They cancel, who pays admin fee?

scrimper

I was wondering if anyone would know the answer to my question.

A few weeks ago I booked flights and car hire through a well know airline company, which I paid in full.

They have now emailed me to say the flights have been cancelled and have offered me a refund for the flights (in full) and a refund for the car hire, less an admin fee of £20.75.

They have suggested I claim the admin fee from my travel insurance, but that's ridiculous as the excess is way more than the amount.

I know it's only £20 but it just seems a bit unfair that I have to foot an admin fee for something that I have no control over - so I'd like to know if they are within their rights to charge me for this.

Thanks to anyone who can give me some advice

joerugby

Please name names so we can know who we are lambasting!

scrimper

It's Monarch

richardw

The airline has to re-route you. So find the best alternative and ask to be re-routed.

stoneman

"The airline or travel agency is not liable to refund travel agents' service charges when reimbursing you for the cost of your flight."

Wammer

richardw wrote: »

The airline has to re-route you. So find the best alternative and ask to be re-routed.

Does the flight have to be cancelled a certain number of days before travel before you are entitled to a re-route or is it at any time?

richardw

It's an absolute right under EC261/2004 to be re-routed when your flight is cancelled. The 14 days limit is for the entitlement to compensation.

scrimper

They did offer to re-route me, although I'm not taking it because it will mean adding many hours on to the journey.

My issue is with them keeping an admin fee for the car hire, as I didn't cancel it they did. I suppose they will say I could still get there via the re-route so I could still use the car hire?

Wammer

richardw wrote: »

It's an absolute right under EC261/2004 to be re-routed when your flight is cancelled. The 14 days limit is for the entitlement to compensation.

Thanks for the info. I was looking for a friend the other night and couldn't find anything about a date.

Does the re-routing have to be from the same airport? If you had a flight from say Bristol cancelled and they only direct flight was from Gatwick, do they have to re-route you on the route you specify?

jackieblack

scrimper wrote: »

My issue is with them keeping an admin fee for the car hire, as I didn't cancel it they did.

Chances are it's the car rental company's admin fee rather than Monarch's.

I'm assuming car rental is via a third party?

Flight Terms - limitation of liability for third party services arranged via this website

1.1 Monarch Airlines is acting solely as an agent for any Third Party Service Provider(s) available via this website, including but not limited to "travel services extras" (http://extras.monarch.co.uk). Each Third Party Service Provider will have its own applicable terms and conditions, which govern its products and services. Please ensure that you have read both these Flight Terms and the Third Party Service Provider’s terms and condition before you complete your Booking with us.
http://www.monarch.co.uk/terms/flights/limitation-of-liability-for-third-party-services-arranged-via-this-website

Car Hire is listed under 'travel extras' here http://www.monarch.co.uk/offers/flights/monarch-travel-extras

richardw

Wammer, article 8 of http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML, just says "comparable transport conditions"