Holiday cancelled, refund?

Tony94

Hi, I paid for my holiday for april 2020 via Travel up. However received an email from Finnair to say that Finnair has cancelled the flight due to coronavirus outbreak and I'm entitled to a full refund.
I contacted TravelUp who at first said I wasnt entitled to a full refund, however when I sent them an email from finnair confirming I am they quickly turned around and said I am. Now at this point they are asking for a £50 admin fee plus 2% card transaction fee for the cancelled booking, carried out by the airline. I have searched the terms and conditions nothing has stated about this added fee for cancelled flights and with them changing their mind on the right to a full refund so fast I'm worried they are just trying to get money for nothing! 
I've since emailed asking for them to show me within the T&C's where I have to pay this but havent recieved an email back. 

Any advice on where I stand on this or where to go next? 

Regards Tony

Westin

Whilst some online ticket sellers do make mention of a service charge within their terms for eventualities around cancelled flights and refunds, if no mention of these charges is made in T&C I cannot see how retrospectively they can now make that deduction.  The charge for the credit card use for any credit is also dubious.   

I also could not see any sign of these charges within their Terms & Conditions - 
https://www.travelup.com/en-gb/terms-and-conditions

I would challenge them again and mention all of the above.  They may have staff answering calls who perhaps don't normally and perhaps are not familiar with process/terms.
 
If they persist then this might well be something to take up using the legal system after all this CV19 disruption has calmed.  In the meantime I would probably take the cash refund for now and think about recovery of the £50+2% later.

veravera123

That does not sound very ethical or legal to me.  I am pretty sure that the law changed on credit card charges and they can no longer be passed onto the buyer. Agree with post above, firstly maybe try to speak to someone else at the company to dispute it. If that does not work plus the fact that most airlines are only offering credit refund notes, personally at this point, I would take the refund offered.  Keep a note of all your conversations , dates etc and who you spoke to and take it up at a later date. Firstly with their management and secondly with ABTA if that fails.  Good Luck

narocroc

Tony, I have had similar problem. Return BA flights booked last year with TravelUp  for return trip to Nice in April-20 cost c. £220 total for 2 people.
BA have cancelled both flights and were offering refund as an option. However, TravelUp have got back to me today saying if I wanted a refund there would be a £75pp admin charge (why!) and a further 2% surcharge... leaving me with a refund of only £29 pp. and any refund would take 8 weeks. This cannot be right? If booked direct through BA I would receive a 100% refund, surely TravelUp would have to honour the same terms. Again I have looked at the T&Cs and found nothing that would cover this eventuality. 

You cannot contact the company by phone and it took me a few weeks to get an email through. Not very helpful as they did not even outline any other options available to me e.g. vouchers 

Any one got any ideas of what to do next? I'm expecting a full refund.

Aylesbury_Duck

narocroc said:

Tony, I have had similar problem. Return BA flights booked last year with TravelUp  for return trip to Nice in April-20 cost c. £220 total for 2 people.
BA have cancelled both flights and were offering refund as an option. However, TravelUp have got back to me today saying if I wanted a refund there would be a £75pp admin charge (why!) and a further 2% surcharge... leaving me with a refund of only £29 pp. and any refund would take 8 weeks. This cannot be right? If booked direct through BA I would receive a 100% refund, surely TravelUp would have to honour the same terms. Again I have looked at the T&Cs and found nothing that would cover this eventuality. 

You cannot contact the company by phone and it took me a few weeks to get an email through. Not very helpful as they did not even outline any other options available to me e.g. vouchers 

Any one got any ideas of what to do next? I'm expecting a full refund.

You booked through an agent, so you're bound by the agent's terms, not BA's.  Why did you book through an agent in the first place?

If the agent's terms don't detail those admin charges then they can't apply them.   You should be able to get your money back eventually but you will have a long wait I suspect.  You may have to take small claims action to get it, which will take months.

lincroft1710

Aylesbury_Duck said:

narocroc said:

Tony, I have had similar problem. Return BA flights booked last year with TravelUp  for return trip to Nice in April-20 cost c. £220 total for 2 people.
BA have cancelled both flights and were offering refund as an option. However, TravelUp have got back to me today saying if I wanted a refund there would be a £75pp admin charge (why!) and a further 2% surcharge... leaving me with a refund of only £29 pp. and any refund would take 8 weeks. This cannot be right? If booked direct through BA I would receive a 100% refund, surely TravelUp would have to honour the same terms. Again I have looked at the T&Cs and found nothing that would cover this eventuality. 

You cannot contact the company by phone and it took me a few weeks to get an email through. Not very helpful as they did not even outline any other options available to me e.g. vouchers 

Any one got any ideas of what to do next? I'm expecting a full refund.

If the agent's terms don't detail those admin charges then they can't apply them.   You should be able to get your money back eventually but you will have a long wait I suspect.  You may have to take small claims action to get it, which will take many months.

minor correction

Caz3121

narocroc said:

 there would be a £75pp admin charge (why!) 

third party ticket floggers make tiny margins on selling flights and charge fees for their service. They will need to do work to get your refund and will expect to be paid for doing that work.
book direct with the airline - airline fare rules apply - direct relationship between passenger and airline
book with a middleman - airline fare rules PLUS third party terms and conditions apply - additional complexity as your contract is with the third party and the third party are the airline's customer (you cannot deal directly with the airline) and often poor after sales service (their customers want 'cheap' so their operating costs need to be low)
The third party may have a slightly cheaper fare, whether that saving is worth the additional complexities and fees is a choice you make (I rarely see a saving that I would regard as worth not booking direct with the airline for)

Jon_Bullen77

It seems as though Travel Up are keeping all the refunds from the Airlines. Take a look at Trustpilot for reviews.
I have been waiting for 66-days for my refund.

ossie48

We booked via Travelup for flights to Australia that were cancelled. Likewise we are being charged £75 each admin fees plus 2% of the total costs which were £1615. Initially I was just happy to get a response but they haven't been forthcoming in refunding anything and its now been six weeks with no update or response to e mails.

I understand an admin fee being charged, indeed it says Receiving a full refund which we receive back from supplier/airline with a deduction of credit/debit card (non-refundable) charges incurred by us at the time of the original booking and a small administration fee ;
However it seems they are just making the admin fees up as they go along as many others are being charged £50 and some nothing at all. £150 is hardly a small admin fee.

I've instigated a charge back on my credit card for the full amount. The other option is to claim on our travel insurance for the admin fees if we ever do get a refund.