Help! Been told to cut gap year 7 months short or pay £2000 to get home

Malices

Sorry it's a long one...

I'm currently in New Zealand with my boyfriend on a trip that we've been saving for for 2 years. It is supposed to be a year long trip from May 2011 to May 2012 around the whole of NZ.

In October last year, just before the air taxes were supposed to go up, I spent a whole morning phoning around to find the cheapest flights possible for our planned dates.

I ended up speaking to Flight Centre who were the cheapest I could find who offered me return flights from London to Auckland for £697 each (+ credit card charge totalling $710 each). At the time of calling, I advised the agent that we wanted to stay for a year, but the latest return flights available at the time were for 23rd September 2011. However, she advised that the ticket would allow me to change the date free of charge if I phoned the airline direct after arrival in NZ. Fantastic - I booked it.

We caught our flights here with Royal Brunei Airlines in May with no trouble & had a great flight with no issues.

Having been in NZ for 3 months, my boyfriend Dave and I caught the travel bug and discussed visiting Thailand on the way home if possible.

Flight Centre have high street stores in New Zealand so I popped into one a few days ago as I was passing to ask about our options for Thailand.

At this point, I hadn't yet phoned the airline to push back our flights.

The agent at Flight Centre NZ pulled up our booking and queried at as it was apparently only a 6 month ticket. I told her I had clearly told the agent in the UK that I wanted to be away for 1 year. Said she would the airline to ask about this and pushing the flight back, and whilst on the phone, The Royal Brunei agent reminded her that they are suspending their flights to and from New Zealand in October this year, so I couldn't postpone our flights any later than October.

The Flight Centre NZ agent then gave me two options - to go home in October (7 months early) or to buy new one way tickets home. (NB> at this point, I don't care about Thailand any more, I'm just concerned how to get home).

I asked her what kind of price tickets to the UK were and was quoted ND$2000 per person - approx £1000 per person! Se also advised that they have a sale on next month in October and took my number to call me with some prices then. The only other advice she could give me was to contact the agent I'd booked it with originally.

Needless to say at this point I am a little shell shocked and upset.

I immediately emailed the agent when I got back to the hostel and explained the situation and asked for her help resolving the issue.

She replied saying that I needed to contact the airline as, at the time of booking neither of us new that the airline would cease flights to NZ. She also said that the 6 month ticket would have been able to be extended if the flight service hadn't been suspended.

I asked why a 12 month ticket had not been issued to start with as requested, (as this may have given me more manoeuvrability with the airline if it was valid for longer - now I can't extend it at all so it's null and void after November completely) and asked for correspondence from her team leader on the matter. She said she was the team leader but would forward my email to their customer services team.


That was 4 days ago and I haven’t heard anything yet.

I’ve since phoned Royal Brunei in Auckland who told me that I could either fly home in October (no thanks) or I could get a 50% refund (approx. £700) which I would have to go through Flight Centre to get.

I’ve done a bit more research on cost of one way flights back to UK, both for required dates and last minute ones for September to get an idea of what it might be but the cheapest I can find is still working out to be £600 each, almost as much as our original return flights, so even with the 50% refund it looks like we will still be out of pocket by at least £500 – not a sum to be sniffed at when you are a lowly backpacker.

I’m not sure who, if anyone, is to blame, but it feels unfair that having already paid for return flights, I should now have to pay out more money, or cut our trip of a lifetime short by more than half.

In conclusion, I’m sad and would appreciate any advice on the situation. Thank you!

Note: I do have travel insurance, I need to dig that out also and see if that will cover us, I'd just like to know people's thoughts on how I should handle the above irrespective of that - if someone is in the wrong, I don't want them to get away with it and think they can walk over other people as well. As non-constructive as I know it is, I am still angry and upset at this stage!

visidigi

You took the 6 month ticket because it was cheap.

You say you were told to change it after arriving directly in NZ

You say you called 3 months later

The airline now no longer offer the flight

The 50% refund from them is more than they are obliged to do I beleive as up till not you are still scheduled to return home before they cease flying.

To be fair, if you had called them as soon as you had landed and changed the flights the airline would have been obliged to have found you a flight to replace the one they would now no longer offer you.

The issue of the flights no longer running is not something the travel agent could foresee. The airline has offered an alternative.

That three months delay in doing what the travel agents advised you is whats forcing you to make the choice here...you can try your insurance, but i don't think they will cover your choice to extend your holiday and the consequences of it.

