Desperate travel companies

macman

blindman: TA's who regularly made late or no payments to the providers of flights and accom would simply not be in business for long.: no one would deal with them. This crisis is not caused by TA's siphoning off customer payments to spend on their own behalf, it's due to the volume of refunds being requested, which no agent and few airlines can possibly have the cashflow to maintain for very long. What do you think it costs an airline to keep a 737 parked up at Gatwick every day, when it's not earning a penny in passenger revenue, but still has to be hangared, maintained, licensed, insured, leased etc?
I'm not aware of any passengers turning up for flights that have never been booked, since they would know whether or not they had a reservation well before that point, simply by checking the airline's online reservation system.
Customers of the travel industry are fairly comprehensively covered against loss under the ATOL scheme anyway.

BillTrac

I agree that we are in unprecedented times but it seems some (I know, not all) TAs are using very delaying tactic known. I had two holidays booked, one for late April one for late May. Both holidays cancelled well before due time. the May holiday was fully refunded with no issues two weeks before we were due to fly!! Well done Jet2.

The other TA is a nightmare. Called me mid-March to cancel and expected me to decide whether to rebook or accept a credit voucher there and then. I refused both and asked for my full refund which I stated I was legally entitled to but realised it may be slightly longer than the 14 day limit. They kept pushing the voucher, I refused every time. Then in early May they offered me a partial refund. I said yes so we could meet partway. When I chased it a few weeks later I was told it was dependant on them receiving the funds back from their suppliers and also getting staff back into the office to process. I pointed out their refund offer had had no conditions, I was unhappy so I asked for a full refund again. Kept chasing and then in early June they again offered a partial, although slightly higher, refund and I would have it that week. I accepted whilst confirming no conditions. They acknowledged they actually had these monies. When I chased THIS refund the following week they tried to direct me towards yet another department.  So continual lies, deception and delaying tactics.
I've now given up trying to meet them partway and placed a chargeback.

They can go to the wall for I care now. I wouldn't use, or recommend them. 

blindman

Browntoa said:

blindman said:

Browntoa said:

Or read as "desperate measures to survive" 

We will have no travel industry left at this rate. 

I don't condone what they are doing but some people need to understand that the results of their actions may have an undesired result

Really?
This pandemic has shown what scumbags 90% of the travel industry are.
Why is it ,that if a customer pays £££££ for a trip-which is then cancelled by the TA -the TA resorts to underhand tactics to not refund the £££££ ?
Obviously the TA has SPENT this money-which to me is why this "industry" needs to get rid of all these scumbags. 
I sincerely hope they all fail.
No, I have no axe to grind, I book all my 30 years of trips independently.
I have recovered all my Covid curtailed trip to Australia 

I know someone who runs a small specialist agency

They pay for flights and accommodation straight away not once the passenger has travelled as hinted at . 

They initially refunded customer money from company reserves but that money has now gone so they have to wait for airlines and hotels to refund before passing it on . They are not "scumbags" and are highly regarded both inside and outside of the industry and retain very good customer feedback.

The money is "spent " as it's been passed on to other companies. 

I did say 90%.
Why do you not mention their name though?

Browntoa

Because it's technically advertising and I don't have their permission to post about the site from the owners

 I only know because we chatted about it . 

blindman

macman said:

blindman: TA's who regularly made late or no payments to the providers of flights and accom would simply not be in business for long.: no one would deal with them.

Did you see this

parcival said:

I used to work for a travel agent (it was 15 years ago so things may have changed) and they never paid the hotels or the airlines until well after the customer had travelled.
However I firmly believe in the free market so the best and strongest will survive and the others will go to the wall. However it will be a case of supply and demand so if the demand exists maybe new operators will enter the market.

This crisis is not caused by TA's siphoning off customer payments to spend on their own behalf, it's due to the volume of refunds being requested, which no agent

Look at Trailfinders....

and few airlines can possibly have the cashflow to maintain for very long.
But the honest ones don't flout the law straight away.

What do you think it costs an airline to keep a 737 parked up at Gatwick every day, when it's not earning a penny in passenger revenue, but still has to be hangared, maintained, licensed, insured, leased etc?
I'm not aware of any passengers turning up for flights that have never been booked, since they would know whether or not they had a reservation well before that point, simply by checking the airline's online reservation system.

Customer who use a TA are not that clever...
Customers of the travel industry are fairly comprehensively covered against loss under the ATOL scheme anyway.

