cancel flight but unable to claim money back

mommy1

my grand daughter who is 12 was supposed to fly to south africa next month, but has many medical problems so cannot go, we asked the airline and travel agent if we could cancel flight for another time but have refused which means we lose over £600 , we have not yet bought travel insurance , any one who can help us here???????

alanrowell

You bought a non-refundable ticket and you expect a refund - sorry system doesn't work that way which is why you buy insurance

sammyjammy

Thats very disappointing for you, unfortunately if it is a refundable ticket then you can't have a refund, simple as, however you could find out if its possible to change the name on the ticket for a small fee and then try and sell it on Ebay, or maybe you could try and find a website for South African expats living in the UK, it would help you recoup some of the money.

Hope you're granddaughter is well soon.

Sam

sammyjammy

Here is one!

http://www.rainbownation.com/uk/index.asp

chalky_bertie

alanrowell wrote: »

You bought a non-refundable ticket and you expect a refund - sorry system doesn't work that way which is why you buy insurance

Good answer but could have been put in a more polite way for the reply to a 1st post of someone.

Have you thought of buying travel insurance and then cancelling the flight, see if that works but they ask you for dates of when the illness' began etc etc and when you bought the insurance.

But I suppose really to loose £600 for hopefully you grandaughters health is a price worth paying.

Give them another call and see if you can speak to a supervisor or write to the CEO of the airline and explain - all worth a go.

Sam_Bee

chalky_bertie wrote: »

Have you thought of buying travel insurance and then cancelling the flight, see if that works but they ask you for dates of when the illness' began etc etc and when you bought the insurance.

Not sure if that's a good answer. If you tell them about the illness, they won't cover you. If you don't tell them, it's fraud.

Nordictat2

Sorry to hear that but i don't think the airlines will help you...They got their money and that's usually all they care about!
BUT there may be some hope...If you used your credit card...check with your credit card company terms. Some credit cards give you travel inc. automatically if you spend atleast 50% of the trip on the card. I know this for a fact because my husbands visa as well as my mastercard has this option

Voyager2002

A good suggestion from #7.

I'm afraid to say, the lesson from this is that travel insurance should be bought as soon as flights, because the cancellation cover is sometimes of great value. The travel agent should have explained this and offered insurance: if they failed to do so, you could argue that they were at fault since they had a duty of care. But in reality, if you had no kind of insurance cover I don't think you will see your money again.