Refund of cancelled holiday

Himley

Hi I wonder if you can help? My daughter booked a holiday last year for her boyfriend’s 21st birthday to Dubai with Love Holiday. Then COVID hit. The holiday was cancelled. She’s been in touch with them regarding a refund £1200.00. Their reply was that it would be sorted soon. She waited and waited finally she had some money back which was refunded to her card she paid with. Unfortunately thus didn’t include the cost of the flights. She rang back only to be told that they were waiting to be refunded from Emirates Airways. My daughter brought this as a package holiday not separately. They have said on several occasions that the money as been refunded. The last time it was refunded was on 02/09/2020. It hadn’t. She was told then to wait 17 days. She went on a complaint chat line today only to be told that they would send it to their financial department and there was nothing more they could do. (She also said that the money had been refunded). 

Can anybody please advise or help please?  

Many thanks 

DCFC79

How did she pay ?
When was the holiday for ?

Butts

On the surface looks like an open and shut chargeback....
Why do these people wait so long before enforcing their rights ?

bagand96

The big problem here is cashflow. 

When you book a holiday with an online travel agent like this, money for the flights is passed to the airline almost immediately. 

Whilst a package was booked, and you should be refunded for that package within 14 days, the airlines are being incredibly slow. It's likely LoveHolidays don't have the cashflow to refund all their customers before the airlines have refunded them. 

A difficult situation. Your payment card may be able to help. 

Butts

bagand96 said:

The big problem here is cashflow. 

When you book a holiday with an online travel agent like this, money for the flights is passed to the airline almost immediately. 

Whilst a package was booked, and you should be refunded for that package within 14 days, the airlines are being incredibly slow. It's likely LoveHolidays don't have the cashflow to refund all their customers before the airlines have refunded them. 

A difficult situation. Your payment card may be able to help. 

If they are liable that's their problem as the organiser not the claimants. The fact they are awaiting refunds from suppliers is irrelevant in law.

bagand96

Butts said:

bagand96 said:

The big problem here is cashflow. 

When you book a holiday with an online travel agent like this, money for the flights is passed to the airline almost immediately. 

Whilst a package was booked, and you should be refunded for that package within 14 days, the airlines are being incredibly slow. It's likely LoveHolidays don't have the cashflow to refund all their customers before the airlines have refunded them. 

A difficult situation. Your payment card may be able to help. 

If they are liable that's their problem as the organiser not the claimants. The fact they are awaiting refunds from suppliers is irrelevant in law.

Whilst it is irrelevant in law; it is very relevant in practical application in the real world.  If the money isn't there, it can't simply be created out of nowhere. 

I'm not defending the agent. I could owe my mate £500. I could acknowledge the fact I owe him that money, and really want to pay it him. But if it's not in my bank account or under my mattress then he might not be getting it!

Himley

DCFC79 said:

How did she pay ?
When was the holiday for ?

She paid by card. It was for April 2020

Himley

Butts said:

On the surface looks like an open and shut chargeback....
Why do these people wait so long before enforcing their rights ?

She’s been told in numerous occasions that the refund is going through and to wait another week. She was refunded the cost of the accommodation but still waiting on refund for flights. I thought that if you brought the holiday as a package you were refunded as a package not separately. Unfortunately there isn’t a phone number you can call only online chat. Needless to say they are very on helpful. Keep passing the blame on to another department it’s now gone to the financial department. At one point they said that the refund had been returned by her bank 

elsien

Himley said:

Butts said:

On the surface looks like an open and shut chargeback....
Why do these people wait so long before enforcing their rights ?

She’s been told in numerous occasions that the refund is going through and to wait another week. She was refunded the cost of the accommodation but still waiting on refund for flights. I thought that if you brought the holiday as a package you were refunded as a package not separately. Unfortunately there isn’t a phone number you can call only online chat. Needless to say they are very on helpful. Keep passing the blame on to another department it’s now gone to the financial department. At one point they said that the refund had been returned by her bank 

You should be refunded it all together , but it’s not happening like that with most of the 3rd party agents.
With a different company there was a 3 month gap between the hotel refund and the flight refunds for the same reason - waiting to get it back from the airline.
I was prepared to wait given the circumstances, but when it got to the 3 months and I was no further forwards I told them I’d do a chargeback. I didn’t need to as the money was then refunded. 

You need to check the timescales though, I think a chargeback has to be within 120 days. 

Himley

elsien said:

Himley said:

Butts said:

On the surface looks like an open and shut chargeback....
Why do these people wait so long before enforcing their rights ?

She’s been told in numerous occasions that the refund is going through and to wait another week. She was refunded the cost of the accommodation but still waiting on refund for flights. I thought that if you brought the holiday as a package you were refunded as a package not separately. Unfortunately there isn’t a phone number you can call only online chat. Needless to say they are very on helpful. Keep passing the blame on to another department it’s now gone to the financial department. At one point they said that the refund had been returned by her bank 

You should be refunded it all together , but it’s not happening like that with most of the 3rd party agents.
With a different company there was a 3 month gap between the hotel refund and the flight refunds for the same reason - waiting to get it back from the airline.
I was prepared to wait given the circumstances, but when it got to the 3 months and I was no further forwards I told them I’d do a chargeback. I didn’t need to as the money was then refunded. 

You need to check the timescales though, I think a chargeback has to be within 120 days. 

She’s been told that the airlines refunded the cost but it’s taking ages to get the money back. They don’t seem to care if you say your gonna to a chargeback. It’s just so frustrating when a company such as love holidays can do this. She paid £1200.00 for the holiday but still waiting on £678.20 which is for the flights. To be told in several occasions that the refund has gone through but he hasn’t. Due to the current situation you can’t talk to anyone in any department or organisation

elsien

Do the chargeback then, if that’s what it takes.