ATOL is as much use as a chocolate T pot.

bagand96

Travel agents make wafer thin margins, and as has been correctly pointed out the way most online travel agents are set up they don’t hold any customers cash, so there’s a massive cash flow problem. On top of that they have very small customer service departments so are now overwhelmed and you have the problems everyone is now seeing. 

It will continue long after COVID-19.  As long as people are happy to book with ElCheapoTravelDeals.biz or any other agent they’ve barely heard of and do no research into, just so it can save them £10.

Butts

Browntoa said:

blindman said:

Browntoa said:

Or read as "desperate measures to survive" 

We will have no travel industry left at this rate. 

I don't condone what they are doing but some people need to understand that the results of their actions may have an undesired result

Really?
This pandemic has shown what scumbags 90% of the travel industry are.
Why is it ,that if a customer pays £££££ for a trip-which is then cancelled by the TA -the TA resorts to underhand tactics to not refund the £££££ ?
Obviously the TA has SPENT this money-which to me is why this "industry" needs to get rid of all these scumbags. 
I sincerely hope they all fail.
No, I have no axe to grind, I book all my 30 years of trips independently.
I have recovered all my Covid curtailed trip to Australia 

I know someone who runs a small specialist agency

They pay for flights and accommodation straight away not once the passenger has travelled as hinted at . 

They initially refunded customer money from company reserves but that money has now gone so they have to wait for airlines and hotels to refund before passing it on . They are not "scumbags" and are highly regarded both inside and outside of the industry and retain very good customer feedback.

The money is "spent " as it's been passed on to other companies. 

Well if that's the case how do Last Minute.com operate ?
I handed over a £400 deposit last year for a Holiday in the USA that was supposed to take place in August.
It consisted of Business Class Flights on BA and 14 Nights in a Marriott Hotel. The £3700 balance was not due until this week was recently extended to 2 weeks before the trip on Aug 8th.

A lot of anecdotal evidence on here and other sites seems to point to the fact they have not paid in particular the Hotels when people are trying to secure a refund. Is this fiction or an accurate account of how they operate?

The problems are compounded by having a call centre in India with staff who if you can get through have a poor command of the English Language.

bagand96

blindman said:

ATOL is as much use as a chocolate T pot.

Tell that to all those who were flown home free of charge when Monarch and Thomas Cook collapsed. And the thousands more who received refunds for future travel.

Thrugelmir

bagand96 said:

blindman said:

ATOL is as much use as a chocolate T pot.

Tell that to all those who were flown home free of charge when Monarch and Thomas Cook collapsed. And the thousands more who received refunds for future travel.

Thomas Cook alone cost the UK taxpayer some £186 million in repatriation costs. 

bagand96

Butts said:

Well if that's the case how do Last Minute.com operate ?
I handed over a £400 deposit last year for a Holiday in the USA that was supposed to take place in August.
It consisted of Business Class Flights on BA and 14 Nights in a Marriott Hotel. The £3700 balance was not due until this week was recently extended to 2 weeks before the trip on Aug 8th.

A lot of anecdotal evidence on here and other sites seems to point to the fact they have not paid in particular the Hotels when people are trying to secure a refund. Is this fiction or an accurate account of how they operate?

There's no hard and fast rule for every circumstance, and there will always be exceptions to any rule.

In your case, it may be that LM have booked an agency fare not available to the general public that does not need settling until much nearer the time. These are quite rare these days but some of the more traditional airlines do offer them Or, given that a hotel is involved to it could be that they have booked it all through BA as a package - just like general public can via BA Holidays - that way deposit and balance payments are available.  Or, it could be that LM have fronted the money to BA at the time of booking, and letting you pay in the future.

For the vast majority of flight bookings via OTA's they will need paying at the time of booking.  This is especially true for short haul holidays where flights are with easyJet/Ryanair/Jet2/TUI/Norwegian etc.  The online travel agent will have to pay for the flight when it's booked, just like a customer would booking flight only.  In most cases with low cost carriers they won't even get any commission back - they'll either add a few pounds on as their service charge, or sell you the flight hoping you purchase hotels/cars where they can make a bit more commission.  That's where the black hole  in their cashflow opens up - money has gone to airlines straight away.  Flights cancelled, customer wants cash back right away - but the airlines aren't refunding quickly.

Hotels is a bit more complex as the arrangements can vary depending on who it's used to books.  Sometimes agents have direct contracts with hotels, sometimes they'll booked through an intermediary agent, or a "bed bank".  All will have different payment terms and contracts.