Small Deposit - Have my Airline Tickets actually been booked ?

Butts

Nebulous2 said:

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. 

Thanks for your response you are welcome to intercede at any point !!
If you booked last year did you pay the whole amount upfront or was it a deposit followed by a balance. If this was the case was that the stage you got your PNR number and access to the flight with the Airline ?
Have you heard any more about your refund and are they easy to get hold of on the phone ?

Butts

Westin said:

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.

Thanks Westin, problem is I have not got the PNR number as you only get that on paying the balance !!

Butts

bagand96 said:

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.

Perhaps I could adopt the wheeze of not being able to get through to LM (entirely plausible at the moment). I should add that I have a return BA ticket from Dublin to Orlando via LGW. The Dublin legs are both on Aer Lingus.

Life__Goes__On

Butts said:

Perhaps I could adopt the wheeze of not being able to get through to LM (entirely plausible at the moment). I should add that I have a return BA ticket from Dublin to Orlando via LGW. The Dublin legs are both on Aer Lingus.

How about contacting BA and saying you have a flight booked with them and are thinking of taking you pet and would like a price.

janetcoote1

Egyptair have cancelled my flights so clearly I need to claim a refund.  Very early on in this Covid19 crisis, they created a Covid 19 refund policy.  Basically,it over-rides their terms and conditions etc., and from what I understand, flies in the face of EU regulations.  This policy can be viewed in their website booking page.  They seem to be promoting vouchers, but also state that you can also claim a cash refund/transfer back to your bank account, but that no refunds will be processed until the airline is up and running again, and then refunds will take up to 35 days to be paid back after that.  In addition, they state that refunds will be paid back, except for non-refundable taxes and bank charges.  I thought that if flights were cancelled then there are no taxes to be paid as no-one went anywhere, including the plane.  I have spoken to Egyptair by all means that I can find, but all they do is point out their Covid 19 Policy.  Is there anything I can do, or anyone that I can report this to, to bring this matter into the light?  I have checked out complaints through the Civil Aviation Authority, but these methods seem to take weeks, in which case, the time span could easily be similar to this newly created Egyptair policy  Basically, it looks like the airline is doing it's best to keep peoples money as long as possible, and perhaps I am wrong, but it seems to me that this is very unfair practice towards their customers..

Butts

janetcoote1 said:

Egyptair have cancelled my flights so clearly I need to claim a refund.  Very early on in this Covid19 crisis, they created a Covid 19 refund policy.  Basically,it over-rides their terms and conditions etc., and from what I understand, flies in the face of EU regulations.  This policy can be viewed in their website booking page.  They seem to be promoting vouchers, but also state that you can also claim a cash refund/transfer back to your bank account, but that no refunds will be processed until the airline is up and running again, and then refunds will take up to 35 days to be paid back after that.  In addition, they state that refunds will be paid back, except for non-refundable taxes and bank charges.  I thought that if flights were cancelled then there are no taxes to be paid as no-one went anywhere, including the plane.  I have spoken to Egyptair by all means that I can find, but all they do is point out their Covid 19 Policy.  Is there anything I can do, or anyone that I can report this to, to bring this matter into the light?  I have checked out complaints through the Civil Aviation Authority, but these methods seem to take weeks, in which case, the time span could easily be similar to this newly created Egyptair policy  Basically, it looks like the airline is doing it's best to keep peoples money as long as possible, and perhaps I am wrong, but it seems to me that this is very unfair practice towards their customers..

Was this booked through Last Minute.com ?

Butts

Life__Goes__On said:

Butts said:

Perhaps I could adopt the wheeze of not being able to get through to LM (entirely plausible at the moment). I should add that I have a return BA ticket from Dublin to Orlando via LGW. The Dublin legs are both on Aer Lingus.

How about contacting BA and saying you have a flight booked with them and are thinking of taking you pet and would like a price.

I'm going with my Son, the wife is staying at home 
Seriously this is getting more bizarre by the moment, we have got a Maine Coon Cat so perhaps it would like to visit it's ancestral homeland !!
No doubt the price would be astronomical hence BA's privacy reservations (forgive the pun) may go out the window-good call.

Westin

Butts said:

Westin said:

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.

Thanks Westin, problem is I have not got the PNR number as you only get that on paying the balance !!

Sorry. Overlooked that. Duh.

I think Alan_Bowen gives a plausible explanation on how the airline booking may be managed and processed.

Nebulous2

Butts said:

Nebulous2 said:

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. 

Thanks for your response you are welcome to intercede at any point !!
If you booked last year did you pay the whole amount upfront or was it a deposit followed by a balance. If this was the case was that the stage you got your PNR number and access to the flight with the Airline ?
Have you heard any more about your refund and are they easy to get hold of on the phone ?

I paid the full amount in October and got a ticket number and an airline code by email immediately. I’ve considered putting that into Singapore Airlines website as the refund page asks for a ticket number and my one follows the format they say is necessary, but I’m concerned the money will go straight to LM. 

The first month, up until I got home, they were impossible to contact. There wasn’t an email address, 2-3 hour hold on the phone and then it was simply, “your flight has been cancelled, we’ll get back to you when we know more.” Complaining on Twitter got their attention, but nothing useful other than wait. The last time I phoned I got through more quickly, but still got told to wait.

The whole experience has been frustrating and infuriating. 

janetcoote1

Butts said:

janetcoote1 said:

Egyptair have cancelled my flights so clearly I need to claim a refund.  Very early on in this Covid19 crisis, they created a Covid 19 refund policy.  Basically,it over-rides their terms and conditions etc., and from what I understand, flies in the face of EU regulations.  This policy can be viewed in their website booking page.  They seem to be promoting vouchers, but also state that you can also claim a cash refund/transfer back to your bank account, but that no refunds will be processed until the airline is up and running again, and then refunds will take up to 35 days to be paid back after that.  In addition, they state that refunds will be paid back, except for non-refundable taxes and bank charges.  I thought that if flights were cancelled then there are no taxes to be paid as no-one went anywhere, including the plane.  I have spoken to Egyptair by all means that I can find, but all they do is point out their Covid 19 Policy.  Is there anything I can do, or anyone that I can report this to, to bring this matter into the light?  I have checked out complaints through the Civil Aviation Authority, but these methods seem to take weeks, in which case, the time span could easily be similar to this newly created Egyptair policy  Basically, it looks like the airline is doing it's best to keep peoples money as long as possible, and perhaps I am wrong, but it seems to me that this is very unfair practice towards their customers..

Was this booked through Last Minute.com ?

No.  I booked this directly with Egyptair.com.  I have contacted them by telephone on reservations/customer service, emailed webbookings@egyptair.com and wecare@egyptair.com, their facebook and twitter pages, and just tonight, I called them on an Egyptian 24hr telephone number, based I think, in Cairo, which didn't answer.  This has been going on for several weeks now since I noticed my end destination of Luxor had disappeared from my itinerary when I checked my online booking, which they didn't bother contacting me about, and never explained when I rang them about it.  All they said on that occasion was that the airports are closed, and pointed me to their website.  They only actually emailed me on Monday of this week to tell me that my London to Cairo outbound flight had been cancelled, and then again on Wednesday of this week when they cancelled my Luxor to London return flight.  What fun!!