Small Deposit - Have my Airline Tickets actually been booked ?

bagand96

Butts said:

The Hotel part of the package was booked by Last Minute through Travelscape LLC which is actually a subsidiary of Expedia - weird using a rival for a hotel booking.

In the cancellation terms it says the whole amount is payable from the day you book it (Nov 19) in my case. This is patently an unfair term as I (joe public) can secure it on a  pay on arrival/ cancel 24hrs before even now. As a large operator I'm sure they are able to secure the most favourable terms. Thus what they are trying to charge is not "reasonable or justifiable" throwing doubt on the whole validity of the contract. 

Travelscape are a bedbank, its not unusual in the travel industry that agents use bedbanks to handle hotel bookings.  

Most hotels offer a variety of rates, either via intermediaries, or when booking direct.  They usually offer rates that are cancellable until the day of arrival (and usually don't need paying upfront), but then also offer more attractive rates that will be cheaper but have more stringent conditions attached, like being non-refundable.  It's not unusual - all the big hotel chains do it and most independents too.

A judge may find that it's not reasonable or justifiable, I don't know. Again though, same with the flights, if Travelscape have charged LM.com and LM.com cannot recover it, then it wouldn't hard to LM.com to prove their loss in front of the judge.  That might not have any bearing on how a judge may rule on whether it's reasonable or justifiable - nobody here knows that.

To be honest though I think this might all end up academic in your case as it's as likely as not that they'll have to cancel your August holiday, at which point you are entitled to a full refund.

Butts

bagand96 said:

Butts said:

The Hotel part of the package was booked by Last Minute through Travelscape LLC which is actually a subsidiary of Expedia - weird using a rival for a hotel booking.

In the cancellation terms it says the whole amount is payable from the day you book it (Nov 19) in my case. This is patently an unfair term as I (joe public) can secure it on a  pay on arrival/ cancel 24hrs before even now. As a large operator I'm sure they are able to secure the most favourable terms. Thus what they are trying to charge is not "reasonable or justifiable" throwing doubt on the whole validity of the contract. 

Travelscape are a bedbank, its not unusual in the travel industry that agents use bedbanks to handle hotel bookings.  

Most hotels offer a variety of rates, either via intermediaries, or when booking direct.  They usually offer rates that are cancellable until the day of arrival (and usually don't need paying upfront), but then also offer more attractive rates that will be cheaper but have more stringent conditions attached, like being non-refundable.  It's not unusual - all the big hotel chains do it and most independents too.

A judge may find that it's not reasonable or justifiable, I don't know. Again though, same with the flights, if Travelscape have charged LM.com and LM.com cannot recover it, then it wouldn't hard to LM.com to prove their loss in front of the judge.  That might not have any bearing on how a judge may rule on whether it's reasonable or justifiable - nobody here knows that.

To be honest though I think this might all end up academic in your case as it's as likely as not that they'll have to cancel your August holiday, at which point you are entitled to a full refund.

That's always assuming that I have parted with £3.7K the balance due in July luckily !!!
I just don't trust them to provide refunds on a timely and fair basis based on what I've read here and on  Trust Pilot If it was BA or TUI  I'd have no worries.
I'm just hoping the flights have already been cancelled by the time my balance is due (by BA) which obviates my need to cough up.
All this talk of Judges but you nor anyone else can find any anecdotal evidence of such cases being taken to court - don't you find that a little strange?

bagand96

Butts said:

That's always assuming that I have parted with £3.7K the balance due in July luckily !!!
I just don't trust them to provide refunds on a timely and fair basis based on what I've read here and on  Trust Pilot If it was BA or TUI  I'd have no worries.
I'm just hoping the flights have already been cancelled by the time my balance is due (by BA) which obviates my need to cough up.
All this talk of Judges but you nor anyone else can find any anecdotal evidence of such cases being taken to court - don't you find that a little strange?

I agree with you it’s a difficult position to be in having to decide whether to part with a wedge of cash not knowing when you might get it back. It’s a personal decision that each person must make based on their circumstances. 

