Travelup arbitrary admin fees applied to airticket refund

Travelbugger

My wife booked her ticket and those of my kids with Travelup to fly out to China for May 2020. I similarly booked my ticket directly with Swiss Air on the exact same flights. This was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid.

Swiss Air refund was fairly seamless although it did take 2 months to process from my original departure date.  Swiss Air refunded me in full.
Travelup has decide to deduct GBP229 from the proceeds and refunded my wife only last week (3 months after the intended flight) without any explanation. Their website indicates that there would be a GBP50 administrative charge per booking. Instead my wife has been hit with a GBP75 per person. 
Is there any way to get the rest of the monies back from them?

Caz3121

the terms and conditions do state £75 per ticket
https://www.travelup.com/en-gb/terms-and-conditions
they explain on their site why they charge it https://www.travelup.com/en-gb/customer-support#covidsupport under "Why do we charge an administration fee if the airlines are refunding in full?"
As you have discovered third party administration fees can be avoided by booking direct with the airline

Travelbugger

But that is under "if you change your booking section" which is not the case here. In this case, the airline has cancelled the flight and so the admin charge appears to be applied by Travelup outside of its booking policy.

Travelbugger

In the Covid support section, Travelup does not specify the admin fee (which I understand has been somewhat arbitrary during the Covid period - I have heard different fees being applied from GBP 75 per person to GBP 50 per booking).  See "TravelUp passengers furious with changes in refund policy on cancelled flights" on the Dailymirror.

bagand96

Write to them stating you would like a refund of the admin fee as in your opinion you do not believe thy are acting within the Terms and Conditions of the contract into which you both entered.  If they still refuse, you could consider taking them to Small Claims Court for the amount.  You'll have to pay a fee to do that, but you'd get if back if you win.  Nobody can say whether you'd win or not other than the judge who decides on the case.

If you paid by credit card, you could try a Section 75 claim with your bank - they are jointly liable for the transaction.  Again though, you'd have to hope that they agreed with you that Travelup have levied the charge outwith of the T&Cs of the contract.

mattyprice4004

bagand96 said:

Write to them stating you would like a refund of the admin fee as in your opinion you do not believe thy are acting within the Terms and Conditions of the contract into which you both entered.  If they still refuse, you could consider taking them to Small Claims Court for the amount.  You'll have to pay a fee to do that, but you'd get if back if you win.  Nobody can say whether you'd win or not other than the judge who decides on the case.

If you paid by credit card, you could try a Section 75 claim with your bank - they are jointly liable for the transaction.  Again though, you'd have to hope that they agreed with you that Travelup have levied the charge outwith of the T&Cs of the contract.

That would entirely depend on the admin fees dictated by the terms at the time of booking - and I doubt in any case they'd get all of the fees refunded, just some of it. 
If they state an admin fee is chargeable, then it needs to be paid. 

Westin

The other side of the coin of course is that you appointed and asked Travel Up to make and process the original reservation and have asked them to deal with and refund the cancelled transaction.  Whilst I can understand why you feel a full refund should be given, Travel Up have costs to cover in both the purchase and the refund and perhaps the £75 fee is appropriate to cover their staffing, office and credit card merchant fees.  Equally not TU fault that we have Covid and worldwide travel disruption occurred. They still have costs to cover and people to pay.

With regard to the amount now being indicated (£75pp deduction to process the refund vs £50 from booking condition if you amend) I think they cover themselves by selling in the first place a non-refundable ticket. What they seem to be saying is whilst ‘non-refundable’ under TU terms (and therefore the mater closed), as the airline cancelled and refunded TU will waive their non-refundable condition but to do so TU will charge an admin fee of £75 to process the refund back to the purchaser.

[Deleted User]

Agree with others, Agents are entitled to take an admin fee.  Just how much is regarded is acceptable remains the grey area and one which hasn't yet been challenged in court (I believe).   I remember at least one incident where a chargeback was successfully reversed by the travel agents as the customer didn't agree to the agents' admin fee.   The bank returned the whole lot.   Your wife could write to them (as advised above).   If they still refuse, she would have to decide whether it is worth it to submit, which could possibly be a lengthy process with no certain outcome, to small claims court.    On the other hand if all these unhappy people who feel the admin fee is outrageous are to get anywhere then a test case is exactly what is required.    

bradders1983

The moral of the story is using a third party agent to save a tenner isn't always a good idea.....

bagand96

mattyprice4004 said:

bagand96 said:

Write to them stating you would like a refund of the admin fee as in your opinion you do not believe thy are acting within the Terms and Conditions of the contract into which you both entered.  If they still refuse, you could consider taking them to Small Claims Court for the amount.  You'll have to pay a fee to do that, but you'd get if back if you win.  Nobody can say whether you'd win or not other than the judge who decides on the case.

If you paid by credit card, you could try a Section 75 claim with your bank - they are jointly liable for the transaction.  Again though, you'd have to hope that they agreed with you that Travelup have levied the charge outwith of the T&Cs of the contract.

That would entirely depend on the admin fees dictated by the terms at the time of booking - and I doubt in any case they'd get all of the fees refunded, just some of it. 
If they state an admin fee is chargeable, then it needs to be paid. 

I agree it all depends on the contract entered into. My advice is purely what I would do if I was in a situation where I thought a company was taking me for a ride and not following their own T&C's. 

Whether that applies in this case or not I don't know, but the OP seems to think so. 

Hatrick24

I am in a similar situation, although I have received no refund at all or even any communication from them. You should be aware that Travel Up have changed their terms and conditions since the pandemic to include the ability to charge £75 admin fees on refunds.  You need to check what terms and conditions were in place when you booked your tickets.  In addition, due to the volume of complaints they have now changed their stance again and are now charging £50 per booking, admin fees. The facebook group may help you further. It is called Travel Up (Unofficial) Unfair Fees. Unfortunately, there is no consistency from Travel Up. It is impossible to speak to them, they don't answer emails.  Their attitude to customers is very poor.