Flight price increase after booking

piblet

Dear all,

Can anybody provide expertise?

My wife and I (from UK) booked with Flight Centre/Round the World Flights for a 'Round the World' six week trip. We got what we thought to be a good price over the phone and the agent checked flight availability. We paid for the flights then and there directly over the phone via credit card. They sent a confirmation invoice quickly advising us of the flights and times which was what we'd agreed over the phone.

Three days later, they email us to ask if we can amend the route. The amendments aren't exactly what we want, but because we felt we got a reasonably good deal, we agree. However, they then respond saying the price has gone up an additional £300pp.

As far as I can see, this is crazy. They confirmed the price and availability, and that was the basis on which I paid. They issued an invoice confirming payment and this surely forms the basis of a contract. You can't sell something to someone and then, after you've sold it, state that the price has gone up by another third. Or can you??!

Any advice much appreciated,

luci

If you have a confirmation of the price and they have accepted payment then I believe there is a contract and they should honour them or give you a full refund.

Westin

They issued an invoice confirming payment

Certainly not very good and I'd be as unhappy as you - but just check what their Terms & Conditions say on the back of the invoice. I have heard before some travel agents and operators having a clause saying that they might need to amend the price within xx days of booking, or before the invoice is received, if flight prices change or a quote error has been made.

An increase of £300 is however in my book unacceptable. A few quid maybe but not that much.

SaveTheEuro

Their terms and conditions for Flight Centre give concern:

Changes in transportation costs, including the cost of fuel, dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports and airports and exchange rates mean that the price of your travel arrangements may change after you have booked........Occasionally, we or our supplier may have to make changes to your original booking and we/they reserve the right to do so at any time. Where we are acting as an Agent, we cannot accept any liability or costs incurred that may result from these changes. Most of these changes will be minor and we will advise you of them at the earliest possible date.

Have they given you a breakdown of these additional charges? Who are they being paid to? When did the charges suddenly change? Good luck.

Alan_Bowen

It sounds to me as though the staff member you dealt with made an error in the booking, all the RTW fares are subject to a maximum number of miles and the fact they asked you to change your route suggests they have discovered they have booked an illegal route. If you are not happy, ask them to cancel the whole route and go elsewhere. It is clear they didn't know what they were doing and the point of using an agent is to ensure you get the right advice, which it seems you didn't

piblet

Thank you all for your very helpful replies. It's very helpful knowing I'm not the only one who thinks the travel agent is being rather unreasonable!

SaveTheEuro, thanks particularly for the T&C's. I haven't been given a breakdown of charges or indeed answers to any of the other questions you asked. However, when you look at the booking invoice (sent to me via email after I'd paid) it states that "flight prices cannot be confirmed until payment is received in full and tickets have been issued". However, I was not made aware of this when I booked the flights (and as you've demonstrated, this isn't included in their web-based T&C's, which of course formed the basis of my original enquiry). Indeed, the impression that I was given over the phone was that tickets would be sorted out as soon as I ended the call, and the agent had confirmed availability on all the flights. It begs the question why they left it for several days before booking the tickets.

Other people have advised me that unless they supply the flights ordered they are in breach of contract and as such I'm entitled to a refund, and also to sue them for the difference in cost in getting the flights elsewhere. This all sounds fair enough but of course a big hassle!!

Unfortunately (?!) they did offer quite a good deal that I suspect I will find hard to beat. Plus, of course, now if we do end up being forced to re-book somewhere else, VAT has increased and flight availability from the sales will have decreased. I do feel rather unfairly treated by these people, and certainly won't be recommending them to my friends!

wacko911

The extra VAT is only about £22 per £1000

apt

The extra VAT is zero as there is no VAT on flights and foreign holidays.

piblet

Thanks for the info - I'll let you know what happens when they re-open tomorrow.

piblet

Well, thank you for all the support and advice everybody. I hit Flightcentre with a rather 'comprehensive' email detailing that I would not accept flights which were a higher price, but also detailing a number of reasonable compromises to the route that we were prepared to accept. I explained that if they were not able to fulfil their side of the contract I would move forward under Section 75 Credit Card protection for breach of contract.

I then had a very pleasant email back saying that they are happy to do flights for the originally quoted price. The route has changed somewhat and is a little more inconvenient but we still feel we got a good deal and would have gone with it if it was offered to us in the first place, so we've agreed.

So, although they were a little sneaky with some of their dealings - and clearly someone somewhere had made an error in letting us pay a good price for flights that weren't available - in the end we got what we paid for and are happy we didn't have to take it any further.

Thanks for all your help everybody.