Travel agent refusing to provide a full refund, what can I do?

Shants

So I booked a flight August 2020 to go to a funeral for me and my partner. It was a stop over flight. When I arrived at the first stop the airline informed I could no longer go on the flight due to COVID and sent me home. They informed I would receive a full refund. As I booked through a travel agent I requested the refund through my travel agent. The travel agent only provided me with a partial refund and informed this is all they received from the airline. Many back and forth calls and nobody can provide me with a breakdown of why I only received a partial refund. The airline won’t speak to me and the travel agent keeps saying the airline will not provide the information to them. I paid some of this by bank transfer so I cannot apply for a refund through my bank. Any advice on what I can do next? 

eDicky

You paid some by bank transfer, but was it otherwise paid by credit or debit card..?

Sandtree

Shants said:

 the airline informed I could no longer go on the flight due to COVID and sent me home. 

What do you mean by this? Was the onward flight cancelled? Did your destination country change its entry requirements thus barring you? Did the destination close their borders to all?

Shants

eDicky said:

You paid some by bank transfer, but was it otherwise paid by credit or debit card..?

Yes £1000 by bank transfer and £1500 by debit card. They refunded just over £1500... the rest they are refusing to refund. 

Shants

Sandtree said:

Shants said:

 the airline informed I could no longer go on the flight due to COVID and sent me home. 

What do you mean by this? Was the onward flight cancelled? Did your destination country change its entry requirements thus barring you? Did the destination close their borders to all?

Today at 9:12PM

Yes to be clearer it was a stop over flight and the second flight was cancelled to all due to COVID 19 when I arrived at the stop over airport so I did not go to my destination I only went half way then had to return home. 

Westin

Sorry to push but I think more clarity required on ‘stop over’.  Was your flight reservation all on one ticket (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB > BOM) with a connection same day, or did you have two ticket reservations and you broke your trip on the way (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB, three day stop, then Air India Express DXB > BOM).

Is this a real travel agent or one of these online ticket sellers? 

Can you tell us the airline(s), ticket seller/agent, routing and what refund you received from the fare paid.

Shants

Westin said:

Sorry to push but I think more clarity required on ‘stop over’.  Was your flight reservation all on one ticket (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB > BOM) with a connection same day, or did you have two ticket reservations and you broke your trip on the way (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB, three day stop, then Air India Express DXB > BOM).

Is this a real travel agent or one of these online ticket sellers? 

Can you tell us the airline(s), ticket seller/agent, routing and what refund you received from the fare paid.

The flight was LHR TO BRU overnight stay in a hotel then BRU TO KIN the following day. All the flights were via the same airline which was Brussels airline. 

The tickets were bought from a local travel agent I usually book with called Adams travel. They are small and seem to have booked through a larger travel company in London called Masterfare. The total I paid was £2575... £1000 bank transfer initial payment then the rest £1575 was paid at a later date via direct debit in store. The refund i received was £1586. Soo £989 not refunded. 

Sandtree

Shants said:

Westin said:

Sorry to push but I think more clarity required on ‘stop over’.  Was your flight reservation all on one ticket (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB > BOM) with a connection same day, or did you have two ticket reservations and you broke your trip on the way (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB, three day stop, then Air India Express DXB > BOM).

Is this a real travel agent or one of these online ticket sellers? 

Can you tell us the airline(s), ticket seller/agent, routing and what refund you received from the fare paid.

The flight was LHR TO BRU overnight stay in a hotel then BRU TO KIN the following day. All the flights were via the same airline which was Brussels airline. 

Do you know if they booked it as one ticket or booked it as two separate tickets? The later could well be cheaper given BRU almost certainly has less charges on a long haul flight than LHR. If it has been booked as two tickets then its only the BRU-KIN leg that'd be refunded as the LHR-BRU flew. 

Shants

Sandtree said:

Shants said:

Westin said:

Sorry to push but I think more clarity required on ‘stop over’.  Was your flight reservation all on one ticket (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB > BOM) with a connection same day, or did you have two ticket reservations and you broke your trip on the way (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB, three day stop, then Air India Express DXB > BOM).