I haven’t found any cases of anything being taken to court with Lastminute.com, but then I haven’t looked.  It may be that non have. Nobody on these forums has any clue either way if LM have tried to enforce cancellation terms, the methods they use, and how far they’ve got.

I would expect they do charge their cancellations as per the terms. They wouldn’t still be in business if they were routinely fronting thousands of pounds for flights and then letting customers walk away.  In the normal world though, the number of cancellations would be very small, and I’d expect the majority of people would be cancelling for reasons that are able to be claimed from Travel insurance (sickness etc).  There will be people who just change their mind, we don’t know how many, we don’t know the outcome of their cancellations. 

I’m not saying you wouldn’t win if you wanted to go down the route of simply not paying.  I’ve seen a number of times the last few weeks people quoting that T&Cs may not be enforceable. Again that may be the case and good luck to anyone willing to take that fight. However, it gets suggested as a very matter of fact and simple sounding solution. My view is that it is not, and that people may be entering into a protracted and complex battle with their provider. I just think people should know that. 

Butts

bagand96 said:

Butts said:

That's always assuming that I have parted with £3.7K the balance due in July luckily !!!
I just don't trust them to provide refunds on a timely and fair basis based on what I've read here and on  Trust Pilot If it was BA or TUI  I'd have no worries.
I'm just hoping the flights have already been cancelled by the time my balance is due (by BA) which obviates my need to cough up.
All this talk of Judges but you nor anyone else can find any anecdotal evidence of such cases being taken to court - don't you find that a little strange?

I agree with you it’s a difficult position to be in having to decide whether to part with a wedge of cash not knowing when you might get it back. It’s a personal decision that each person must make based on their circumstances. 

I haven’t found any cases of anything being taken to court with Lastminute.com, but then I haven’t looked.  It may be that non have. Nobody on these forums has any clue either way if LM have tried to enforce cancellation terms, the methods they use, and how far they’ve got.

I would expect they do charge their cancellations as per the terms. They wouldn’t still be in business if they were routinely fronting thousands of pounds for flights and then letting customers walk away.  In the normal world though, the number of cancellations would be very small, and I’d expect the majority of people would be cancelling for reasons that are able to be claimed from Travel insurance (sickness etc).  There will be people who just change their mind, we don’t know how many, we don’t know the outcome of their cancellations. 

I’m not saying you wouldn’t win if you wanted to go down the route of simply not paying.  I’ve seen a number of times the last few weeks people quoting that T&Cs may not be enforceable. Again that may be the case and good luck to anyone willing to take that fight. However, it gets suggested as a very matter of fact and simple sounding solution. My view is that it is not, and that people may be entering into a protracted and complex battle with their provider. I just think people should know that. 

I'm waiting for a reply from andyh2812 on the thread Last Minute.com Refund Options as he has direct experience with regard to their cancellation procedures.
I've seen loads of often incoherent babble on Trust Pilot , so am looking forward to a more nuanced account of his dealings with them with regard to what actually happens. 

Life__Goes__On

Butts said:

 assuming I could get through to BA would they tell me if it was booked or not ?

Sorry if it;'s been suggested before
Could you contact BA on the pretext of booking extras  like extra legroom,  as I know some airlines sell that direct

Butts

Life__Goes__On said:

Butts said:

 assuming I could get through to BA would they tell me if it was booked or not ?

Sorry if it;'s been suggested before
Could you contact BA on the pretext of booking extras  like extra legroom,  as I know some airlines sell that direct

That's not a bad idea if it were not Club World ....
However you do have to pay to reserve seats (even in Business Class) with no status so that may be an option. If BA are going to trouser some cash out of the enquiry they may be more forthcoming in divulging information - ie if I am booked !!

Nebulous2

Butts said:

bagand96 said:

Butts said:

That's always assuming that I have parted with £3.7K the balance due in July luckily !!!
I just don't trust them to provide refunds on a timely and fair basis based on what I've read here and on  Trust Pilot If it was BA or TUI  I'd have no worries.
I'm just hoping the flights have already been cancelled by the time my balance is due (by BA) which obviates my need to cough up.
All this talk of Judges but you nor anyone else can find any anecdotal evidence of such cases being taken to court - don't you find that a little strange?

