claiming flight money bought with credit card

oldenglishsheepdog

Hi
wonder if anyone can help, I have booked a holiday for a large group of friends which has been a nightmare, but that's another story. One of my friends has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and has undergone a mastectomy, subsequently she wont be able to travel. The holiday company has quoted us £170 to change to someone else's name, the majority of that for the flight.Because i paid the deposit with my credit card and that covered the flight and transfers I thought i could claim it back off them, and then rebook the flight myself in a different name as it would be much cheaper to do that, but when i rang they said i could only claim if the company went bust, and there wasn't a flight anymore. I always thought that was the point of using a c.c and paying the exorbitant fees when booking a holiday as it was an insurance should anything go wrong?

withabix

Nothing has 'gone wrong' in terms of something under the control of the holiday company.

Your friend had travel insurance I presume?

oldenglishsheepdog

Hi thanks for the reply, My friend lives in America and is having a really bad time with the cancer at the moment, so we didn't tell her about the charges, just that we had found someone to take her place.

Someone else told me when her Dad died she got the money for a flight she'd booked back off her credit card as obviously she wasn't able to go. That's why i thought I might be able to claim on mine.

luci

Section 75 provides cover if the supplier fails to supply the goods or services. That's not the case here.

As withabix asked, did your friend have travel insurance as she should be able to claim from that if it was not a pre-existing condition?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

oldenglishsheepdog wrote: »

Someone else told me when her Dad died she got the money for a flight she'd booked back off her credit card as obviously she wasn't able to go. That's why i thought I might be able to claim on mine.

"Someone else" might have been travelling on a fully refundable ticket. Or she might have purchased the ticket using a card which included travel insurance as a perk. Possibly.

oldenglishsheepdog

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

"Someone else" might have been travelling on a fully refundable ticket. Or she might have purchased the ticket using a card which included travel insurance as a perk. Possibly.

Thanks, that's probably what is was.

I haven't asked my friend if she has insurance as she has enough on her plate at the moment, and as far as she is aware someone has took her place and that's that.

Steve_in_South_London

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

"Someone else" might have been travelling on a fully refundable ticket. Or she might have purchased the ticket using a card which included travel insurance as a perk. Possibly.

Yes. Also some airlines have a specific policy when it comes to death where they will refund anyway - even if the ticket is not refundable in the normal sense. Sometimes they may change tickets on compassionate grounds at the discretion of the issuing office - eg to another date or another person. It's not clear if the OP discussed the circumstances of her request with the holiday company (or the airline directly) but it is worth doing. But unless part of the T+Cs or fare rules (in the case of the flights) then it is not available as of right.

Degenerate

oldenglishsheepdog wrote: »

I haven't asked my friend if she has insurance as she has enough on her plate at the moment, and as far as she is aware someone has took her place and that's that.

It's understandable that you don't want to bother your friend with this under the circumstances. Unfortunately you have no legal recourse to claim this money back yourselves. If this is how you'd rather play it, I can only suggest that you discuss it with the rest of the group and hopefully can agree to split the cost equally. It's what I would do in this situation. How big is the "large group"? Say it was 10 of you, that would only be £17 each.

oldenglishsheepdog

Degenerate wrote: »

It's understandable that you don't want to bother your friend with this under the circumstances. Unfortunately you have no legal recourse to claim this money back yourselves. If this is how you'd rather play it, I can only suggest that you discuss it with the rest of the group and hopefully can agree to split the cost equally. It's what I would do in this situation. How big is the "large group"? Say it was 10 of you, that would only be £17 each.

Thanks for all the replies, there are 10 of us so that is what we are going to do.