Agent admin fee when the airline cancels flight

Rupert_Bear_2

After years of doggedly sticking to low cost airlines and learning how to get round their price-inflating tricks, I booked BA flights for a trip I'm doing to Venice in November. I paid a bit more, but the BA flight back was the latest in the day of those on offer.

I booked through an agent I found on Google (never heard of them), called Gotogate. Three days after buying the tickets, I was informed by Gotogate that BA had cancelled the flight. They offered me another flight, much earlier the same day, which I cannot make - that's why I went with BA in the first place, for a late flight.

Gotogate now want to charge me an admin fee because I can't make the earlier flight. How on earth can that be fair? I'm sure it's buried in their T&Cs somewhere, but isn't it the first rule of agency, that you take responsibility for the actions of the entity for which you are being agent in the matter of the transaction at hand? If I had booked directly through BA, would they have charged me a fee for cancelling their own flight?

My best bet now is to go back to my first instinct and book directly through Easyjet, but I feel aggrieved that my dalliance with a "premium" (in price, but perhaps not in service) airline has left me lighter in the pocket through absolutely no fault of my own.

I'm keeping Gotogate in regular correspondence to make sure I get my £10 worth of their staff's time. Any advice or observations from others here would be very welcome.

FunTime

Nothing to do with BA.
You took your chance booking with a foreign travel agent in order to save money in the first place. It is absolutely your fault. Did you bother to peruse GoToGate's T&C beforehand? No, you were just attracted to their cheaper price. Take some responsibility.
On the other hand, I see no mention of a £10 Admin fee in the event of an airline's cancellation. So approach your card provider in order to effect a full refund. Expedia tried a similar trick with me with a hidden £10 deduction from my refund. My CC provider got the £10 back for me.

blindman

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

I booked through an agent I found on Google (never heard of them), called Gotogate.

Always google for reviews if you have never heard of them!

Was their price a lot less than BA's?

leylandsunaddict

Why on earth would you just give your money to a company you had never heard of!

Caz3121

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

If I had booked directly through BA, would they have charged me a fee for cancelling their own flight?

BA would issue a full refund for a flight they cancelled. In this situation they issue the full refund to your appointed agent who in turn may well have administration fees that are covered in your agreement with them..

I would recommend that if you are tempted by a third party you have never heard of, it may be worth checking reviews before passing money over to them. There are a number of decidedly shonky agents out there

Rupert_Bear_2

Thank you for your swift responses. I do accept there is an element of caveat emptor here as always, and having now Googled it, what a dreadful company Gotogate seems to be! If I read and understood in their legal context the full T&Cs of every company I ever bought anything from, I'd spend my time doing nothing else, so in common with most people, I take my chances.

As with everyone on this site I always seek out best value, and on this occasion I missed the invisible wall between cheap and unethical-bordering-fraudulent. Why on earth didn't I google them first?

The reason I was fooled I think is because I didn't go straight to Gotogate, but found them through Skyscanner, a website I have previously had good experiences through. The irony is they were hardly any cheaper than buying the tickets from BA, via Skyscanner.

Oh well. I'll give the card refund a go and return to my former habit of flying everywhere I can with Easyjet - never had a serious problem with them in fifteen years. Will also recount this to Skyscanner, but I fear they want this sort of company on their books to keep their headline prices as low as possible, likewise BA.

A lesson learned. Thanks everyone.