Warning: extreme Flybe £200 admin fee

grahammeigh

I had to cancel four flight due to an injury. Flybe had to reimburse airport taxes of £202.28. They levied an admin fee of £200!



Dear Mr Meigh,

With reference to your request for refund of taxes. Flybe charge an administration fee of £25 per person, per sector.

As your taxes total £50.52 per person, this would be subject to an admin. fee of £50 per person, leaving a balance to refund of £0.52 per person.

Please be advised we have today refunded £2.08 back onto the card that made the original payment.

Please allow 3 – 5 working days for it to clear.

Regards

Wayne Bradnock
Customer Accounts

HXDave

I had to cancel four flight due to an injury. Flybe had to reimburse airport taxes of £202.28. They levied an admin fee of £200!

Not to worry - if it's an injury, you should be covered by travel insurance anyway.

HXDave


Ha ha ha, Cityboy beat me to it!

grahammeigh

My travel insurance will pay for the actual cost of the flights but not the airport taxes - they should be reimbursed by the airline because we didn't fly.

So a £200 fee to pay £2.28 onto my credit card!

I really want to bring this sort of thing to the public's attention. Can you help?

dmg24

grahammeigh wrote: »

My travel insurance will pay for the actual cost of the flights but not the airport taxes - they should be reimbursed by the airline because we didn't fly.

So a £200 fee to pay £2.28 onto my credit card!

I really want to bring this sort of thing to the public's attention. Can you help?

Nearly all airlines charge pretty high admin fees. The campaign needs to focus on getting people to be aware of what they are agreeing to when entering into contracts.

grahammeigh

Of course, but being aware of such sharp practices doesn't make them right.

The airport taxes belong to the government or to me if I don't fly. To charge me £200 to give me my money back is outrageous.

Moonchild

grahammeigh wrote: »

Of course, but being aware of such sharp practices doesn't make them right.

The airport taxes belong to the government or to me if I don't fly. To charge me £200 to give me my money back is outrageous.

You are right. However, had this been bought to your attention before you booked, would it have stopped you from buying them?

Or would you have paid triple the amount for fully flexible tickets?

dmg24

grahammeigh wrote: »

Of course, but being aware of such sharp practices doesn't make them right.

The airport taxes belong to the government or to me if I don't fly. To charge me £200 to give me my money back is outrageous.

Moonchild wrote: »

You are right. However, had this been bought to your attention before you booked, would it have stopped you from buying them?

Or would you have paid triple the amount for fully flexible tickets?

Perfectly summed up by Moonchild - you do have the option to cancel without penalties, but you took a chance on booking a non flex ticket (as most of us would).

Heliflyguy

So what is a fully flex ticket on Flybe then because even the most expensive classes (Y and W) on MAN-EDI and LGW-BHD are non refundable, I dont have time to check all BE routes and fares to find out myself.

And most airlines do charge high fees but not per sector.

tobyjug

Do you know, I am thinking of buying airline tickets at the moment. I can't believe that they are charging that much money for admin fees for each ticket it is one transaction after all.

Certainly makes you think doesn't it.

Moonchild

Heliflyguy wrote: »

So what is a fully flex ticket on Flybe then because even the most expensive classes (Y and W) on MAN-EDI and LGW-BHD are non refundable, I dont have time to check all BE routes and fares to find out myself.

And most airlines do charge high fees but not per sector.

You are right, all flybe tickets are non-refundable. I didn't know that.

However their Economy Plus Tickets are fully date changeable free of charge, which may or may not be helpful in this case.

NFH

Your insurance policy should cover the admin charge as it's a cancellation fee.

If it doesn't, then you should look into whether the admin charge breaches the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Given that Flybe's booking process is automated, it would be reasonable to expect refunds of unused legs to be likewise automated, and hence a £200 admin charge on one booking is not reasonable.