STA Travel - Refusing Refund

Cheeks37

from my research, if a flight is cancelled the customer is entitled to a refund, regardless of what the T&Cs say anyway

Aylesbury_Duck

immy7600 said:

similar situation with opodo and emirates, seems emirates have changed there T&C's in a flash to only give vouchers. Have rang credit card company to do a S75 claim. they are hesitant but i have told them, we paid for flights for a certain date due to a birthday. to give us vouchers to go in future wont make no sense as the birthday would have past

Won't that birthday come round again, say once a year or thereabouts?

picklepranks

Cheeks37 said:

I'm in the same position - my flights with Cathay were cancelled in mid-March - STA spoke to Cathay directly, who confirmed I could have a refund and STA told me I would be refunded.  12 days later STA emailed me to say that I would now only be getting a travel voucher as their T&Cs had been 'updated' - they simply cannot do this - you can't change the T&Cs without both parties agreeing to it.  I am trying to speak to their customer department as I am not accepting travel vouchers and just keep telling them that I want my money back.  I am considering doing a money claim online.  

There is a page on the website with advice about this:

What if my flight or holiday is cancelled?

mattyprice4004

It's important to remember that you booked with the agent, NOT with the airline - so their T&Cs are irrelevant.
What matters is the T&Cs of the agent, and if it's one of these hundreds of generic, shonky online travel agents you can guarantee they'll be trying to cling onto every penny.

When this is over, I hope more people book direct - they'd likely have had a refund by now. 

Aylesbury_Duck

mattyprice4004 said:

It's important to remember that you booked with the agent, NOT with the airline - so their T&Cs are irrelevant.
What matters is the T&Cs of the agent, and if it's one of these hundreds of generic, shonky online travel agents you can guarantee they'll be trying to cling onto every penny.

When this is over, I hope more people book direct - they'd likely have had a refund by now. 

Bang on.  One of the outcomes of this crisis is that hopefully people will be a lot more careful to select flights, accommodation and insurance on more than just price alone.  Too many are too quick to save a few quid.  Fine when things go well, but it takes a lot of unpicking when there's a problem.

Cheeks37

STA is definitely not a shonky online travel agent!

Wongus

Aylesbury_Duck said:

mattyprice4004 said:

It's important to remember that you booked with the agent, NOT with the airline - so their T&Cs are irrelevant.
What matters is the T&Cs of the agent, and if it's one of these hundreds of generic, shonky online travel agents you can guarantee they'll be trying to cling onto every penny.

When this is over, I hope more people book direct - they'd likely have had a refund by now. 

Bang on.  One of the outcomes of this crisis is that hopefully people will be a lot more careful to select flights, accommodation and insurance on more than just price alone.  Too many are too quick to save a few quid.  Fine when things go well, but it takes a lot of unpicking when there's a problem.

Agree! I hope once the dust is settled, a few of those online ticket sellers disappear too!

Westin

The great British public love a bargain.  £1 lower and they will still book with the cheapest operator. Short memories

michelle55

had anyone managed to get their money back from STA yet?  They told us vouchers only and then that the “deposit” was nonrefundable.