurance?

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm hoping to get this sorted tonight.

Teahfc

http://www.opodo.co.uk/opodo/StrutsServlet/DisplaySiteInfoPage?pageName=termcond

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3. CANCELLATIONS OR MODIFICATIONS BY YOU TO YOUR BOOKING
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For flight bookings, hotels, car rental and insurance, you may be able to cancel or modify your booking by [URL="javascript:openExternalWindow('https://opodouk.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/opodouk.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php','resizable=no,scrollbars=yes,menubar=no,toolbar=yes,locationbar=no,status=yes,width=850,height=600');"]emailing[/URL] the Opodo call centre, quoting your booking reference number. Alternatively, telephone the Opodo call centre on +44 (0) 871 277 0090 (10 pence per minute from BT landlines (different charges apply to other telephone providers - please contact your operator for details)). For hotel bookings not part of a package provided by a Travel Supplier, the hotel's specific terms and conditions for cancellations and amendments will be set out in your confirmation email. Where you make a booking modification, it is your responsibility to ensure that it does not conflict with any other product or service you have purchased.
In the event that you make any alteration to your booking (including, but not limited to, cancellations, refunds, amendments and name changes), Opodo reserves the right to charge you an administration fee of £25 GBP per person to cover the administration costs incurred by Opodo. These charges do not include any charges imposed directly by the Travel Supplier or hotel. Credit card fees, booking fees and any fees paid for delivery of paper tickets are non-refundable in the event of cancellation.
For car rental the following amendment and cancellation terms will apply: for reservations cancelled or amended within seven days of the booking date (the date you make the booking) Opodo will impose a charge of £15 per rental. For reservations cancelled or amended more than seven days after the booking date, Opodo will impose a charge of £40 per rental.
In some circumstances, Opodo or the Travel Supplier may be unable to cancel or modify a travel product or service unless we receive a written request together with payment of any extra fees and associated charges. Please note that, in relation to flights, a 'no-show' for a flight may result in your ticket being cancelled by the airline and therefore not refundable. Consequently, if you desire to change a flight booking close to the departure time, we strongly recommend that you phone Opodo and obtain written email confirmation to that change before electing not to travel on the original flight. For car rental, if you fail to cancel your reservation prior to the pick-up time and do not collect the vehicle on the pick-up date, or of you fail to comply with the pick-up terms (see car supplier terms and conditions), Opodo reserves the right to make a 'no-show' charge of 100% of the total car rental booking value.
If you have used an e-voucher or received a discount when making a booking on the Site, you agree that you have read and accept the e-voucher or discount terms and conditions. Should you make any change to a confirmed booking which was originally made using an e-voucher or discount, that e-voucher/discount will become invalid and you may be charged an amount equal to the value of the e-voucher/discount used.

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It looks as though you got a very good deal at the time and the new tickcte price has gone up but the £25 is mentioned in the T & C which you would have ticked i order to to get the tickets ( we all do it and hardly anyone reads it ) Looks like your daughtercan use her insurance but will then have to pay for the increased tickets anyway

The under 2 traveller is considered because sadly that is how Airline industry operates, I am sure someone will know the full reason why.

Smiley82

Hi,

Firstly sorry to hear about the death in your family

I had a quick look for you and at a glance would say the following:

The £25 charge is the charge from Opodo. I would say that the $250 charge is the charge from the Airline for flight changes.

As for the charges for your infant, this sounds disgraceful! Surely one could expect any manner of charges when you wish to make a change, but as you rightly point out, to charge for a passenger who doesn't even have a seat sounds unreasonable. I would follow this up again.....with all of these call centres, it sometimes does depend on who you talk to as to what answers you get!
**Update** Just checked the AA website and the charge is per ticket. This is probably why your agent has said it's for your infant as well, as she has her own ticket, therefore the charge will apply. Rubbish rule, but enforceable i would say. It mentions £80/ticket on the website as a general fare rule, but these things are very much dependant on the type of ticket you bought, and are usually more expensive with sale fares.

I would think that there is a possibility of Travel Insurance covering this, particularly if the death was sudden and not an ongoing illness. It is worth going online to your insurance provider, or giving them a call to see what you find out. If you tell me who you are insured with, I'll try look for you

Hope this helps in some way,

mrposhman

Thanks for replying.

I'm not too fussed about the £25 charge - I expected a fee to amend the booking but found the price to be extortionate and way higher than I expected.

The bit that annoys me the most is the $250 fee for my daughter is actually MORE than her entire fare to go all the way through to Melbourne and this looks like its a standard fee added on by AA which to me just seems to be a way to fleece people out of money who unfortunately have unforeseen problems.

I will definately check the AA website ref the £80 charge as this seems different to the $250 that has been quoted to me. Thanks for pointing this out.

