MSE News: Air Passenger Duty scrapped from 1 May for under 12s: Reclaim

CurlyK_2

I have booked a monarch flight via Low Cost Holidays/Cosmos who have told me that because I made by booking after 12/12/14 I am not entitled to a refund of tax for my child even though we are flying 23/5/15. Does this sound correct?

tomtontom

CurlyK wrote: »

I have booked a monarch flight via Low Cost Holidays/Cosmos who have told me that because I made by booking after 12/12/14 I am not entitled to a refund of tax for my child even though we are flying 23/5/15. Does this sound correct?

Did you pay the tax in the first place?

ChristopherG

Hi, I booked my flight a few days back through cheapo air (the title says it all) being a US based company. They booked flights for me to Asia which includes my 4 year old son. I contacted BA first and asked whether APD was included in the price of the booking as bought on 28 April. They would not talk to me even though I paid for the ticket as my wife and son are travelling out of the UK together. I then asked for their policy on APD refunds and the lady (who couldn't speak English very well) told me that I would be charged APD (if it had not been charged) at the airport clearly not understanding my question (whether deliberate or not I cant say).


I then tried the travel agent. they told me they do not have a policy for such things and to call back in ten days when they will have a policy (Really?). They then tried to sell me something extra (well it is the US afterall). My question is how do you reclaim the money from a US based company if they don't want to do it? Payment was via a debit card so I suspect they will pocket the refund unless I can go through BA who were extremely unhelpful or just incompetent as they surely must know about APD.


Thanks to all for any responses...

tomtontom

ChristopherG wrote: »

Hi, I booked my flight a few days back through cheapo air (the title says it all) being a US based company. They booked flights for me to Asia which includes my 4 year old son. I contacted BA first and asked whether APD was included in the price of the booking as bought on 28 April. They would not talk to me even though I paid for the ticket as my wife and son are travelling out of the UK together. I then asked for their policy on APD refunds and the lady (who couldn't speak English very well) told me that I would be charged APD (if it had not been charged) at the airport clearly not understanding my question (whether deliberate or not I cant say).


I then tried the travel agent. they told me they do not have a policy for such things and to call back in ten days when they will have a policy (Really?). They then tried to sell me something extra (well it is the US afterall). My question is how do you reclaim the money from a US based company if they don't want to do it? Payment was via a debit card so I suspect they will pocket the refund unless I can go through BA who were extremely unhelpful or just incompetent as they surely must know about APD.


Thanks to all for any responses...

BA stopped charging APD on relevant tickets in March - you won't have paid any.

CurlyK_2

tomtontom wrote: »

Did you pay the tax in the first place?

We paid the same price for all 3 flights so I would assume so.

uccalms

No mention of how to reclaim with Cathay Pacific. Their customer services didn't even reply to me...

Hersetta

We travel on a First Choice/Thompson package to Egypt in 2 weeks. I have already received my refund for one of our children (£71) but have been arguing with FC since February that a second refund was due. They disagreed as they said the second child paid nothing as we had a free child place.


I pointed out that this directly contradicted their terms and conditions on their website which clearly state that APD is payable even if you have been given a free child place. After dozens of emails back and forth I raised a complaint with ABTA and within a month FC have backed down and I now have an additional £71 winging it's way to me.

marks42

Booked a trip to Singapore with Emirates via GoToGate from YOUR screenscraper app and got the following reply when I emailed them to reclaim the APD for my 11 year old daughter:


"Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your e-mail.
We apologize for not being able to reply to you earlier. At the moment we are receiving a lot of emails from customers, which lead to longer response time than normal. We are doing our best to handle and reply every email as fast as possible.


We can apply for the Air Passenger Duty-tax from airline however in this case the refundable amount is less than our administrative fee, hence there can not be any refund for this booking.

We wish you all a pleasant travel.
Kind regards
Åse
Gotogate "


So I'm left wondering who gets my money?!

Miliac72

Like a previous poster, Gotogate have told me their admin fee outweighs the refund amount (even for 3 children to be refunded). Can they do this? I certainly won't be booking with them again if so. Is there any form of words we can use to encourage them to pay up? Thanks.

blueviking

Hi,
I booked flights with Norwegian Air on 13/10/2014, travelling out on 25/07/2015. I've received the following response from them;


As of 5 December 2014, the Air Passenger Duty (APD) charged for flights from the UK, will no longer apply to LowFare child tickets. This new rule applies to flights departing from the UK from 1 May 2015.

As our systems were not updated until 11 December 2014, some passengers may be entitled to a refund of the APD.

You will only be entitled to a refund if all of the following criteria is met:

Tickets purchased between 5 December 2014 and 10 December 2014
Travel date from 1 May 2015
LowFare tickets from the UK (will not apply to tickets in the Premium Cabin)
Child tickets (2-11 years)

Such bookings made on, or after 11 December 2014 will not include the APD.




Is this correct that flights booked before 05/12/2014 are not eligible for a refund?