Opodo Flight Refund

gata.org

hi
I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who has had a particularly bad experience with Opodo. He's basically ended up £700 out of pocket. To summarise the whole story, he booked a flight to korea, made a typo on his name, and wanted to get it changed, rang them up a few weeks later, and someone recommended he cancel and rebook, saying he would get the money back minus a small admin fee. 2 months down the line he gets only £50 back and they tell him because it's non-refundable that's all he gets.

The small print does state non-refundable, but he wouldn't of cancelled if he wasn't told on the phone that he would get the money back. I suggested small-claims, is this a good idea? One further complication is that this guy lives in sweden, but is korean, yet opodo is a UK company, so how would a small claims action work in that case ?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

cheers

Joe

travelgran

He should be able to get the tax part of the fare back direct from the airline company but may have to wait until the date of the flight is past.

Voyager2002

Can he PROVE that he was mis-informed?

gata.org

Here is what my friend has said happened :




11th October_ I noticed I misspelled one letter [on his name].


from 12th to 13th October_ I tried to contact them through both of mail and phone. But when I called them, the line was disconnected while waiting for a staff. When I research the service about Opodo, I found several complains aboutdisconnection automatically. It was truely annoying.


14th October_ I reached a staff. I asked her if i could amend my information. She answered me that I could as long as I pay money, around 45 GBP, for amending fee. I said 'Yes.' However, She asked me to use the credit card that I used for booking flight. I did not have that credit card at that moment. I asked her if I call again. She told me that 'Yes'
Here is point. She did not mention about there is limited period for a customer to amend his or her information. I expected I could amend my information in October or before flight.


from 15th to 19th October_ I tried to contact them again. But the line was automatically disconnected while I was waiting for reply from a staff.




20th October_ I finally contacted a staff, ***. When I asked her to change my information, she said that the period I could change my information was expired on 19th October. Since I have never get any information on the fact that there is limited time to changeinformation, I think It is also Opodo’s fault that I can not amend my information. She then recommended me to cancel my ticket. I asked her how much money I can get back. She said that I could get the whole money except for booking fee and credit card fee. I asked her again how much the booking fee is. She told me that it would be around 25 GBP.I thought 25 GBP is not big money. I agreed the cancelation on my ticket by expectingthat I could get the whole money back munus booking fee and creditcard fee. I got the mail at the date. you can see I was expecting fare fee and tax refund would be reimbursed to me.
Dear Customer,
As per our recent telephone conversation, we are sorry that you have had the need to cancel your travel arrangements with Opodo.
In accordance with your instructions, we can confirm your flights have now been cancelled. The refund of booking will be processed and any applicable fare or tax refund reimbursed to you.
Please note that booking fees and credit card fees may not be refundable and not all air taxes are refundable.
Once your booking has been processed, please allow 2 to 12 weeks for the airline to process the refund through to the original card used when you made your booking.


21st October_ I eamiled them again to ask how much booking fee is exactly.


22nd October_ I got the reply from Opodo. They did not mention on non-refundable ticekt yet.
Please find below a receipt of what was paid.
Your Opodo reference: ***
Booking reference: ***
**********************************************************************************************
Flight GBP 726.00
**********************************************************************************************
Other charges:
Transaction charge GBP 25.00
Credit Card Fee (2%) GBP 15.02
**********************************************************************************************
Amount Paid GBP 766.02
**********************************************************************************************
Method of payment:
Card type MasterCard/Eurocard
Card Number xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
**********************************************************************************************
5th November_ I emailed Opodo to ask them when I can get the money back.


6th November_ I got the email. They did not mention on non-refundable ticekt yet.That was why I was still expecting the whole money back except for booking fee and credit card fee.
Dear - ****
Thank you for your recent email.
I have checked your booking and I can confirm that your booking is currently going through the refund process.
Please note the refund can take up to 3 months to be credited to your account.


2nd December_ I got the credit card bill. I found that I got only 58 GBP back.I thought Opodo made a mistake. I emailed them.


3rd December_ I got the reply from Opodo. They finally told me that my ticket is non-refundable.
Dear - ***,
Thank you for your recent email.
As per fare rules confirmed and agreed with you by our agent , your ticket is a non refundable ticket and you could only claim taxes back on a ticket. The taxes only amount has been paid back in your card as agreed by you before we went ahead for the cancellation. Should you discuss this further, please call at our customer sales centre on 0871 277 0090.

[Deleted User]

Google 'opodo complaints' and up comes loads of bad reviews:


http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews8026.html

I hope your friend gets it sorted out.

AppleMac_3

Hi, I'm in the process of taking Opodo to court for something similar to this. My argument is, irrespective of the tickets limitations, ADP and other taxes, fees and charges are refundable even if the base fare is not. The reason for this is that the APD and TFC's are only collected by Opodo (or the airline) on behalf of HMRC or other 3rd parties. So, if the flight is not used, the taxes and fees are not remitted to HMRC and the other parties and should not be retained by Opodo (or the airline).

Anyone interested in assisting me put my case in court please post on my other thread relating to this issue, it's important to stop this type of practice and make people aware of these "sharp practices".

richardw

Their terms and conditions

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

"all refunds are subject to the relevant airline's policy and a £25.00 per person Administration Charge."

So seems this applies to the APD refund.