I've worked out that the price of the ticket to Orlando only has apparantly increased by £440. Either I got the original fare for next to nothing or this is crazy as you can get flights to Orlando for just over £300 so for it to have gone up so much is absurd. Shame I can't just cancel the firsr part of the trip and rebook, but i can't do this as they won't be able to use the flight onwards to Melbourne then!!

I've got insurance with Colombus direct (worldwide annual) but I've had a quick look but doesn't appear to be much in there, though I only briefly looked as I'm at work and already spent a lot of the day on the phone trying to sort things out as had to ring UKBA too as my partner is australian and her visa expires on the 22nd too just to make things even more difficult :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

The death was my gran who was quite old and not a direct relative of my partner but obviously was my daughters great gran but not sure if this would be accepted as a close relative by the insurance company anyway.

Thanks for the condolences by the way, much appreciated.

Smiley82

Hi,

I'd check with Columbus about claiming on the Travel Insurance.

According to the Policy Wording on the Columbus Website:

You are covered up to the amount specified on your policy schedule for travel and pre-booked accommodation cancellation costs relating only to those people specified on the insurance schedule. (If travel arrangements were paid for by Air Miles or by any other form of redeemable vouchers, reimbursement will be the reinstatement of the Air Miles or redeemable vouchers to their original account. If reinstatement is not possible, we will reimburse the lowest advertised fare by the airline for the flight in question). Cancellation must be necessary and unavoidable and not as a result of disinclination to undertake your planned trip. Cover is only provided due to a cause listed below occurring during the period of insurance:

1. accidental injury, serious illness, death or being subject to quarantine of you, any person with whom you are intending to travel or stay, an immediate relative of yours or of any person with whom you intend to travel
or a close business associate of yours;

It does also say though:

where at the time of taking out this insurance, the person whose condition gives rise to the claim is an in-patient in (or awaiting admission or booked to be admitted to) a hospital, hospice or nursing home;

So if your Grandma is in any of these categories??

Personally, I think this is your best bet. The only other thing I can think of is to call AA direct, explain to them that you have booked with a 3rd party agent and that due to a bereavement you need to change the flight by 1 day (or however long) and see if there is any way that they can help you directly. I know Opodo say you need to deal with them....but you never know!

Oh, and good luck with the UKBA.....I'm Australian and currently on a visa and any dealing's i've had with them have been an absolute nightmare....not to mention expensive! Definately not what you want to be dealing with right now

Good Luck!

Smiley82

Just found the definitions on their website of Relative, it doesn't even include Grandparents, so you might be out of luck. Worth a phone call anyway, otherwise I'd go down the 'Call AA Direct' route:

RelativeSpouse, fiance(e), parent, parent-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, child, grandchild.

mrposhman

OK I took your advice and called AA and I'm so glad I did. Opodo were trying to rip me off massively.

AA said that my daughter does not have to pay the $250 fee.

I also worked out that based on 2 sets of $250, at an exchange rate of 1.4 and adding the admin fee of £25, this means that the price would have risen by £440 according to Opodo - ANOTHER LIE.

AA told me that the price wasn't anywhere near £440 extra, it has in fact been REDUCED since the day we had purchased the flight and therefore it shows that opodo were clearly trying to rip me off. I had to pay just short of £100 to change the booking, massively different to the £822 quoted.

I think that opodo were trying to screw me because when we booked the tickets at £871.30, they didn't take payment for over 6 months because they apparantly had a dispute with AA because opodo were still advertising a fare that was no longer available and when opodo try to pay our fare, AA asked for more money. I'm not sure but I reckon opodo had to pay AA more for our tickets than what we paid them and they were trying to recoup some of their losses. Disgusting behaviour and something I will be writing to the regulator about.

Does anyone know who they are regulated by?

Thanks for all your help. I spoke to the UKBA as well and they were actually quite helpful. I rang Heathrow terminal 3 and spoke to an immigration agent who said it would be fine that she could overstay by 1 day and it wouldn't be a problem. They even said she didn't need to take any evidence of why she overstayed but we will be anyway to make sure there are no problems in the future.

So all good and we are all set up for the 23rd so thats 2 massive weights off our minds.

Again thanks for all your help, its much appreciated.

Smiley82

Glad to hear it has all worked out for you, one less thing to stress about!!

It's shocking behavious on Opodo's behalf, and reinforces my thoughts that you should always try and deal directly with suppliers where possible, no matter how you have booked.

Good Luck with it all, glad I was able to help

Cheers

Smiley82

Regarding complaining about Opodo, I'd send a recorded letter addressed to the CEO - marked Private and Confidential to the below address:

OPODO Limited
Waterfront
Hammersmith Embankment
LONDON W6 9RU

Keep it factual, non-emotional is always better

I couldn't find who regulates them, I did see they are a member of IATA, so possibly a copy to them as well?