Travelbag be warned

DenisCooper

So firstly I really do appreciate how difficult coronavirus has been on the travel industry but I wanted to leave some feedback on my experience with travelbag. 

 My daughter was meant to be getting married in New York last week but our trip was cancelled due to coronavirus. We chose to book with travelbag as we were first going to New York, then they were going off to Vegas and we were going off skiing. Having used travelbag before we were really pleased with their ability to book a package trip but a bit more tailor made. But since having to deal with them throughout the cancellation process I will be sure to never use them again. 

Firstly they told me it wasn’t their responsibility to offer a refund and I had to go through my travel insurance. I argued this as their terms and conditions clearly state that if the government prevent you from travelling to their country then travelbag will issue you a refund for any money made without undue delay. Apparently though the government cancelling trips due to coronavirus don’t count. 

Then travelbag closed off their phone lines so you couldn’t phone them. 

Then after several emails asking for a refund they issued me with a credit note for one part of my booking. I then had to send another email, to another department to request a refund. I then got a response back saying we aren’t processing refunds we are seeing what abta and the government say. 

When I finally managed to get through to a manager in the store I booked, because apparently their head office aren’t dealing with these issues, I got told to wait because they are far too busy to deal with me, and their terms and conditions don’t apply to the booking even though they are on all the paperwork they’ve given me. 

DenisCooper

I should also add to this British Airways and the hotels.com have been brilliant. We booked additional members of our family with flights direct with BA and their hotel with hotel.com, the same flight and same hotel as we booked with travelbag and both BA and hotels.commgave us a full refund straight away with no questions asked. These are companies I will recommend and be sure to use again. 

becky_2255

Thank you for sharing your experience. The credit note you have been offered, may I ask is that for exactly the same holiday, or just a credit note with travelbag. 
We are having similar issues. We are due to fly this Saturday to South Africa, which has of course been cancelled and travelbag are not prepared to offer us a refund. 
We are now going down the route of seeing if we can get a charge back from the credit card we paid on

DenisCooper

Credit for any other holiday. Which would be fine but it’s not every year we pay £10,000 on a holiday and we now have to refund the money to pay for our daughter so wedding. 

43722

That's interesting thank you. We are due to be going on a Travelbag holiday later in the year. If the company cannot be trusted to refund where it is due, i can't have any confidence in it.  I am not due to pay my balance yet, but I am tempted to cut my losses when the time comes.