can a travel agent charge you an admin fee for a flight cancellation in order to process a refund.

nickbrown2310

I've finally got an email back from a travel agent saying that I have to pay a £150 admin fee in order to process the refund (which might not even be possible). I had been told that I would be getting a refund several months ago & now they are saying I have today a fee. The travel agent is "email flights.com". Is this legal to do? I also had paid for ATOL protection on the flights from London.  I think this is a complete scam from the airline company. Surely it shouldn't be me paying the company for getting a refund on services I haven't been able to receive it should be the airline company no?

JGB1955

Your contract is with the agent, not the airline. If you had booked direct there would be no third party fee to pay. The charge is probably hidden deep within the terms and conditions you agreed to 

[Deleted User]

Sounds a huge admin fee to me and would challenge it.   Unless it states in your original terms and conditions that cancellations made by airlines will induce a refund fee of £150 I can't see how they can enforce it or justify it.  I was looking for something else and came across this which may help.   Could be something you could quote to them?

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/05/travel-agents-charging-to-process-coronavirus-flight-refunds/

Alan_Bowen

Do not pay money up front to get a refund from an airline, any fee which should be disclosed in the conditions at the time you booked, should be deducted from the refund. It appears they have been gradually increasing their fees over the last three months from £25 pp to £75, I presume none of these fees existed before March! The business is tiny, run from a flat above an estate agency looking at google maps, and the current reviews are dreadful. If you did receive an ATOL Certificate, that only guarantees you your refund if the company ceases to trade, but it may act as evidence you have a contract with the agency rather than the airline and you could use that to make a chargeback claim against the card you used to pay for the service in the first place

Life__Goes__On

I would go the Chargeback route stating that they want to charge you £150 and might not even refund you. The £75PP fee wasn't in their T&Cs