Airline Refund Rip Off

mk.johnston

Can you give me your thoughts on a practice which I think is a complete rip off by airlines.

If you book a flight and confirm it, and then wish to either change your flight or make amendments, invariably they charge you £25 per passenger for their “administration costs”!!:mad:

A recent problem I had with BMI illustrates the point. I paid £106 for 2 return tickets from Edinburgh to Heathrow in October as a wedding anniversary treat. However a couple of days later I had second thoughts as to the logistics and wished to cancel and book nearer the time. I was told that I would only receive a refund of the tax element less £25 admin charge per flight as the tickets are non-refundable! I have tried to reason that they have 3months to re-sell my seats so they are hardly likely to lose out, that £50 for a couple of taps on a keyboard is daylight robbery but to no avail. The reply is pasted below. Does this remind you of banks charging £25 for sending letters? Surely the bit highlighted in red is nothing to do with BMI and is paid to HM Gov ect?



Dear Mr Johnston
tickets 236-2134708775/776
The above tickets are non refundable. Therefore the refund due is for the tax paid less £25.00administration fee per ticket .This will make a total refund of £21.70x2=£43.40.Please reply to advise if you would like the refund to go ahead.

regards
Jackie

price information

2 Adult at GBP6.00
GBP
12.00

applicable taxes, passenger surcharge, and insurance surcharge
GBP
93.40

credit card charge
GBP
4.95

alchemista

umm... this is standard practice among the airlines. The ticket says "non-refundable" when you purchased it in the terms, so you were aware that you can't just cancel it.

Airlines do sell refundable tickets but they are at a higher cost.

I'm sorry you have to cancel yours. If you could cancel tickets, it would have saved me a lot of times!

jonesMUFCforever

Sorry but which part of 'these tickets are not refundable' which is clearly visible on the site (I have booked with them) did you not see.
It matters not one jot that they have the opportunity to re-sell. I would imagine that everyone would book tickets on a whim and then cancel if there was no penalty to do so.
A lesson learnt I think.

bazza1603

Hi,

Many airlines do not even refund taxes on Non refundable tickets.

I wonder how much no frills carriers actually make from the refunds of unused taxes.

Best regards

Barry

https://www.theairlineguide.co.uk

gingerdad

if the terms state non changable and non refundable, then that is why you only paid 106 pounds and not the 200 or 300 pound that the full fare would be.

all airlines should refund the Tax part as this is a government tax and not an airline one. though i agree with some you may have to fight for it.

it's like anything if you agree with the T&C's of a booking when you make it why should the airline then change its rules for you.

The reason they restrict fares is to offer better deals, and if you want to fly when you want and come back when you want and to be able to change and cancel the ticket, then pay the full fare and stop moaning!!

GD

bazza1603

Hi,

Not all taxes are refundable on non changable or refundable tickets. I have worked in travel for 10 years and I still cannot work it out.

Best regards

Barry

https://www.theairlineguide.co.uk

plane_boy2000

When will people grasp the concept that if the flight is cheap its cheap for a reason! Thats not to say its a bad deal, but you cant expect the same terms as the guy who paid more than you for a fully flexible ticket. I travel through my job, and if I think I may wish to amend my plans I pay extra for the flexible ticket.

Although £25 does sound high they have the admin costs of you booking the flight, and then the cancelation and re sale of the flight to cover so I dont think its unreasonable and would have been clearly stated in their terms.

MarkyMarkD

The reason that "taxes" are not all refundable, is that most things shown as "taxes" are not taxes at all. This is what Ryanair are currently in trouble over.

The only part they are obliged to refund is the actual Air Passenger Duty amount, and they are legitimately able to charge an administration charge for making this refund (which usually negates the amount of the APD refund).

Just accept that cheap airline tickets are not refundable - end of story.

You CAN however sell the tickets onto someone else, and pay an admin charge for the change of names.

mk.johnston

Hi all,

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I'm not moaning ginger dad, I was just asking for a discussion on whether people thought £25 per ticket to do some admin was a bit steep? I think most people would say, yes it is. As an electrician I charge £22 per hour labour, are you saying it takes 1hr per ticket to cancel and re-sell the ticket?

I disagree that just because you pay a cheaper price that you are not entitled to a refund, I don't see that it has any bearing and I am sure an airline will pick up on this and start offering said tickets with a reasonable refund policy. By your logic, if I bought something cheaper in one shop than another say a tv, I would negate my consumer rights by doing so.

However in saying all this, it is of course reasonable for me to pay for admin costs, what amount is reasonable?

WiseInvestor_2

What we need to remember is that airlines want low headline fares to attract new customers. In order to do that, much of the cost involved in delivering that fare is waived - in fact just transferred elsewhere. Ryanair were involved in a high-profile case last year for charging a wheelchair passenger extra for the services rendered. Ryanair argued (quite reasonably IMO) that why should everyone pay for a service they're not using? Indeed, disabled people receive extra state benefits to 'compensate' for their condition (by this I mean the extra expenses incurred) yet the complainant didn't think he should pay more. He won.

So when you book a cheap flight, the price you pay is probably subsidised by someone else and the admin fees charged to people who choose to change their travel plans is exactly that.

mk.johnston

Thanks wise investor, a good point