Airport duty refund

themissingdigit

Hi, any advice how to make Amex  get my air passenger duty money back from opodo. this has been ongoing since november last year & obviously pre covid.
i had to cancel one of our passangers due to illness. i did this on the phone with opodo. on the call they confirmed i would be getting £143 in airport duty or passanger tax (whatever the name is) there were 4 legs hence the amount. this was not forthcoming & had to make a few calls & asked for confirmation of the amount due by email, they did that 3 times, but still no refund. contacted amex for help & they have been worse than useless. as an example they contacted opodo who wrote back saying passenger 1 isnt due a refund because passenger 4 travelled (they used names) amex keep saying opodo say, the ticket is non refundable, to which we keep saying yes we know its the APD part, which was agreed & is in the terms & conditions as refundable. they finally opened a section 75 in early june but still nothing. the only time they contact me is by email after i call in (as not allowed to speak to section 75 team) just saying they are very busy & no update yet.

Voyager2002

Your post is not terribly clear: I hope you have written a clear explanation to Amex about what amount is due to you, and why.

Anyway, if your concern is simply that they are taking an unreasonable amount of time to process a Section 75 claim, use their complaints procedure and if necessary escalate to the Ombudsman service.

Westin

It is only typically Air Passenger Duty (APD) which you can apply for a refund on. APD is only levied on a departure ex U.K.  The amount you mention does not match with any current or even pre-April 2020 rates.

You do not mention the destination or class of travel or date of departure so I can tell you exactly the APD value on your ticket. If this was pre April 2020 then APD for a standard economy type seat to Europe is just £13 and £78 for further afield. Check the gov.uk website for the relevant charge.

As the passenger, you need to make the application for the APD refund, normally to the airline but as you booked via a 3rd party overseas based online ticket seller then via them. Both the airline and Opodo may deduct an administration fee for processing the refund.  Give you have two parties involved, you may not actually have anything due as admin fees may have eaten into the potential APD refund.

I don’t see any reason why American Express  should be involved.

Voyager2002

themissingdigit said:

i had to cancel one of our passangers due to illness. i did this on the phone with opodo. on the call they confirmed i would be getting £143 in airport duty or passanger tax (whatever the name is) there were 4 legs hence the amount. this was not forthcoming & had to make a few calls & asked for confirmation of the amount due by email, they did that 3 times, but still no refund.

So you have written confirmation that a refund of this amount is due. This is clearly a good deal more than APD, but if this refund is agreed but not forthcoming then it is appropriate to use the Section 75 process.

themissingdigit

Westin said:

It is only typically Air Passenger Duty (APD) which you can apply for a refund on. APD is only levied on a departure ex U.K.  The amount you mention does not match with any current or even pre-April 2020 rates.

You do not mention the destination or class of travel or date of departure so I can tell you exactly the APD value on your ticket. If this was pre April 2020 then APD for a standard economy type seat to Europe is just £13 and £78 for further afield. Check the gov.uk website for the relevant charge.

As the passenger, you need to make the application for the APD refund, normally to the airline but as you booked via a 3rd party overseas based online ticket seller then via them. Both the airline and Opodo may deduct an administration fee for processing the refund.  Give you have two parties involved, you may not actually have anything due as admin fees may have eaten into the potential APD refund.

I don’t see any reason why American Express  should be involved.

