Another lastminute.com complaint

AcesWazza

Hi

First time poster, be gentle :-)

So early in the pandemic I probably naively thought that this would all blow over by Christmas and booked myself a trip to Vegas.  Flight only plus a fully refundable hotel at Dublin airport.  I now have 2 issues:

Hotel - I applied for a refund and got an email through today asking how I wanted to be paid.... cash refund please....

So if I want a cash refund, they are going to charge me £69.99 "handling fee".  Has anyone else had this/managed to get their refund fairly as this seems like it's just extorting you into taking the voucher?  I don't really want to take the voucher as who knows what the situation will be in the next 12 months plus after this experience, I'm unlikely to use LM again anyway.

Now onto the flight - most of the information I've read says that if the flight is cancelled by the airline, you will be refunded.  However, the flight hasn't yet been cancelled. I tried asking LM's customer service what the situation would be if there were travel restrictions (ie I'm not allowed into America) and they said they could only give the refund if the flight was physically cancelled.  The information on the website about destinations affected by travel restrictions is at best vague.  It just feels like LM are putting the onus on the airline to cancel and if they don't, hiding behind vague T&C's go get out of paying you back.  Also, introducing arbitrary  "handling fees" to force you into taking vouchers.  

Can anyone give me any ideas as to how best to approach either of these issues?  Particularly the flight... many thanks in advance :-)

bagand96

Is your flight booking flexible/refundable? The vast majority of flight bookings are not (a flexible and refundable economy ticket to Vegas would be in the region of £2200+)

If it's a non-refundable flight, then lastminute.com are correct in saying you're only due a refund if the airline cancel the flight.  Nobody (airline or agent) owe you a refund just because you can't, or don't want to travel.  That would be a travel insurance claim.

Your airline may have flexible options allowing you to move your flight booking to a date in the future, which might be another option.

AcesWazza

No unfortunately not.  I'm just amazed that considering there must be literally thousands of people in the situation where their destination countries are not accepting British travellers that there's not something in place for these people.  Fair enough no refund if I didn't want to travel but it's not right to take bookings for a service that I may not be able to use.  

Reading through further pages on this forum hasn't exactly filled me with hope.  Lastminute.con seems to be a fair name for them.

eskbanker

AcesWazza said:

I'm just amazed that considering there must be literally thousands of people in the situation where their destination countries are not accepting British travellers that there's not something in place for these people.

There is, it's called travel insurance....

AcesWazza

eskbanker said:

AcesWazza said:

I'm just amazed that considering there must be literally thousands of people in the situation where their destination countries are not accepting British travellers that there's not something in place for these people.

There is, it's called travel insurance....

Based on when I booked, I wouldn't have been covered.  I have to admit, at the time of booking I didn't know there was a travel restriction in place and should have probably checked but I just think it's wrong that agents are accepting these bookings knowing they aren't covered under insurance and acting like its nothing to do with them when you call them up.

Caz3121

I assume, since you booked during the pandemic that your travel insurance does not cover you...is that correct?
Have you looked on the airline website to see what they are offering their customers? - some are offering reschedules or even vouchers, you will need to do this via Lastminute as they are the airline's customer and there will likely be admin fees involved.

AcesWazza

Caz3121 said:

I assume, since you booked during the pandemic that your travel insurance does not cover you...is that correct?
Have you looked on the airline website to see what they are offering their customers? - some are offering reschedules or even vouchers, you will need to do this via Lastminute as they are the airline's customer and there will likely be admin fees involved.

The main bulk of the flight is through Virgin and they are offering a very generous policy for this.  I'll look into this with LM and see what their undoubtedly ridiculous admin fee for this will be...

bagand96

AcesWazza said:

No unfortunately not.  I'm just amazed that considering there must be literally thousands of people in the situation where their destination countries are not accepting British travellers that there's not something in place for these people.  Fair enough no refund if I didn't want to travel but it's not right to take bookings for a service that I may not be able to use.  

Reading through further pages on this forum hasn't exactly filled me with hope.  Lastminute.con seems to be a fair name for them.

LM are not a reputable agent, that's for sure.  However they haven't conned you in respect to the flights.  The airline will not refund.  So do you expect them to refund you and they take the hit?

I think the Virgin policy of rebooking may be your best hope here.  As you booked via an agent, you will probably have to do this via the agent.  But it might be worth logging into your Virgin booking and checking if you can move it yourself.

Butts

AcesWazza said:

eskbanker said:

AcesWazza said:

I'm just amazed that considering there must be literally thousands of people in the situation where their destination countries are not accepting British travellers that there's not something in place for these people.

There is, it's called travel insurance....

Based on when I booked, I wouldn't have been covered.  I have to admit, at the time of booking I didn't know there was a travel restriction in place and should have probably checked but I just think it's wrong that agents are accepting these bookings knowing they aren't covered under insurance and acting like its nothing to do with them when you call them up.

Well in that case why didn't you book it directly with Virgin Atlantic for a simple flights and overnight stay in Dublin which could have  been booked directly with Premier Inn.

Insurance is not their concern. If you were unaware Travel to the USA was restricted at the time of booking you must either be really stupid or living in a bubble.

Thrugelmir

AcesWazza said:

I'm just amazed that considering there must be literally thousands of people in the situation where their destination countries are not accepting British travellers that there's not something in place for these people.  

Believing a global pandemic was simply going to blow over was a bad call. I suspect that you are were in the minority in this regard. The US hasn't handled the situation well either. On that front been no change in months. 

Ben1989

The US banned the UK on the 14th March, before we even went into lockdown. They were the first country that I'm aware of that put country bans in place. Therefore you most likely booked all of this after the ban.

You've unfortunately put yourself in a situation where this is not the airline's fault. You could have actual reason to be allowed entry (US family, children, student etc). There are exceptions to the ban from the UK so they're not at fault for allowing bookings. The airline would have no idea of your circumstances and don't need to know.

The ban has remained in place since March. It hasn't been lifted then put in place again. It's been continuous and I disagree with you that it's vague. I'm sorry to be blunt but this was naive on your part and it's not Virgin's or LM's fault that they allowed the booking to be done. 

You might have to take this one on the chin. Hoping you can get something back. Maybe just plead ignorance with Virgin and hope they give a refund out of good will.