Refused Boarding at Airport

stickymaggot

My wife went home to the Philippines for Xmas and we bought a ticket that was Bham to Amsterdam (KLM), Amsterdam to China (KLM) and then China to Philippines (Southern China Airlines). All was good, no probs. However when she arrived at Manila airport for the return journey, they had changed the times of the flights which would have meant a stay in China exceeding 24hrs and as such required a visa (the original times meant a stay of less than 24hrs hence no need for visa). They therefore would not allow her to board the plane.

I therefore had to buy a one-way ticket to get her back to the UK which cost me £750 with KLM.

I am now trying to get the airline to refund the original ticket as it was thru no fault of our own that she was not allowed to board the plane or offered an alternative flight!

The response I got from the airline was...
1) 1) The fare of ticket is strictly non refundable.
2) 2) In respect of Visa difficulties and denied boarding : No matter there is a flight schedule or not, pax still need her transfer visa, )- Please kindly note that it is not with the airline duties to advise passengers of VISA requirements, but manly at time of booking / agent’s terms and conditions.

I regret that It would therefore appear that there is no refund due on ticket.

I beleive this is contract law and the airline has a duty to refund the cost of the original ticket.

Any help/suggestions would be most welcome.

wealdroam

There are probably better experts on this on the Flights Board.

Suggest you get the thread moved there.

stickymaggot

Thanks, didnt realise there was a specific board. Can a mod move this for me?

copa_feela

Need more details - when was the flight time changed, what was the change, and what was the reason for the change?

Was the journey all on one ticket?

vicmorrow

stickymaggot wrote: »

Thanks, didnt realise there was a specific board. Can a mod move this for me?

Mod is a bad MSE word. They are Board Guides and squeaky is the man you have to PM (Private Message....just under the MSE banner when you are logged in).

stickymaggot

Yes the journey was all on a single e-ticket which covered both the outgoing and return flights.

I'm not quite sure what was changed or why - it would have been either departing Manila earlier than scheduled or leaving China later than scheduled.

My wife is going to dig out the paperwork she was provided with at Manila airport that listed all the revised times, so I should be able to see what exactly got changed then.

At the end of the day though, its not our fault that these changes resulted in the requirement for a China visa that was not a requirement based on the original e-ticket times.

copa_feela

When was she notified of the changes, and when did the airline make the changes (was information not passed to you at the correct time)?

Post all the information and we can have a look. However, in terms of dealing with KLM, I would suggest posting on their board on Flyertalk - far more knowledgeable people there.

stickymaggot

vicmorrow wrote: »

Mod is a bad MSE word. They are Board Guides and squeaky is the man you have to PM (Private Message....just under the MSE banner when you are logged in).

Ooops, my apologies Squeaky PM'd.

stickymaggot

copa_feela wrote: »

When was she notified of the changes, and when did the airline make the changes (was information not passed to you at the correct time)?

Post all the information and we can have a look. However, in terms of dealing with KLM, I would suggest posting on their board on Flyertalk - far more knowledgeable people there.

She (nor me) was not notified of the changes until checking in in Manila 3hrs before the scheduled departure time on the e-ticket. This particular leg of the journey was with Southern China Airlines (the leg from China to Ams and then to Bham was KLM).

My issue is with Southern China Airlines, not KLM - never had any issues with KLM and have flown with them to Philippines over a dozen times and their service is first class, even putting us up in Amsterdam when a delayed flight resulted in missing a connecting flight.

squeaky

Hi

I'll move the thread across to the Flights Board for you. Good luck

Forum_Team wrote:

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL='forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com']forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

pmduk

Any contract will be with the company you bought the ticket from. Who were they?