Recouping flight ticket cost

plang

Hello,

I wonder if anyone has any advice?

I bought a flight via Voliamo (found the ticket on Kayak). The first leg of the flight has been cancelled, allegedly by the airline, Logan Air, making it unsuitable for me to use anymore (shifted the start time from 5pm to 6am, when I am working until 1pm). The second leg is operated by Air Emirates. Logan Air redirected me to the travel agent, Voliamo, who sent me to their "sister company", getaflight.co.uk.

These initially told me they would get my ticket changed to an alternative date, all connections being operated by Air Emirates this time. I clarified on the phone that this would be at no additional cost, which they confirmed. I have no recording of that conversation but have dates and times of phone call.

3 days on I am still waiting confirmation for these tickets. Back on the phone to getaflight.co.uk, they are now saying that they are waiting for the airline to confirm the change in ticket. Becoming antsy that I need my ticket sorted as the departure date is next week (!) I asked about a refund as the product they had initially sold me had changed and was no longer suitable. They are saying that they will have to enquire with the airline whether I would be entitled to the refund in the first place.

Sadly I have no travel insurance as the whole ticket was sold as one item, with a connecting time of 2 hours, and all travel insurance providers that I looked up specified they would not cover a connection of less than 3 hours. I did not know this before buying the ticket (kicking myself very much).

I did buy the ticket on a Mastercard.

Is there any hope to recoup my money, or is this another sad example of things gone wrong to quote to others?

Any words of wisdom (beyond the obvious "should have taken insurance") much appreciated

Caz3121

plang wrote: »

I bought a flight via Voliamo (found the ticket on Kayak). The first leg of the flight has been cancelled, allegedly by the airline, Logan Air, making it unsuitable for me to use anymore (shifted the start time from 5pm to 6am, when I am working until 1pm). The second leg is operated by Air Emirates. Logan Air redirected me to the travel agent, Voliamo, who sent me to their "sister company", getaflight.co.uk.

key question
were these flights on one PNR? - when you checked on the Emirates website, did it also list the LoganAir flight?
How many days before the flight were you notified of the cancellation?
what was your routing and dates? if you were to cancel and take refund, would you be paying more for new flights? (do you still want to travel?)
Often you can resolve these thinks if you know exactly what to ask for...

Voyager2002

I am also worried that you say you had no insurance: do you simply mean that this is not an insurable risk, or that you are going to a foreign country without health, etc. insurance?

Alan_Bowen

This must be Scotland - Stansted and the onwards with Emirates?

Since Loganair doesn't fly any routes that Emirates does, the suggestion they would get you another ticket only on Emirates is nonsense, unless they change your routing completely. Unfortunately, you bought from an overseas online agency who have little real interest once a booking is complete and they have their profit, you need to keep pushing, is your start point Glasgow, I assume its not but that might be an option since Emirates fly direct from there.

If its Dundee to Stansted then flights haven't changed at all according to Loganairs own timetable, the 1650 is operating all next week. Might be worth your while phoning Loganair and checking, maybe they have cancelled the flight due to lack of numbers on that day?

bagand96

Getting a refund might not be a good idea, because long haul last minute flights are usually expensive so flights might cost a lot more than you originally paid.

If all of your flights are under one booking, then there will be a solution and the airline who issued the tickets (probably Emirates) should reroute you.

If the Loganair and Emirates flights are separate bookings that your agent has simply “put together” then there might be more of a problem.

plang

Thank you all for your responses

Voliamo gave me 2 airline booking reference numbers on the eticket they sent me - one for Logan Airways and one for Air Emirates. Therefore I presume they got "put together" by Voliamo.

The Logan Airways leg was due to start from Newcastle. I rang Logan Airways who confirmed the flight was cancelled but declined to give a reason, referring me back to my travel agent.

I still absolutely need to travel.

Ironically checking the Emirates flight direct from Newcastle they are now cheaper than the initial ticket I bought!!! I am sorely tempted to simply buy this new ticket and worry about refund later.

I was notified 13 August of change, and travel date was scheduled for 21 August. They are offering an alternative date on 22 August which is workable but not ideal; and this is also cheaper as currently advertised on the Emirates website than the initial ££ I spent (essentially I shelled out extra because I wanted to travel on the 21 Aug to maximise time away).

Getaflight.co.uk did the classic thing of telling me they would ring in 2 - 3 hours, then not ringing; on contacting them again at 3.5 hours I was told the person dealing with my query went home 2 hours ago, and that the manager was not available having given specific instructions that he was busy on urgent calls and should not be disturbed!

EveryWhere

plang wrote: »

Thank you all for your responses

Voliamo gave me 2 airline booking reference numbers on the eticket they sent me - one for Logan Airways and one for Air Emirates. Therefore I presume they got "put together" by Voliamo.

The Logan Airways leg was due to start from Newcastle. I rang Logan Airways who confirmed the flight was cancelled but declined to give a reason, referring me back to my travel agent.

I still absolutely need to travel.

Ironically checking the Emirates flight direct from Newcastle they are now cheaper than the initial ticket I bought!!! I am sorely tempted to simply buy this new ticket and worry about refund later.

I was notified 13 August of change, and travel date was scheduled for 21 August. They are offering an alternative date on 22 August which is workable but not ideal; and this is also cheaper as currently advertised on the Emirates website than the initial ££ I spent (essentially I shelled out extra because I wanted to travel on the 21 Aug to maximise time away).

Getaflight.co.uk did the classic thing of telling me they would ring in 2 - 3 hours, then not ringing; on contacting them again at 3.5 hours I was told the person dealing with my query went home 2 hours ago, and that the manager was not available having given specific instructions that he was busy on urgent calls and should not be disturbed!

Since there is no issue with the Emirates flight, you should not expect any kind of refund for that.
All your efforts should be towards either obtaining a connection to the flight on the 21st or accepting the offer of travelling on the 22nd.
Don't buy another Emirates ticket, expecting that you will get a refund. You are likely to be sorely disappointed.

Caz3121

plang wrote: »

Voliamo gave me 2 airline booking reference numbers on the eticket they sent me - one for Logan Airways and one for Air Emirates. Therefore I presume they got "put together" by Voliamo.
two separate contracts then

Ironically checking the Emirates flight direct from Newcastle they are now cheaper than the initial ticket I bought!!! I am sorely tempted to simply buy this new ticket and worry about refund later.

I was notified 13 August of change, and travel date was scheduled for 21 August. They are offering an alternative date on 22 August which is workable but not ideal; and this is also cheaper as currently advertised on the Emirates website than the initial ££ I spent (essentially I shelled out extra because I wanted to travel on the 21 Aug to maximise time away).

with separate tickets Emirates will refund you as per the fare rules of the ticket you purchased. I would not assume there is any refund available except for the Loganair flight

plang

Thank you both; your answers make sense.

New development - prior to posting, I had contacted Emirates who said they couldn't access the ticket details to advise because it was an "agency ticket". Now accessing the "manage a booking" service on the Emirates website it lists the entire trip from Newcastle, not just the Emirates connection from Brussels.

EveryWhere

plang wrote: »

Thank you both; your answers make sense.

New development - prior to posting, I had contacted Emirates who said they couldn't access the ticket details to advise because it was an "agency ticket". Now accessing the "manage a booking" service on the Emirates website it lists the entire trip from Newcastle, not just the Emirates connection from Brussels.

Does that mean that the problem has been fixed?

plang

Sadly not, it is showing the 6am flight, ie the change that Voliamo/getaflight.co.uk effected, which I didn't agree to and not the 5pm one that I originally bought (which has sadly been cancelled) - apologies, difficult to explain clearly