Advice on recovering flight cancellation fees

mf123_2

Hi,

I am faily new to these forums so I hope this is the correct place for this post.

Last year my wife and I booked some flights and a safari for March 2007 through a specialist local travel agent, at the time we were told that the minimum numbers for the safari were 4 people and the minimum number had not yet been reached, but they said (via email) that this was not uncommon given how early we were booking. The flights were designed around the safari start/end points and so we paid the full amount for the flights and a deposit on the safari.

I purchased the flights and safari over the telephone so only saw the travel agents terms and conditions once received in the post.

In January 2007 we were informed that the safari had not reached the minimum numbers and received the deposit back on the safari. The travel agents did look for other safaris that would match our booked flights. Unfortunately none cold be found so our only option was to cancel the flights. At this point we were told how much it would be to amend or cancel the flights. Amending the flights would cost far more than the cancellation fees. So we had to cancel the flights at a cost of £150 each (£300 in total). Unfortunately our travel insurance would not cover this.

The travel agents were able to find an alternative safari and alternative flights with a different flight company. Which we did enjoy!

When we got back we emailed the travel agent to ask them about compensation saying that we feel we should not have been advised to purchase the flights until the safari was confirmed, or we should have been told about the cancellation fees, given that we were fairly flexible on our travel dates (we cold have gone a few days earlier and come back a few days later if need be for alternate flights should the original flight dates be unavailable, which they already knew). The travel agents emailed to say this was risky as the best priced flights have often gone.

After looking on ABTA's website their standards state "Procedures for a cancellation made by a Client to a confirmed booking.
This must clearly state the amount of, or the basis for calculating, any cancellation fees that the Client might incur."

I asked the travel agent about this and their email reply was "The penalties for cancelling flight vary between airlines & the time at which cancellation is made. We do our best to advise clients of the various fees involved but as I mentioned previously we are unable to have a set rule on something that is very changeable."

My belief is that we should have been informed of the cancellation fees prior to or at the time of booking, as per ABTA's requirement, especially given that the safari had not reched the minimum numbers.

The travel agent has stated that they will not provide any compensation for the cancellation fees incurred.

I am able to go through ABTA's standard complaints procedure, for a set fee, but I do not know whether this is essentially throwing good money after bad as they may side with the travel agent.

Can anyone offer any advice on what we could do?