Its your choice at the end of the day and insurance won't cover you in cases of a change of mind...no ones 'getting away with it' or 'walking over other people' - you didn't do what you were advised at the outset and there doesn't seem to be much you can no do about it.

And before you say it, we all know hindsight is a wonderful thing...but so is don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today....

Sorry, not much better news than that IMO...

JimmyTheWig

Will they still do flights from Thailand?
If you can go home that way it won't matter if they don't go from NZ, will it?

I agree with the above poster that part of the problem is the delay in getting this all sorted, but even so it seems a mighty unfair set of circumstances to be left in.

Malices

They never said I had to do it as soon as I arrived, just I couldn't do it before I left, I had to be in New Zealand when I did.

I also just re-read the agent's email response & she says that a one year ticket would have been sold at a higher rate, which means it probably wouldn't have been as competitive at the time and I may not have purchased it. Nowhere on any of the documents I was sent before confirming does it state how long the ticket was valid for so I wasn't to know. Is this mis-selling?

Malices

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Will they still do flights from Thailand?
If you can go home that way it won't matter if they don't go from NZ, will it?

I agree with the above poster that part of the problem is the delay in getting this all sorted, but even so it seems a mighty unfair set of circumstances to be left in.

I think they do, but I can't extend my ticket now because of lights from here to Thailand are pretty extortionate on their own though anyway so gutted I'm almost tempted to just go home and be done with it all.

isplumm

Malices wrote: »

I think they do, but I can't extend my ticket now because of lights from here to Thailand are pretty extortionate on their own though anyway so gutted I'm almost tempted to just go home and be done with it all.

Hi,

Which is the closest country that Royal Brunei fly from - OZ?? how about about trying to change the ticket so you fly back from Oz .... then get a cheap ticket from NZ to Oz - we managed to get a £60 ticket from Christchurch to Melbourne a few years back.

Their map appears to show that they fly from Melbourne / Brisbane back via Brunei to the UK, so that might be an option? Just did a quick look at the schedules for May of next year - definitely appear to be flying back from Melbourne .... so looks an option to me .... if they would go for it ....

Air Newzealand are doing flights from Auckland to Melbourne for $238 NZ or Christchurch to Melbourne for $207 NZ. (£124 or £108).

Or otherwise find where RB fly back to the UK from in the Far East & get a cheap ticket to there ....

Mark

HappyMJ

isplumm wrote: »

Hi,

Which is the closest country that Royal Brunei fly from - OZ?? how about about trying to change the ticket so you fly back from Oz .... then get a cheap ticket from NZ to Oz - we managed to get a £60 ticket from Christchurch to Melbourne a few years back.

Their map appears to show that they fly from Melbourne / Brisbane back via Brunei to the UK, so that might be an option?

Or otherwise find where RB fly back to the UK from in the Far East & get a cheap ticket to there ....


Mark

They are cancelling Brisbane from the same date. After October they will only fly to/from Melbourne.

I'd buy a return ticket in May and bin the return portion of the ticket. Seems like a huge waste but that's how airlines work.

Malices

HappyMJ wrote: »

They are cancelling Brisbane from the same date. After October they will only fly to/from Melbourne.

I'd buy a return ticket in May and bin the return portion of the ticket. Seems like a huge waste but that's how airlines work.

Yes! Melbourne, they still fly there!! I was told they weren't going to Australia at all either after October. If it wasn't weird, and over the internet, I could kiss you right now.

THANKS!

There may be a cheapish option yet. Wish it wasn't the middle of the night here so I could call RBA now!

isplumm

Malices wrote: »

Yes! Melbourne, they still fly there!! I was told they weren't going to Australia at all either after October. If it wasn't weird, and over the internet, I could kiss you right now.

THANKS!

There may be a cheapish option yet. Wish it wasn't the middle of the night here so I could call RBA now!

Hmmmm .... if they do allow you to change, see if they will offer you a bit of compensation for the change of flight .... no harm in asking ... by the way - where was my kiss ....:)

Mark

Malices

isplumm wrote: »

Hmmmm .... if they do allow you to change, see if they will offer you a bit of compensation for the change of flight .... no harm in asking ... by the way - where was my kiss ....:)

Mark

Lol, sorry, saw the other one first! Gimme a break, it's 1am here

DVardysShadow

Lateral thinking. Look for the cheapest 6 or 12 month RETURN from where you are back to Blighty. It will probably turn out cheaper than a single or doing anything with your current ticket as long as you don't feel obliged to use the return portion and you can keep your mouth shut.

More lateral thinking: Outstay your visa, hand yourselves in to the authorities and get deported.