I agree with you it’s a difficult position to be in having to decide whether to part with a wedge of cash not knowing when you might get it back. It’s a personal decision that each person must make based on their circumstances. 

I haven’t found any cases of anything being taken to court with Lastminute.com, but then I haven’t looked.  It may be that non have. Nobody on these forums has any clue either way if LM have tried to enforce cancellation terms, the methods they use, and how far they’ve got.

I would expect they do charge their cancellations as per the terms. They wouldn’t still be in business if they were routinely fronting thousands of pounds for flights and then letting customers walk away.  In the normal world though, the number of cancellations would be very small, and I’d expect the majority of people would be cancelling for reasons that are able to be claimed from Travel insurance (sickness etc).  There will be people who just change their mind, we don’t know how many, we don’t know the outcome of their cancellations. 

I’m not saying you wouldn’t win if you wanted to go down the route of simply not paying.  I’ve seen a number of times the last few weeks people quoting that T&Cs may not be enforceable. Again that may be the case and good luck to anyone willing to take that fight. However, it gets suggested as a very matter of fact and simple sounding solution. My view is that it is not, and that people may be entering into a protracted and complex battle with their provider. I just think people should know that. 

I'm waiting for a reply from andyh2812 on the thread Last Minute.com Refund Options as he has direct experience with regard to their cancellation procedures.
I've seen loads of often incoherent babble on Trust Pilot , so am looking forward to a more nuanced account of his dealings with them with regard to what actually happens. 

I saw your questions and considered responding, but felt you were particularly looking for his experience. My contact with them has been absolutely abysmal. We bought return flights to New Zealand in October last year, to be there most of March. 19th of March they emailed to say our return flight was cancelled. This left us stuck in New Zealand with no help from LM whatsoever. I’ve emailed, phoned and contacted them on Twitter repeatedly since with nothing except stonewalling. The last email I had, almost three weeks ago apologised and said I would get a response within two weeks. “Don’t call us.” 

Interestingly I managed to get a refund on a car hire from them. We had booked flights and a car for a week in North Island. Only the car hire was from LM. After New Zealand went into lockdown I received an email from a car hire company I had never heard of, saying I was entitled to a refund. I went to the LM website, entered the booking reference and was offered a voucher only. Unhappy with this I googled the company I had received the email from, found their website, entered the same booking number and it said I would be refunded to the card I had paid from within 5 days, and I was. 

Westin

If you are a BA Executive member I think from your online account you can add a booking PNR.  That might allow you access to view the airline reservation.  It won’t give you all the details but this might answer your question as to whether the booking is live or not.

bagand96

Life__Goes__On said:

Butts said:

 assuming I could get through to BA would they tell me if it was booked or not ?

Sorry if it;'s been suggested before
Could you contact BA on the pretext of booking extras  like extra legroom,  as I know some airlines sell that direct

That's a good suggestion.

"Hello I'd like to see about reserving seats for my flight please" 

"Of course Sir, do you have the reservation number"

"Oh, I don't have it to hand, my name is XXXXX and I fly to Orlando on this date"

At that point they will either look it up for you, or say you need the PNR.  Worst case you can just bale and say you'll call back when you have the PNR.  I wouldn't mention you booked with an agent though as they may say "get the PNR from your agent and call back"

Still sure LM will have made a reservation with the airline.

Alan_Bowen

I am fairly certain this will have been booked at the time of the CW sale and booked as an IT fare. This is a private non-public fare offered to some operators which only requires ticketing much later, 30 or 42 days before departure. No agency would ever pay thousands to an airline in advance of payment from a consumer, as you can imagine all airline call centres are chaotic at the moment, BA included. Their main call centre is in Indiawahihc was closed down without warning by a government decision but is now back up and running but not at full speed. This may mean they need to work quickly, just offer the flight number, date of travel and surname and you may be lucky