Is this a real travel agent or one of these online ticket sellers? 

Can you tell us the airline(s), ticket seller/agent, routing and what refund you received from the fare paid.

The flight was LHR TO BRU overnight stay in a hotel then BRU TO KIN the following day. All the flights were via the same airline which was Brussels airline. 

Do you know if they booked it as one ticket or booked it as two separate tickets? The later could well be cheaper given BRU almost certainly has less charges on a long haul flight than LHR. If it has been booked as two tickets then its only the BRU-KIN leg that'd be refunded as the LHR-BRU flew. 

I haven’t asked them that.. he said it was a return flight but now it makes sense that it could be two sets of return flights. 

So if I flew from LHR TO BRU the return flight from BRU TO LHR would not be refunded either? 

That seems quite unfair considering I was told to go home due to my flight being cancelled and not provided an alternative flight by the airline. 

Sandtree

Shants said:

Sandtree said:

Shants said:

Westin said:

Sorry to push but I think more clarity required on ‘stop over’.  Was your flight reservation all on one ticket (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB > BOM) with a connection same day, or did you have two ticket reservations and you broke your trip on the way (e.g. Emirates LHR > DXB, three day stop, then Air India Express DXB > BOM).

Is this a real travel agent or one of these online ticket sellers? 

Can you tell us the airline(s), ticket seller/agent, routing and what refund you received from the fare paid.

The flight was LHR TO BRU overnight stay in a hotel then BRU TO KIN the following day. All the flights were via the same airline which was Brussels airline. 

Do you know if they booked it as one ticket or booked it as two separate tickets? The later could well be cheaper given BRU almost certainly has less charges on a long haul flight than LHR. If it has been booked as two tickets then its only the BRU-KIN leg that'd be refunded as the LHR-BRU flew. 

I haven’t asked them that.. he said it was a return flight but now it makes sense that it could be two sets of return flights. 

So if I flew from LHR TO BRU the return flight from BRU TO LHR would not be refunded either? 

That seems quite unfair considering I was told to go home due to my flight being cancelled and not provided an alternative flight by the airline. 

This is the risk you run by booking anything other than a straight through return... savings can be substantial but if anything goes wrong your own. Obviously at this point its speculation but is a reasonable explanation as to the partial refund. 

Westin

Whilst I have not heard of or come across Adams Travel before, it would seem at least this is a traditional independent travel agent and someone that you can contact and hopefully sort out the issue.  My concern had been you might have used an online, overseas based ticket seller who whilst attractive on price will offer little or no after booking service.

Masterfare is part of Statesman Travel Services, a known seller of consolidator flight fares.  They are also licenced by the CAA and sell ATOL protected travel arrangements. This protection may not have been included if you purchased just a flight, or would ATOL protection actually come into play with your issue - but handy for other reasons.

The airline is right in asking you to contact your booking agent and it could well be that the travel agency it not getting the information it requires from the airline.  I suspect the link in the middle (Masterfare) is broken or disrupted.  The refund from SN, together with the refund calculation, would flow from airline to Masterfare to your travel agent.  It sounds like Masterfare needs to either supply the fare refund calculation to Adams Travel, or for Adams Travel to chase them for that detail.

There are occasions where the agent/ticket seller may make an administrative charge for refunds but it would be disclosed in your booking confirmation t&c's, but it will of course not be anywhere near the amount still outstanding to you.

Judging by the refund made I suspect it might be as Sandtree suggests.  Perhaps you have been refunded for the cancelled BRU-FIH  flight [*FIH=Kinshasa N'Djili, DRC?] and possibly not the LHR-BRU-LHR sectors as these might possibly be seen as actually flown, although £494.50 pp for LHR-BRU-LHR seems expensive.     Was your hotel in Brussels arranged by Adams Travel and perhaps included in he total price paid?  If so I doubt a refund for the hotel would be possible.

I would suggest you keep applying pressure on Adams Travel for now and politely ask them to establish (from Masterfare) how your refund has been calculated and if further payment is still due.