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Error on air ticket and unable to get a refund

Hello

I’m in a dilemma and need urgent assistance.
My mum recently got a visa to visit me in the Uk and I was willing to purchase her air ticket.
I found a reasonably priced one on sky scanner.net and chose to buy through one of the many agents (chose Gotogate) and bought a flexible return ticket for £547.58. Unfortunately, I only noticed I had stated my name (rather than my mum’s) in the passenger details box. Not sure if it’s due to baby brain or the fact I thought I had to include my billing information to ensure payment was approved by my bank. I realised after booking the ticket at 9.37pm yesterday that the actual passenger information was incorrect and decided to call this morning (12 hours after placing booking).
The agent refused making any name change and said Turkish Airlines have a policy of no name change once a booking is made.
Turkish Airlines also told me they couldn’t make any change and the only monies I could maybe get back from the agent was ‘unused airport tax’. I called the agent again and was told I would have to cancel my ticket (no refund) and once they get money back from the airports they would deduct their £55 handling fee then pay me whatever balance is left.
I have had to borrow money again to buy another ticket-sad to say I had no choice due to shortage of funds to buy again through skyscanner and same agent as their price was the best. Last minute.com was £80 more expensive and I didn’t have the funds to buy a ticket from them .

Could you kindly let me know if I stand a chance of getting more money back for the first ticket more than the unused airport tax? What are my rights at the moment?

Many thanks in advance for your help 😀

Comments

  • mattyprice4004
    mattyprice4004 Posts: 7,492 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    As harsh as it is, that’s all you’re entitled to - just one of those times you have to hold your hands up in the air and admit you made a mistake.

    A harsh lesson in double checking - I’ve done the same.
  • Westin
    Westin Posts: 6,409 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Are you sure that first ticket was “flexible”? Those types of tickets are rarely sold by the cheaper on line ticket sellers but if this is what you bought then double check the fare/booking options on the e-ticket.

    If not a fully flexible ticket then sad to say I don’t think that you won’t see anything refunded off ticket #1. The £55 administration fee will cancel out the Ex U.K. returning segments of Air Passenger Duty tax.

    Skyscanner is a nice tool to search flight options but some of the sponsored links to third party agents are best avoided. Both GotoGate and Lastminute (Bravofly) are two that get panned frequently on web forums. Not that the fault is with GoToGate in this case.
  • ttoli
    ttoli Posts: 825 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    Even with thier Flexible Economy tickets, name changes aren't permitted
    https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-tr/any-questions/fare-rules/index.html
  • Caz3121
    Caz3121 Posts: 15,883 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I think OP purchased the gotogate flexible policy
    The Flexible Ticket allows flights to be rebooked under the following conditions:
    All rebookings must be made in accordance with Section 8.1.4 and at least 24 hours before the original time of departure.
    Rebooking is only possible within the same airline, i.e. a flight can only be rebooked to a flight operated by the same airline as the one operating the originally booked ticket.
    Flight segments must be used in the same order in which they were originally booked.
    Upgrading to a different cabin, or booking class, on the same flight is not permitted.
    Rebooking a ticket for a so called “stop-over” (i.e. staying in a connection city longer than originally booked) is not permitted.
    A change of origin and/or destination is not possible, neither for the outbound nor the return flight.
    The Flexible Ticket does not allow any names to be changed or corrected.

    I think at this stage the only way to get money back is if the airline reschedules the flight allowing cancellation
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 16,349 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Shirley_N wrote: »
    I found a reasonably priced one on sky scanner.net and chose to buy through one of the many agents (chose Gotogate) and bought a flexible return ticket for £547.58.


    You cannot search for flexible tickets on Skyscanner.


    Gotogate does offer an add-on for flexibility, but this does not make an inflexible ticket flexible. It simply covers their trouble in putting requests to the airline.


    Anyway, I believe that their marketing of this additional "service" is deceptive. It is JUST POSSIBLE that you could use this to claim a charge-back from your payment card.
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