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Rip off charges from ebookers and other OTA's

Rob-London07
Rob-London07 Posts: 1 Newbie
in Overseas holidays & travel planning
ebookers want to charge £60 to remove ONE letter from a name in a flight booking made with South African Airlines. Both companies blame each other for the excessive charge.
Anyone else had rip offs from ebookers, SAA or other online travel agents and airlines?

Comments

  • jpsartre
    jpsartre Posts: 4,095 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Rule no. 1 of internet forums: When something is declared a rip-off it never is.

    Presumably the charge is in accordance with the T&C which you agreed to when you booked?
  • richardw
    richardw Posts: 19,470 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's not a name change, so they can't charge a name change fee.
    Posts are not advice and must not be relied upon.
  • tomtontom
    tomtontom Posts: 7,929 Forumite
    richardw wrote: »
    It's not a name change, so they can't charge a name change fee.

    It is a name change (any change of spelling could be described as such), it is not a change of passenger. Given the low charge I would expect they are being charged for the former.
  • Obviously_the_best
    Obviously_the_best Posts: 4,086 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Cashback Cashier
    It is most likely SAA not ebookers levying the fee. TBH I'd just leave it and turn up at the airport, but understand that this isn't the ideal thing to do.
  • shaun_from_Africa
    shaun_from_Africa Posts: 12,858 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    richardw wrote: »
    It's not a name change, so they can't charge a name change fee.

    Why can't they?

    If a ticket was purchased by me and I mistakenly entered my details as "shaun from Efrica", getting the ticket reissued with "shaun from Africa" means that a name change has taken place on the paperwork.
  • PolishBigSpender
    PolishBigSpender Posts: 3,771 Forumite
    jpsartre wrote: »
    Rule no. 1 of internet forums: When something is declared a rip-off it never is.

    Presumably the charge is in accordance with the T&C which you agreed to when you booked?

    Just remember : if they were paying him 60 pounds, it would be a loophole and therefore a good thing.


    But in this case, a direct phone call to SAA should fix it. I doubt they'd even notice in the airport, though.
    From Poland...with love.
    They are (they're)     sitting on the floor.
    Their     books are lying on the floor.
    The books are sitting just there on the floor.
  • jpsartre
    jpsartre Posts: 4,095 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    SAA will probably send him back to Ebookers. He booked from them so they'll need to make the change. If he wanted to deal with SAA directly he shouldn't have introduced a middleman.
  • duchy
    duchy Posts: 19,511 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker Xmas Saver!
    It's always a rip off and never that the person booking it didn't check the names carefully enough before hitting send.
    I Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole

    MSE Florida wedding .....no problem
  • PolishBigSpender
    PolishBigSpender Posts: 3,771 Forumite
    duchy wrote: »
    It's always a rip off and never that the person booking it didn't check the names carefully enough before hitting send.


    Always. Of course, if ebookers had made a minor mistake, such as putting in 300 instead of 900, it would be a loophole and would be celebrated on here.
    From Poland...with love.
    They are (they're)     sitting on the floor.
    Their     books are lying on the floor.
    The books are sitting just there on the floor.
This discussion has been closed.
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