New flight refund needed

SandraDavis

Getting so many conflicting answers..Etihad cancelled our flight in April so we had to find new flights to get home from Australia. No one will take responsibility to refund us £1800 that we had to pay another airline to get us home. Travel insurance said no, as have Trailfinders on behalf of Etihad 
Premium travel insurance taken out July 2019 so well before Covid. 

Surely someone should compensate us for being out of pocket due to no fault of our own ?

Caz3121

Etihad should be refunding the unused portion of your ticket that related to the cancelled flight
What reason have your travel insurance said no? did your policy include curtailment?
edit - Etihad would issue any refund to Trailfinders who should pass it on to you

eskbanker

Insurers will expect you to recover costs from the company with whom you booked, but I'd have thought it would be Trailfinders who should be on the hook for this if you booked through them - assuming you paid Trailfinders then they'll have paid Etihad in turn on your behalf, so the refund should come back from Etihad via Trailfinders.  If you paid by credit or debit card then chargeback or s75 (credit card only) should work if Trailfinders aren't cooperative.

Caz3121

eskbanker said:

 If you paid by credit or debit card then chargeback or s75 (credit card only) should work if Trailfinders aren't cooperative.

out of genuine interest - any idea how card companies would deal with a portion of a transaction refund?....unused leg of a return ticket...how would they know how much is liable to be refunded if partially used?

eskbanker

Caz3121 said:

eskbanker said:

 If you paid by credit or debit card then chargeback or s75 (credit card only) should work if Trailfinders aren't cooperative.

out of genuine interest - any idea how card companies would deal with a portion of a transaction refund?....unused leg of a return ticket...how would they know how much is liable to be refunded if partially used?

I don't know, but would imagine the most appropriate response to be to refund 50% of the cost of the return flight booking unless there's any clear evidence of a different split being applicable.

Reading the thread again, I suspect that half of the original booking won't be particularly close to the £1800 OP had to pay for a  replacement flight, so even if Trailfinders or a card company refunds the half that'll still leave a shortfall, which is arguably where the insurer should step in to cover unrecovered losses that can't be claimed from the other parties.

Nebulous2

Caz3121 said:

eskbanker said:

 If you paid by credit or debit card then chargeback or s75 (credit card only) should work if Trailfinders aren't cooperative.

out of genuine interest - any idea how card companies would deal with a portion of a transaction refund?....unused leg of a return ticket...how would they know how much is liable to be refunded if partially used?

I’m in a similar position and it appears to be dependent on the airline. Despite selling the ticket as a return with a single price they may cost the legs differently, not 50/50. My insurance has accepted responsibility, but have deducted the full price of my return flights, pending a settlement from the credit card / travel agent. 

Rough figures £2k for original return flights, £4K additional to get home, insurance have paid £2k as partial settlement, with balance to follow when I get a refund from travel agent. 

SandraDavis

Caz3121 said:

Etihad should be refunding the unused portion of your ticket that related to the cancelled flight
What reason have your travel insurance said no? did your policy include curtailment?
edit - Etihad would issue any refund to Trailfinders who should pass it on to you

Hi, I took premium travel insurance through Post Office. They agreed to let us claim through curtailment. They put my claim through a third party Intana who have said curtailment is only covered if our holiday was cut short and we could not complete it. The fact is we had to miss 2 destinations, book hotels and wait for Etihad to fly us home.. they cancelled our flight home 3 times so we were forced to book alternative flights through Qatar. Trailfinders are trying to get our unused flight home via Etihad but no one will compensate us for the Qatar flights 

SandraDavis

eskbanker said:

Insurers will expect you to recover costs from the company with whom you booked, but I'd have thought it would be Trailfinders who should be on the hook for this if you booked through them - assuming you paid Trailfinders then they'll have paid Etihad in turn on your behalf, so the refund should come back from Etihad via Trailfinders.  If you paid by credit or debit card then chargeback or s75 (credit card only) should work if Trailfinders aren't cooperative.

We paid Trailfinders with a debit card for flights to Oz. They are trying to get the return flight money back from Etihad but as for the new flight we had to purchase through Qatar, no one is interested in refunding us 

Nebulous2

SandraDavis said:

Caz3121 said:

Etihad should be refunding the unused portion of your ticket that related to the cancelled flight
What reason have your travel insurance said no? did your policy include curtailment?
edit - Etihad would issue any refund to Trailfinders who should pass it on to you

Hi, I took premium travel insurance through Post Office. They agreed to let us claim through curtailment. They put my claim through a third party Intana who have said curtailment is only covered if our holiday was cut short and we could not complete it. The fact is we had to miss 2 destinations, book hotels and wait for Etihad to fly us home.. they cancelled our flight home 3 times so we were forced to book alternative flights through Qatar. Trailfinders are trying to get our unused flight home via Etihad but no one will compensate us for the Qatar flights 

That doesn’t seem right to me. Check the conditions and see how they define curtailment. I’d also log a complaint with them then take it to the ombudsman. 

My insurer told me I had a valid curtailment claim while I was still overseas, before they knew when I would get home. As it happened I eventually managed to get a flight one day earlier than my original time. 

epm-84

SandraDavis said:

Caz3121 said:

Etihad should be refunding the unused portion of your ticket that related to the cancelled flight
What reason have your travel insurance said no? did your policy include curtailment?
edit - Etihad would issue any refund to Trailfinders who should pass it on to you

Hi, I took premium travel insurance through Post Office. They agreed to let us claim through curtailment. They put my claim through a third party Intana who have said curtailment is only covered if our holiday was cut short and we could not complete it. The fact is we had to miss 2 destinations, book hotels and wait for Etihad to fly us home.. they cancelled our flight home 3 times so we were forced to book alternative flights through Qatar. Trailfinders are trying to get our unused flight home via Etihad but no one will compensate us for the Qatar flights 

Did you book a package through Trailfinders or just your flights?  If you booked a package Trailfinders should be liable for getting you back home.

If you didn't book a package - did you travel out before the FCO advised against non-essential foreign travel in mid-March and did you follow their advice to try and return home as soon as possible once the advice changed?  If you did the insurer should be liable but if you didn't follow FCO advice then your insurer can claim you're ineligible for compensation due to invalidating the terms of the agreement.

epm-84

eskbanker said:

Caz3121 said:

eskbanker said:

 If you paid by credit or debit card then chargeback or s75 (credit card only) should work if Trailfinders aren't cooperative.

out of genuine interest - any idea how card companies would deal with a portion of a transaction refund?....unused leg of a return ticket...how would they know how much is liable to be refunded if partially used?

I don't know, but would imagine the most appropriate response to be to refund 50% of the cost of the return flight booking unless there's any clear evidence of a different split being applicable.

It's a rare occurrence as under normal circumstances if an airline cancels your return flight they have to book you on an alternative flight and if that isn't the same day they also have to pay for your hotel cost.  However, COVID-19 means exceptional circumstances apply and they are only liable for refunding the cancelled service, unless you choose to accept a rebooking or credit voucher.