Help with wrong flight booking

gillbee

Hi,

I booked flights for my mother, other half and son for a trip out to Australia. We all fly to Australia where my mum will stay for two week. We go onto New Zeleand.

I booked through a travel agent who told me my mum would need to fly to Auckland to get the same return flight as us which we booked for her as part of her trip. My mum is elderly, dislikes flying and is very uncomfortable about flying alone.

After speaking to the airline, it turns out the return fight goes to Brisbane so my mum is flying to Auckland to fly back to Brisbane!! The agent who booked for us was new to the job and I think has made a mistake as the outbound flight goes via Singapore. I think he has assumed the same for the return leg. My travel confirmation which I signed with the travel agent does not detail the stopover cities. The staff member is no longer their and it looks like any change to the flights will cost me a lot. I can 't see anything I can do about this - it's either stump up extra so my Mum doesn't need to do a needless journey or she take the needless journey.

Has anyone experienced similar or know the cost involved in forfeiting a leg of a flight. Emirates can't do anything for me as it was booked with an agent. I don't think I will get anywhere complaining to the travel agent as it is just my word agent and ex employee. I'd really rather my Mum did not have to take this additional journey but I'm at a loss with what to do. The airline tell me if she doesn't take the journey, her whole return journey will be cancelled.

thanks for any advice.

johnnyroper

gillbee wrote: »

Hi,

I booked flights for my mother, other half and son for a trip out to Australia. We all fly to Australia where my mum will stay for two week. We go onto New Zeleand.

I booked through a travel agent who told me my mum would need to fly to Auckland to get the same return flight as us which we booked for her as part of her trip. My mum is elderly, dislikes flying and is very uncomfortable about flying alone.

After speaking to the airline, it turns out the return fight goes to Brisbane so my mum is flying to Auckland to fly back to Brisbane!! The agent who booked for us was new to the job and I think has made a mistake as the outbound flight goes via Singapore. I think he has assumed the same for the return leg. My travel confirmation which I signed with the travel agent does not detail the stopover cities. The staff member is no longer their and it looks like any change to the flights will cost me a lot. I can 't see anything I can do about this - it's either stump up extra so my Mum doesn't need to do a needless journey or she take the needless journey.

Has anyone experienced similar or know the cost involved in forfeiting a leg of a flight. Emirates can't do anything for me as it was booked with an agent. I don't think I will get anywhere complaining to the travel agent as it is just my word agent and ex employee. I'd really rather my Mum did not have to take this additional journey but I'm at a loss with what to do. The airline tell me if she doesn't take the journey, her whole return journey will be cancelled.

thanks for any advice.

best thing to do is give the agent a chance,ask to speak to the manager and explain the situation and see if they are able to help you out.They may have had similar problems with other customers hence the member of staff no longer being there.

gillbee

Thanks - I have spoken to the agent and they are looking trying to re-book without the final leg. It seems that I will foot the bill for this. I have no idea what the bill may be. I guess the only thing I can do is pay up and then write a letter of complaint. As I say - it comes down to one persons word against another (who is no longer with the company) and without the stopover details on the itenery then it's a very grey area as to what I signed for.

budgetflyer

If you make that kind of mistake yourself, then its fair enough having to pay to amend it, however when you put your trust in so called professionals, its ridiculous that you then get charged for their mistake.

gillbee

Hi budgetflyer - you echo my thoughts! It's just very difficult as it comes down to my word against someone elses who is no longer with the company. The company themselves have tried to rebook the flights however one of our outbound legs is now full so this isn't an option. It does seem crazy that the flight can't just be removed, but this is emirates policy and relates to the full end to end fare. The justificaiton being that it may have been cheaper to fly to Auckland than it was to Brisbane! Don't ask me how they work that out - it really is beyond me.

I have written a polite letter of complaint to the travel agent head office and highlighted the fact that the current staff have been as helfpul as they can be. We'll see what comes of that but with our outbound flight in just over a week - i'm not holding my breath.

The only chance i have now is that after we take our outbound leg - Emirates can take over the booking and may be able to ammend. It's not ideal as I now don't know if I need to prepare for my mum arriving in Auckland or not.

Ah well - nothing like last minute drama to keep things interesting....