Value Added travel exploiting prices for rebooking?

chickpie

Hi
We booked a holiday with Value Added Travel for last April, it obviously couldn't take place, so it was reschuled for September. As September drew nearer we contacted
ValueAdded travel to discuss options as it was clear that again we wouldn't be able to travel. They absolutely refused to refund us the cost of £7k and offered a travel voucher with some terms which we grudgingly accepted. 
We are now looking to travel next April and wary of them inflating the price I asked for price in my name (my husband arranged the orignal booking and credit note) and I was given a quote without mentioning we had a credit voucher. My husband provided this quote to his original contact and asked him if we can book this new deal/dates using the voucher. We got an email back (from the new booking contact) saying it was in the terms that we tell them up front if there any credit vouchers 'to avoid confusion' and that the new cost would now be £1600 more! So a £1600 increase in 24hrs... 
Can they do this? I have told them that i wanted to compare the prices to understand if they were inflating prices and asked them to explain the £1600 increase - perhaps i should not have been so transparent.
Thanks for any advice
A

[Deleted User]

Wow that is sneaky!   I would be furious too!   Not sure exactly what you can do about it except kick up a stink.  Actually you should have been entitled to a refund originally but I understand knowing this and actually getting a refund can be a hard long stressful slog and things were very confusing back in April.   

Not familiar with value added travel. Can you use the voucher for any holiday?   Maybe if all else fails book something cheaper and then never use them again?  

By law I think they can charge what they want (people can make their own minds up) but very naughty of them to inflate prices for people who have vouchers.   Another agent on my “naughty” list!   

chickpie

Tedber said:

Wow that is sneaky!   I would be furious too!   Not sure exactly what you can do about it except kick up a stink.  Actually you should have been entitled to a refund originally but I understand knowing this and actually getting a refund can be a hard long stressful slog and things were very confusing back in April.   

Not familiar with value added travel. Can you use the voucher for any holiday?   Maybe if all else fails book something cheaper and then never use them again?  

By law I think they can charge what they want (people can make their own minds up) but very naughty of them to inflate prices for people who have vouchers.   Another agent on my “naughty” list!   

I am now in an email argument with them - they claim we have flights 'in retention' with the flight operator, however - we were told we had a credit voucher to use on any holiday so i'm not sure why that is the case, we may not have chosen to travel to the same place. I  have asked for a simple explanation of the difference in cost for new customer vs existing customer before we start complaints/legal proceedings. 
Very much regret taking the credit voucher now and want to explore a credit card refund as insurance already said no.

Westin

Do you still have the terms of the credit note to read?

From their side I can see why it might be restrictive to the same airline and that airlines network (the airline after all will be holding your credit on the flight ticket element of your original booking, not Value Added Travel) . For example if you originally due to fly with Emirates your new flights would also need to be on the Emirates flight network.  This should however have been made clearer to you when agreeing to accept the credit vs. a refund.

chickpie

Westin said:

Do you still have the terms of the credit note to read?

From their side I can see why it might be restrictive to the same airline and that airlines network (the airline after all will be holding your credit on the flight ticket element of your original booking, not Value Added Travel) . For example if you originally due to fly with Emirates your new flights would also need to be on the Emirates flight network.  This should however have been made clearer to you when agreeing to accept the credit vs. a refund.

We were told we could use the voucher for any future holiday - the voucher is actually worringy simple - really just a word doc saying we have a credit note for previous booking reference number - no terms and conditions at all.  We can also see plenty of availablity even if we were taking the same holiday -  and other operators have quoted us much much less for the same holiday. 
We did originally want a refund but decided to take the credit note as we knew business would be so difficult for travel operators, however if feels like they have no such loyalty to their customers. 

bagand96

I'd agree with the above; it''s likely that you have to use the same airline as the original booking and this could be what's causing the price difference. 

About the credit note, was it a proper ABTA Refund Credit Note (RCN) or just a stateen of booking credit? (Sounds like it may be the latter? )

chickpie

bagand96 said:

I'd agree with the above; it''s likely that you have to use the same airline as the original booking and this could be what's causing the price difference. 

About the credit note, was it a proper ABTA Refund Credit Note (RCN) or just a stateen of booking credit? (Sounds like it may be the latter? )

Looking  back at email trails, the person we dealt with told us we could use it for ANY holiday and noted he was waiting for the cancellation invoices. I think this suggests they actually cancelled our holiday? 
Looks like the latter but i can't tell the diffence, it has an ATOL stamp and that's about it - description is 'Credit note for booking xxxxxxxx. and the price we paid. Is there a fundamental difference?

Westin

So which airline and where had you originally booked and where do you know wish to go?

It might be easier to look at options using the same carrier.

chickpie

Westin said:

So which airline and where had you originally booked and where do you know wish to go?

It might be easier to look at options using the same carrier.

We were booked to fly with Emirates to UAE - we have lots of prices from other operators, but we're stuck with Value Added Travel due to the credit voucher. 

Westin

Thankfully Emirates have a wide range of options open if credit is restricted to staying with that airline.

chickpie

An update, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with Value Added Travel - they have now agreed to price match a holiday with British Airways! So no extra charges! 
I'm a bit concerned still at their ethics approach but it seems simpler to accept...