When a refund isn't a refund

Make-it-3

I purchased some travel tickets - paying extra to get the fully-flexible refundable ones, knowing there was a possibility I would have to cancel.

I scanned the terms and conditions just to be sure and found a section that said something to the effect that only refundable tickets are refundable - well that covers me I thought and went ahead and booked.

As it transpired, I had to cancel and when I followed the refund procedures I was told that we would lose 25% of the price plus book fee. Now I checked again and found the section of the t&c's relating to this and fair enough I had missed it.

But I think the company are misleading people by not having this more "up front" so am writing to them. But to put a bit of weight behind it, who should I copy in? Office of Fair Trading?
Anybody else?

McKneff

I think youre on a hiding to nothing to be honest.

I agree with you totally, but I think, as long as they are in there, it's legally binding.

Make-it-3

I like to get things off my chest!

And like I say, if you pay more for a refundable ticket then there is an expectation you'll get all of your money back not 75%

I'm not expecting that it will result in any further refund, I'd just like them to be a bit more honest in their dealings.

lizzywig

I used to be a PA and part of my job was booking flights for a lot of people. This is going back about five years so quite possibly things have changed but I was under the impression that there were different levels.

Restricted/non changeable (where you lose the cost of the flight but can claim back the taxes)
Changeable (you can change to a different flight, depending on availability if applicable (fare, not cabin) class permitting for a fee + any fare difference)
Fully flexible & refundable (where you get a full refund)

Did you book direct with the airline or through a 3rd party? If a third party then perhaps that is why, I guess they have admin fees to cover. I always book direct with the airline to avoid the hoo-hah if I do need to make changes. Then again if you did, perhaps things have changed.

You say that it transpired that you would lose 25%+fee once you followed the refund procedures. Where were these refund procedures, were they in an obvious place when you booked or did you have to follow a link or were they hyperlinked to the wording 'fully flexible'? I would ask them what the 25% loss covers? A fully flexible & refundable ticket is just that, at least with the airlines it is, so if you have booked through a 3rd party then what are they keeping it for?

Just a thought, providing you have booked via a 3rd party would you be able to cancel direct with the airline, never tried that one before and I suspect you can't, but would it be worth trying? By the sound of it though you have already cancelled.

wealdroam

OP, what sort of travel tickets?
Train? Bus? Coach? Plane?

What type of ticket?

Who did you buy from?

Make-it-3

These were coach tickets. On the website you click on a choice of prices and then a message appears saying ticket is "refundable and amendable". You then select and go through to the payment page, complete your details and accept the T&C which are a separate hyperlink. The T&C's have a section on cancellation which I read and then much later on is a separate section about refunds where the "minus 25%" bit is.