BudgetAir issue - advice!

samanthaanne89

Hi there,

I recently booked flights for the wrong date through BudgetAir. As it was out of hours, I checked what to do in event of a cancellation, as I knew that KLM (airline that was booked) offer 24 hour free cancellation.

On the Budget Air website it says to cancel a flight, you should email them. I emailed within 5 minutes stating I wished to cancel.

I actually wasn't aware of their own 24 hour free cancellation policy, and as I waited on an email back the following day I tried to call but was faced with large queues and couldn't wait as I was working. I waited over half an hour each time.

After finally getting in contact, they are suggesting it will cost me their admin fee (£55) plus KLM admin fee (£60) to change as I cannot cancel anymore.

I have said that I followed their protocol and I tried to get in touch to no avail. Eventually they offered to waive their £55 admin fee. This doesn't help much, as I could rebook the correct flights and it wouldn't save me too much.

I feel that since I followed everything to the tee, and couldn't get any answers then they should be paying the KLM fee as it's not my issue that they can't get round to emails. They said I should have phoned their emergency number, however, as it says to ONLY phone in emergency, I didn't feel this was actually an emergency? I thought an emergency would be turning up at the airport and the airline not having your booking!

Any advice would be appreciated. Do I have a leg to stand on to get them to also pay for the KLM fee? I'm being a bit pedantic with regards to following their cancellation policy, but I feel that if they cannot answer their emails or phones in time this should be addressed or at least warned in some way.

Thanks

Sam

richardw

Who are BudgetAir?

Voyager2002

richardw wrote: »

Who are BudgetAir?

An online travel agent, as is obvious from the OP.

I have used them in the past without problems, but did not make a mistake booking.

Caz3121

the KLM free cancellation within the first 24 hours applies to bookings the passenger makes directly with the airline
As you chose to use a third party (no idea why!) the 24 hour cancellation would not apply
If you want to take advantage of the free 24 hour cancellation that many airlines offer, you need to book directly with them
With many of the third parties they may take a few £ off the fare to get you as a client but not sure any of them are known for providing good customer service
Out of interest, I can only see poor reviews for Budgetair (lots of them)...why did you choose them as your agent?

NiftyDigits

Phone

Did you make a booking with us and you want to get in contact with us? You can find our phone number on your confirmation e-mail. You will also find our special emergency number there.

You seem to be making a fair amount of excuses. If I wanted to make sure that I cancelled a flight, I wouldn't just send a email and wait until the twenty four hours expired. The fact that you couldn't wait for them to pick the phone up is unfortunate.
If you want the pay the lowest price for the fare, you need to be aware that there is sometimes a caveat in having to deal with a third party. They even waived their admin fee, so you can hardly claim poor service. You had a number other than the emergency number and you had twenty four hours to utilise it. You failed. Take some responsibility for your actions.

NiftyDigits

Caz3121 wrote: »

the KLM free cancellation within the first 24 hours applies to bookings the passenger makes directly with the airline
As you chose to use a third party (no idea why!) the 24 hour cancellation would not apply
If you want to take advantage of the free 24 hour cancellation that many airlines offer, you need to book directly with them
With many of the third parties they may take a few £ off the fare to get you as a client but not sure any of them are known for providing good customer service
Out of interest, I can only see poor reviews for Budgetair (lots of them)...why did you choose them as your agent?

Is it a serious question?
To be fair, like most of this kind of OTA, they are fine until something goes wrong. But I've no doubt that they aren't the worst.
Say no to 0870 shows 020 8045 4031

Caz3121

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Is it a serious question?

As someone who chooses to book direct with the airline, I am genuinely interested on what makes someone decide that they need to book with an agent (unless a complex itinerary)
If using an agent I can see there are many downsides (additional T&Cs and fees on top of airlines for any changes, having a middleman in place if airline cancels flight, no benefit from free 24 hour cancellation, poor customer service) but the only upside I see people reporting is that it was the "cheapest" (although many do not use live pricing so can end up costing more than the advertised fare) what are the other benefits?

Voyager2002

Caz3121 wrote: »

As someone who chooses to book direct with the airline, I am genuinely interested on what makes someone decide that they need to book with an agent (unless a complex itinerary)
If using an agent I can see there are many downsides (additional T&Cs and fees on top of airlines for any changes, having a middleman in place if airline cancels flight, no benefit from free 24 hour cancellation, poor customer service) but the only upside I see people reporting is that it was the "cheapest" (although many do not use live pricing so can end up costing more than the advertised fare) what are the other benefits?

When I used Budget Air it was about 30 per cent cheaper than booking the same flight directly with the airline. I appreciated that service and so forth would be inferior, and so made the booking early in the day and checked everything at least three times before committing myself. In this case I did save enough money to justify the exercise, but would not recommend this to anyone who might book when sleepy and so be at risk of making a mistake.

samanthaanne89

Thank you all for your wise replies.

Why did I book with them? Well, I've never had any bad experiences with flight "middle men", and just assumed they make their money by buying seats in bulk and selling at a slight discount.

They offer their own 24 hour free cancellation and sent me an email the day after to tell me that if I'd got in contact prior to that then it would have been free to cancel. It's just obviously convenient that they replied outside of the window.

I appreciate that if I make a mistake I should make the effort to rectify it. Multiple emails and attempts to call were made - I don't get long breaks from my working day, so every time I tried I ran out of time and had to retreat. I'd like to hope it would all have been rectified if I'd been able to wait longer than 30 mins each time I phoned. I got through to KLM instantly but they obviously couldn't help me.

The lesson I've learned (apart from, triple check your booking) is not to use the middle man. I appreciate that now. I only went with Budget Air as they came up as the cheapest by a country mile on Skyscanner - I did also check KLM own website but it was a great deal dearer. As myself nor any family or friends have had issues using this kind of vendor, I did not know any better and wasn't aware that they would be difficult to contact if required.

Thanks for the discussion, I feel suitably stupid and have walked away with more information!

NiftyDigits

samanthaanne89 wrote: »

Thank you all for your wise replies.

Why did I book with them? Well, I've never had any bad experiences with flight "middle men", and just assumed they make their money by buying seats in bulk and selling at a slight discount.

They offer their own 24 hour free cancellation and sent me an email the day after to tell me that if I'd got in contact prior to that then it would have been free to cancel. It's just obviously convenient that they replied outside of the window.

I appreciate that if I make a mistake I should make the effort to rectify it. Multiple emails and attempts to call were made - I don't get long breaks from my working day, so every time I tried I ran out of time and had to retreat. I'd like to hope it would all have been rectified if I'd been able to wait longer than 30 mins each time I phoned. I got through to KLM instantly but they obviously couldn't help me.

The lesson I've learned (apart from, triple check your booking) is not to use the middle man. I appreciate that now. I only went with Budget Air as they came up as the cheapest by a country mile on Skyscanner - I did also check KLM own website but it was a great deal dearer. As myself nor any family or friends have had issues using this kind of vendor, I did not know any better and wasn't aware that they would be difficult to contact if required.

Thanks for the discussion, I feel suitably stupid and have walked away with more information!

As aforementioned, not trying to put you off using BudgetAir or buying the cheapest. But at least now you can make an informed decision.