Travelup.com to compensate me the cost of Wasted PCR test

divdav

a long story short, on 06 November 2020 I have booked a return ticket for my father in law to fly to Kuwait for 06 December 2020 (yesterday). To gain entry into Kuwait, similar to other countries, you are required to provide a negative PCR test certificate upon arrival. This test was carried out on Friday 4 December 2020 in Leicester, having paid £250 for it.  On Friday the 6th of December 9 hours prior to the departure I went on to the BA's website in order to Check-IN my father in law, and to my surprise I could not find the outbound flight to Kuwait, I could only see the inbound which is scheduled for February 2021.
I called up British Airways customer services in effort to check-in my father in law over the phone, and to my surprise the outbound flight has been cancelled and they have sent an email to travelup.com on the 17th of November advising them that the flight to Kuwait has been cancelled. When I asked the question "Why hasn't BA contacted me of such change?" I was told that the onus is on travelup.com to cascade flight cancellation to all the relevant passengers by contacting them.  Furthermore I did ask BA whether "I could get compensated for the cost of PCR test which has been wasted? Had I been told that the outbound flight was cancelled I would not have arranged for the PCR test having wasted £250 since the PCR certificate is only valid for 72 hours" I was told that BA will not compensate me for the cost of PCR test and instead I should get travelup.com to compensate me for that as result of their negligence in giving me an advance notice of flight cancellation. 
BA did amend the outbound flight to Kuwait by providing a seat for the next flight on the 13th of December at no extra cost, no other incentive or a free upgrade was provided. 

I have four questions:
1. Why wont BA compensate me £250 when clearly it was BA which has cancelled the flight?
2. I am planning to contact travelup.com and submit a formal complaint and also request them to compensate me the cost of the PCR test. Do you think that I stand a chance of being compensated?
3. Since I have paid travelup.com using my credit card, what support do I get from my credit card provider.
4. Has anybody else been in this situation? if yes, please share your experience.   

The_Fat_Controller

Your contract is with TRAVELUP not BA, they should have kept you up to date with any cancellations or changes.

silvercar

So many points, in answer to your 4:
1. BA gave travel up sufficient notice, it isn’t their fault that travel up (the supplier YOU chose) didn’t pass on the message. 
2. Definitely complain, though generally the cost of any passports/ visas/ inoculations etc is down to you, I would have thought the same for tests.
3. I would expect the credit card company to say you booked a flight and you are getting a flight, so you are getting what you pay for, I very much doubt the credit card company would consider themselves jointly liable for the test costs.
4. no, haven’t heard of any cases.
now a couple of points of my own:
5. We are in a pandemic, travelling is difficult, it does make sense to check on your flights in the days leading up to them. BA flights are easy to check online via the website or better download the app.
6. that was a seriously expensive test, Boots tests are £120, I can find others local to me from £140 upwards. Do some more research before the next one, particularly look at airport testing as more and more airports are offering this. If he is flying from Heathrow, Sofitel do a ‘test and rest’ where you take the test, stay overnight and get the result in the morning, was about £160 when I last looked so maybe worth checking out.

Pollycat

Do you mean 'compensate' or do you mean 'reimburse'?

I'm not surprised that BA will not reimburse you the £250 for the test.

You are not their customer.

Travelup is their customer.

You are Travelup's customer.

BA informed their customer of the cancelled flight.

This is what can happen when you put a 3rd party between you and the airline.

I doubt you will get anywhere with Travelup or your credit card provider.

[Deleted User]

Like others said I doubt you will be refunded for the test as you have HAD the test and got the results.   Understand you wouldn’t have paid out for one if you knew the situation and agree the agents were remiss in not telling you immediately. They would probably argue that this is due to sheer volume of travelers to deal with.   You can certainly try to obtain a refund but, for me, it is akin to specifically buying anything for a redundant holiday - you are stuck with it.    

A court decision would likely be the only determining factor but not sure how successful you would be as you received the goods.  Understand your fury though.  

silvercar

Let’s be clear, the only one that has failed you here is travelup. BA cancelled with more than 14 days notice and the test centre supplied what you asked.

Caz3121

divdav said:

On Friday the 6th of December 9 hours prior to the departure I went on to the BA's website

not that it will help now but, having booked flights during a Global pandemic with flights being cancelled and rescheduled on a daily basis, you should have been checking the booking on the airline website every couple of days to check the status of the flight. You don't appear to have checked the booking between 17th November and 9 hours before the flight.
I suspect when you contact Travelup they will point you to the terms and conditions
"You must reconfirm with the airline at least 72 hours before the departure time shown on your ticket to confirm that there have been no changes. This applies to both outbound and return flights. We will not be liable for any additional costs due to your failure to reconfirm flights. Reconfirming your flight at least 72 hours before departure is a minimum requirement."
If you had booked direct with BA, they would have notified you directly but instead choosing to have a third party in the middle means that notification would have gone to them.

bagand96

I can see your frustration and why you feel you should be able to reclaim the PCR cost (although good points are made above about checking flight itineraries regularly after booking).  

I don’t think Travelup will volunteer that £250 very easily. In fact I think they might just refuse altogether. But you can always ask. Small claims might be an option, but I say that with no judgement on whether you’d win or not (for a start get written confirmation from BA that they notified Travelup of the cancellation)

MattMattMattUK

divdav said:

I have four questions:
1. Why wont BA compensate me £250 when clearly it was BA which has cancelled the flight?

Your contract is with Travelup not BA, BA's contract is with Travelup not you, the contractual relationship is between you and Travelup.

divdav said:

2. I am planning to contact travelup.com and submit a formal complaint and also request them to compensate me the cost of the PCR test. Do you think that I stand a chance of being compensated?

Your chances are probably slim to none, there is certainly no legal basis for compensation. In normal times they might make some sort of good will gesture, but with the current state of the travel industry I very much doubt it.

divdav said:

3. Since I have paid travelup.com using my credit card, what support do I get from my credit card provider.

If they do not refund the cost of the flight then you can use Chargeback or Section 75 to get you money back, neither of those offer protection against consequential losses. 

divdav said:

4. Has anybody else been in this situation? if yes, please share your experience.   

Others will have, but they will also not have been able to obtain "compensation" for the PCR test cost.

This is yet another example (at least partially) of the pitfalls of dealing with third parties, rather than with the airline or operator themselves. 

Westin

All of the above but in addition, given the well publicised consequences of covid and resulting world travel disruption you/your father-in-law should have also been on the ball regularly checking the www.ba.com site for scheduling changes and cancellations.  This would have avoided the unnecessary PCR test and cost. 

mattyprice4004

I can understand your frustration, but BA owe you nothing - you didn’t book with them.
Standard performance for one of these shonky online travel agents I’m afraid