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

isplumm

Malices wrote: »

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

Ok .... let you off .... hopefully you will get it sorted .... Oz - Melbourne is nice .... especially penguin island, so it wouldn't be a disaster if you have to go home via Oz.

Keep us informed.

Mark

Malices

DVardysShadow wrote: »

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.

Ha, that's what my OH said! ...it can't be that easy though, surely?! Probably throw a fine in there somewhere

As for the return flight idea...I'll add it to my list of stuff to research tomorrow _pale_ thank you!

isplumm

Malices wrote: »

Ha, that's what my OH said! ...it can't be that easy though, surely?! Probably throw a fine in there somewhere

As for the return flight idea...I'll add it to my list of stuff to research tomorrow _pale_ thank you!

Hi,

Only issue there is - they may ban you for 10 years!!!

Mark

Malices

I phoned RBA again today to ask about flying from Melbourne or Bangkok, but she said because it's only a 6 month ticket we can't, though if had been a 12 month ticket we 'might have had a chance'.

Boooo!

Back to Flight Centre we go....

I seem to be stuck in that dark twisty place where both companies are telling me to talk to the other one. *sigh* oh well, que sera sera & all that jazz. I'll keep at it.

Malices

visidigi wrote: »

You took the 6 month ticket because it was cheap.

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

For clarification - both above statements are incorrect.

I was not aware it was a 6 month ticket until last week when I found out about everything else. Yes, I booked the cheapest ticket I could find, but I expressly told the agent that I wanted to stay for 12 months and assumed that was what she quoted me for - nowhere on any of my documentation before or after confirming and paying does it state how long the ticket is valid for, I checked.

I was told to change the date whilst I was in NZ because it wouldn't be free other wise. It wasn't date sensitive otherwise. I didn't want to do it as soon as we arrived because I wanted to make sure we would definitely want to stay for a year. My OH has never been further than Spain or away longer than a week, and is very close to his family as I am to mine so I wanted to be sure neither of us would get badly homesick and therefore be miserable for a year.

JimmyTheWig

Malices wrote: »

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.

It appears that a few of us took this to mean you had to phone "directly after arrival". Wheras it really means "phone the airline direct".

I think that explains the responses that have suggested you were at fault for not doing it sooner.

I would say, then, that you need to get the travel agent to sort it out. You told them what you wanted. They told you what to do to get what you wanted. You paid them for it. You've done what they said. Now it's not working. I'd say they need to sort it.

Helga14

Don't do the deported thing if you intend to travel in the future. You may well have to declare being deported from somewhere and outstanding your visa.

Malices

Thank you to everyone for your help. Just to let you know what's happened....

My mum tweeted Flight Centre's Customer Service people who then got the ball rolling. They agreed to obtain the 50% refund from Royal Brunei, and use that money towards booking a new return flight home with Malaysian Airlines & whatever cost was left over, they would split the difference with us.

In the end, we have ended up paying only another £400 altogether, and as the new airline stops off in Kuala Lumpur, we can also visit Asia on the way home. So I'm happy!

The Flight Centre agent was very nice to me the whole way through even though I was quite upset (though I was never rude I'll add!) and was very understanding. I think the tweet from my mum helped a great deal as it seemed to get higher powers involved with more authority - though this is only my speculation.

Overall, still happy with Flight Centre, they have seen us right & I was happy to pay the £400 as we got our stop off in Asia. Yay for Flight Centre!

BlueAngelCV

Malices wrote: »

My mum tweeted Flight Centre's Customer Service people who then got the ball rolling.

Glad it's all sorted for you. I find it hilarious that you managed to get it sorted by tweeting the company!

texranger

BlueAngelCV wrote: »

Glad it's all sorted for you. I find it hilarious that you managed to get it sorted by tweeting the company!

because when you call its between you and the advisor, but how many people (prospective customers) would read the tweets along with their staff and bosses.