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

leylandsunaddict

gmx wrote: »

Hi,

I booked and paid tickets through Garuda's website in Oct-14 for my family flying to Indonesia in Aug-15 .

My son who is now 7 year old should be due a refund on his APD.
I can see the APD component listed down as £71.

I tried to call their customer service representative in the UK to be told that I should instead contact their ebooking because the tickets were bought online.

After emailing their ebooking customer service and asking for the refund of APD for my son's ticket, finally they said they refused to do the refund. I have tried to clearly explain about the new regulation from 1st May for under 12s but they still refused to refund. Then they closed the case without further explanation and asked me to open a new case if I want to contact them again.

What can I do in this situation? Do they have the rights to refuse the APD refund?

No they don't. I'm confused though. If you booked and paid via Garuda's website where do eBookers come into it?

gmx

Hi

Sorry, what I mean is their (garuda's) ebooking system, not any other 3rd party site. So the tickets were bought directly online through Garuda's website. And subsequently, I had made contact with Garuda's ebooking customer service as described above, not any other 3rd party.

OWT_FOR_NOWT

Barmy wrote: »

Why can't flights booked before 5 Dec 2014 claim back the APD ?

Norwegian say that I can't, but MSE in their original news page said they had spoken to the treasury and said that tickets already purchased could claim a refund. In subsequent MSE articles there is no mention that you can't claim for tickets purchased before 5 Dec 2014.

Whose right, can I rely on what MSE tells me?

MSE are correct:money: I booked flights with Virgin Atlantic in November 2014 to Orlando May 2015.


Yesterday I received a refund for my 2 children £142 paid back into the account from which the flights were paid. It was like trying to get blood out of a stone mind they ignored several of my emails requesting the refund but my persistence paid off in the end.

bloolagoon

Does anyone know how this works for stop over flights? We are changing in Amsterdam so I assume it's only the short flight tax paid or is it long haul?

leylandsunaddict

gmx wrote: »

Hi

Sorry, what I mean is their (garuda's) ebooking system, not any other 3rd party site. So the tickets were bought directly online through Garuda's website. And subsequently, I had made contact with Garuda's ebooking customer service as described above, not any other 3rd party.

Ah right. Thanks for the explanation. I think the only thing you can do is keep on at them.

milliemoo7

I wrote to my local branch and I had this reply back:
Hello Miss Jones

I have just checked your holiday costing and you paid £1 for each of the children, therefore no refund is due to you


regards


Thomas Cook

I thought my children were free as I had two free child places but I am sure that I read somewhere in terms and conditions you still pay for the APD???

leylandsunaddict

milliemoo7 wrote: »

I wrote to my local branch and I had this reply back:
Hello Miss Jones

I have just checked your holiday costing and you paid £1 for each of the children, therefore no refund is due to you


regards


Thomas Cook

I thought my children were free as I had two free child places but I am sure that I read somewhere in terms and conditions you still pay for the APD???

If you only paid £1 or they were free you haven't paid APD because that is either £13 or £71 depending on destination. The tour operator would have had to pay the airline for it though, and the airline would then have paid HMRC. The abolition of it for under 12s just means that the tour operator now won't have to pay it out of their own pockets.

ShakeNVac

GoToGate - £55 per person admin fee for APD refunds


Just wondering if anybody has had any luck with GoToGate and getting APD refunded?

My two sons are flying to China in July so should be £71 each back but have received their standard reply:

"As a result of the UK Government announcement on 3 December 2014, Air Passenger Duty (APD) will no longer be charged for children between the ages of 2 and 12, from 01 May 2015 when travelling from a UK airport. Bookings made prior to this date may be entitled to a refund by the airline after the trip has been made.

However, the APD for this booking is less then our administrative fee of £55 per person. In this casethere will be no refund made. "

Clearly they haven't even looked at my booking as the refund is more than the £55 admin fee but even so why should GTG pocket £110 from money I am entitled to? Are they even allowed to impose the admin fee?
They must be making a fortune pocketing all the APD
Are they regulated by anybody that we can complain to? I certainly will never use GoToGate again (took nearly a month to get a reply)


Checked their terms and conditions:


4.4 Refunds
The handling period varies from 4 to 16 weeks in the event of any refunds. All refunds are made by the provider and Gotogate is unable to influence these handling periods. A handling charge of 55 GBP per ticket will be charged when refunds are made. Gotogate will not refund the charge for cancellation protection or previously paid fees, charges and any insurance policies (apart from travel insurance).
If the flight is cancelled by the airline due to unforeseen events (force majeure) or schedule changes a handling fee of 10 GBP per person will be debited.



I really think they are trying it on using this clause to pocket APD refunds, it would be great if Martin could shame them into dropping it.

Hersetta

Read their terms and conditions. First Choice say in theirs that even on a free child place that APD is payable so I argued the toss with them and they refunded me £71 for my 'free' child.


You never see what you are paying really as they lump it all into the total holiday cost so it is impossible to tell how much you have paid for each element of a holiday.

binaread

Hi Please can someone help.

I booked my Emirates tickets to India via a site recommended on MSE. Travelocity.com

This was in Jan 2015. I have phoned them on numerous occasions as two child fares were charged APD and asked for a refund. After being initially told they would collaborate with Emirstes to sort this out I have today been told Emirates have said as I booked through Travelocitys US site rather than the UK one, I am not entitled to a refund even though we will be flying from the UK.
Any advice would be appreciated