yes it was airport duty for one cancelled passenger flying from heathrow to kazahakstan via moscow. when i cancelled the flight  due to ill health opodo told me i would get the airport duty back i asked how much & the person left me on hold, came back & gave me 4 figures that totalled £143 & that is the amount that will be refunded. after a few days  the refund hadnt come so i phoned back, i was told it was just a delay & not to worry, i said i am concerned so please could you confirm the amount & that i am due this money in an email while we are on the phone. opodo did this, so i was then confident it would be ok. but the next phone call they said it was due to not having my card details so could i give them to them again & they would take £1 & then refund me £144. i did this they took the £1 but never gave any refund. then next contact they changed the story again & said they would have to refund it to my current account. they then wanted me to give all my bank details, name address & dob over the phone. i said that doesnt sound right & i was worried the person on the phone was going to do something dodgy with that information. opodo then emailed again confirming i am owed the refund & asked for all my details again via un secure email. i asked my bank & they under no circumstances do that. i had 2 of those emails. another phone call & it became clear the were now not going to refund. so i contacted amex they said yes that should be straight forward i asked for section 75, but they did charge back. opdo have never said why on so many occasions i was due the money if it wasnt owed. opodo then sent nonsense evidence to amex who did not check it. ie we asked for apd for lynda opodo said its not due because james travelled . amex also asked for the full ticket money despite us saying it is just the apd. i did complain to amex in march. my complaint was upheld & given £100 compensation. amex then did exactly the same again, so i complained again but despite the 2nd !!!!!! up happening after the 1st complaint was settled they then said the 1st complaint was settled & covered the 2nd complaint. amex have never told me why my supporting evidence counts for nothing. or why/how the previous month (october 19) opodo refunded me apd for the very same person to the same amex card .yet now opodo say they dont refund apd. i do think 4 months too long a time for a section 75 to go through when its in writing the money is owed to me. amex are worst ive come accross. tesco bank got out cancelled covid flight money back from wizz within a month. its become a point of principle rather than the money now. opodo are basically saying yes we owe you it but we arent gonna give you it , tough sh*t

themissingdigit

Voyager2002 said:

themissingdigit said:

i had to cancel one of our passangers due to illness. i did this on the phone with opodo. on the call they confirmed i would be getting £143 in airport duty or passanger tax (whatever the name is) there were 4 legs hence the amount. this was not forthcoming & had to make a few calls & asked for confirmation of the amount due by email, they did that 3 times, but still no refund.

So you have written confirmation that a refund of this amount is due. This is clearly a good deal more than APD, but if this refund is agreed but not forthcoming then it is appropriate to use the Section 75 process.

i have the amount in writing 3 times , so should be an easy thing for section 75 to recover or so i thought

Voyager2002

I think the problem is that you do not communicate clearly, and in particular you do not use paragraphs.

Amex have failed to do something that should be very simple, presumably because their staff do not have the time to read detailed explanations. This could be the basis for a complaint to the FOS. You need to keep it simple: Opodo have agreed that they owe you a partial refund (£144) but have failed to pay it; Amex messed up the process of claiming this amount under Section 75 and now are failing to deal with the problem. Keep all the details as an appendix.

greyteam1959

Paragraphs & cut the content by 75%.

themissingdigit

Voyager2002 said:

I think the problem is that you do not communicate clearly, and in particular you do not use paragraphs.

Amex have failed to do something that should be very simple, presumably because their staff do not have the time to read detailed explanations. This could be the basis for a complaint to the FOS. You need to keep it simple: Opodo have agreed that they owe you a partial refund (£144) but have failed to pay it; Amex messed up the process of claiming this amount under Section 75 and now are failing to deal with the problem. Keep all the details as an appendix.

thanks for your reply & sorry for my late response. its been a bad few days. i am very poor at communication & punctuation plus capitals really slow down my 1 finger typing so i dont bother (sorry). but my wife is very clear. but at the moment she is suffering bullying & harassment beyond belief ,  the person in question has wasted over £100k of Haringey council money (im not making that up) in his bid to wreck her life, in the middle of a pandemic. hence me trying not to add to her woes & try to carry on the amex/opodo saga. originally all she mentioned was the amount owed (with evidence ) & what it was for ie not the whole transaction. do you think i should ask them to close the current one & ask them to open a new one, just based on the fact  they said they owe me £143 & they havent paid, no mention of what its for?

themissingdigit

greyteam1959 said:

Paragraphs & cut the content by 75%.

  i tried to use less in first post but people questioned the amount so i thought id have a (unsuccessful)  bash at the whole lot. 

themissingdigit

looks like my best course of action is to abandon amex for help, as just received another load of merchant nonsense (evidence) in the post. no mention of why they told me i am due this money & still does not refer to the apd at all, so i will do a small claim against opodo. my wife did the notice before action letter to them ages ago, before we thought amex might be the quicker easier option. how wrong were we. 
when doing this is my best approach to just say they owe me the money here are the 3 emails showing so & just leave it at that, not mentioning why & leave it to them to explain to the "court" why they think they dont owe it?

thanks for any small claims advice