Flight cancellation and unfair charges for refund of taxes

talksalot81

I have accidentally booked some flights twice. I am aware that cancellation is not possible (at least in the sense of a full refund) so what I was going to do was get the tax charges refunded. So i toddled off to Flybe's website to see how to do this. Unfortunately I find that they charge £25 per ticket per sector to do this! So not only do they keep the original cost of the flight but to refund the taxes they will charge £100 for two return flights!

So the reality is this:
1) If we simply so not turn up, we get nothing and they keep out £116 and can give the seat to someone else and can make more money on it
2) We ask for a refund of taxes (maybe about £80 I guess). So we pay £100 for the refund and only get £80 back

Neither of those sit well with me and it looks like we are basically screwed. It does not seem remotely fair that if we make an error, we cannot even get back the taxes that the airline has not ended up having to pay. So the only way I can see some value for money is by being vindictive - There is nothing we can do so we ensure we get something for our money - so we check in online and then dont turn up forcing that they cannot sell our outward seat to anyone else and we hassle them in calling us to the plane when we are the only ones not boarded. I would not normally do this, but it seems the T&Cs are intentionally worded so that the company profits from our error, all the more annoying because several times we have lost money because of theirs!

littlereddevil

I would be tempted to do the same as you check in !
It is grossly unfair though they get your money all ways I too have lost money through airlines cancelling or being delayed etc.

Sam_Bee

Can I ask if you have spoken to FlyBe as they might be flexible? I know that Ryanair wouldn't be, but have you actually asked?

I wouldn't guess the taxes - they are likely to be more than £25 per sector, so you should get something.

But as for your final part, getting the flight delayed, and disrupting the flight for everyone else seems a tad petty. A 5 minute delay whilst they try and locate 'you number 2' could mean the plane misses their slot, and could incur an 1-2 hour outbound delay. Of course, with knock on delays to other flights! That's an extreme example but possible.

But I do 100% sympathise with your plight.

talksalot81

I just checked the taxes - they are only marginally more than £25 a sector per person - so I might get back about £4.32

budgetflyer

I would contact them.
If its accidental, then I assume you have 2 IDENTICAL BOOKINGS. You could reasonably argue that the internet crashed at the last stage of the booking and so you thought the transaction didnt go through. If theres no help from flybe, then contact your CC (or debit card) provider to attempt a charge back.

IF HOWEVER, the dates of second booking are DIFFERENT (are they ?) then I suggest its hard luck and flybe are perfectly entitled to their money.

BTW If you do a "no show" flybe WILL NOT be able to resell the seats. They have to keep them available for you right up till check in closes.

Sam_Bee

budgetflyer wrote: »

BTW If you do a "no show" flybe WILL NOT be able to resell the seats. They have to keep them available for you right up till check in closes.

Well that depends if they are a scheduled or low cost airline. A scheduled airline will overbook, and happily resell on your seat.

However, a cursory check reveals that Flybe do not overbook so budgetflyer is right. I wasn#t sure if Flybe were scheduled or low cost.... or both. Or neither.

talksalot81

budgetflyer wrote: »

I would contact them.
If its accidental, then I assume you have 2 IDENTICAL BOOKINGS. You could reasonably argue that the internet crashed at the last stage of the booking and so you thought the transaction didnt go through. If theres no help from flybe, then contact your CC (or debit card) provider to attempt a charge back.

IF HOWEVER, the dates of second booking are DIFFERENT (are they ?) then I suggest its hard luck and flybe are perfectly entitled to their money.

BTW If you do a "no show" flybe WILL NOT be able to resell the seats. They have to keep them available for you right up till check in closes.

Dates are different - the reason for the mix up was that a confirmation email was never received so when we checked the email log, nothing showed up.

I dont however agree with your view that they are perfectly entitled to their money, for starters it is my money not theirs. They are getting the fare either way, I dont think it is remotely reasonable to suggest it would cost them £100 to refund the taxes - do you honestly believe they could provide a break down to justify that?! I certainly do not.

Sam_Bee

talksalot81 wrote: »

Dates are different - the reason for the mix up was that a confirmation email was never received so when we checked the email log, nothing showed up.

I dont however agree with your view that they are perfectly entitled to their money, for starters it is my money not theirs. They are getting the fare either way, I dont think it is remotely reasonable to suggest it would cost them £100 to refund the taxes - do you honestly believe they could provide a break down to justify that?! I certainly do not.

Why are the dates different? So you could in effect use both sets of flights? They won't see that as an error, and why should they?

I bet you ticked a box agreeing to their terms & conditions. Which included details about their cancellation fees.

sloppychops

I can understand you making a mistake if the dates had been the same and you thought the transaction hadnt gone through properly ,when it actually had but not to book 2 different sets of dates completely.
I have to agree with Sam here that they will not see it at all as an error.
Why was the 2nd booking made for different dates?

alanrowell

Can't you change one of the bookings and visit somewhere else

talksalot81

No guys - the booking dates were different, I was replying to budgetflyer. The travel dates are the same, the destination the same and the travellers the same - the only difference is the airlines.

Whether I signed the T&Cs or not, many many people signed T&Cs for banks - I have seen rather a lot of people on this very website reclaiming both small and large sums because it was deemed that the T&Cs were unfair...