Lastminute.com Admin Fee for Flight Refund

Thrugelmir

Jumblebumble said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Robmacca1 said:

Good evening everyone, sorry if this has been covered in some sort of context before. 

We’ve had a flight cancelled to Dalaman with Turkish Airlines that we booked through LastMinute.com, we have now received some comms from LM that we are due a refund (of a sort) the options are;

1) Travel credit extra value offer. £430 as travel credit. 

2) £410.22 as a Voucher

3) Cash refund of £305.22 (admin fee of £105 applied) 

I would obviously prefer the cash refund so we can actually do something as a family this summer, however £105 in admin fees when it is the airline that has cancelled the trip seems ridiculous. It’s like 25% of the outbound flight, we’re still waiting on the return with Jet2 to be cancelled so no doubt this will be a further admin fee  

Has anyone had any luck challenging this? I’m not against paying a reasonable fee if there’s extra work involved in processing a refund, but there wouldn’t have been a fee if we went as planned. What exactly do they think they’ve done to earn 25% of the refund? 

We have not accepted any of the refunds as of yet and any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

If you don't want to pay these fees in future the time to take issue with them and "challenge" them is when you're deciding where to buy your tickets from.

Buy direct from the airline and you may pay more but you won't have to pay these fees.

Buy from agents and you may save a bit on the ticket price but they will charge you for all work they do on your behalf as they are perfectly entitled to do if they have make this clear in the terms and conditions. 

You can't have it both ways unfortunately.

If I were the OP I would be tempted to  believe trading standards view on this matter
There is no value to the OP for any work an agent might have carried out if the flight is cancelled

The business, like any business incurs costs in order to operate.

If your employer doesn't get paid by the customer. Should they then not pay you your salary?  

CKhalvashi

Thrugelmir said:

Jumblebumble said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Robmacca1 said:

Good evening everyone, sorry if this has been covered in some sort of context before. 

We’ve had a flight cancelled to Dalaman with Turkish Airlines that we booked through LastMinute.com, we have now received some comms from LM that we are due a refund (of a sort) the options are;

1) Travel credit extra value offer. £430 as travel credit. 

2) £410.22 as a Voucher

3) Cash refund of £305.22 (admin fee of £105 applied) 

I would obviously prefer the cash refund so we can actually do something as a family this summer, however £105 in admin fees when it is the airline that has cancelled the trip seems ridiculous. It’s like 25% of the outbound flight, we’re still waiting on the return with Jet2 to be cancelled so no doubt this will be a further admin fee  

Has anyone had any luck challenging this? I’m not against paying a reasonable fee if there’s extra work involved in processing a refund, but there wouldn’t have been a fee if we went as planned. What exactly do they think they’ve done to earn 25% of the refund? 

We have not accepted any of the refunds as of yet and any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

If you don't want to pay these fees in future the time to take issue with them and "challenge" them is when you're deciding where to buy your tickets from.

Buy direct from the airline and you may pay more but you won't have to pay these fees.

Buy from agents and you may save a bit on the ticket price but they will charge you for all work they do on your behalf as they are perfectly entitled to do if they have make this clear in the terms and conditions. 

You can't have it both ways unfortunately.

If I were the OP I would be tempted to  believe trading standards view on this matter
There is no value to the OP for any work an agent might have carried out if the flight is cancelled

The business, like any business incurs costs in order to operate.

If your employer doesn't get paid by the customer. Should they then not pay you your salary?  

Exactly. OP paid the agent to book the flight for them, and the agent must be paid.

If OP wants rights given in law, they must book with the airline in future, not an agency.

I see the value to the OP for the work an agent has carried out, as they would forfeit their refund if the agent does not work for them. The agent therefore has a right to be paid for this.

bagand96

Butts said:

Or even better if you are eligible for a chargeback go down that route, probably not difficult to engineer with LM.com as they never refund within the proscribed timescales.
No Admin Fee to pay with this method.

As others have reported recently on this forum, chargeback isn’t a magic wand that fixes all.  Whilst it may work in practice in this case, who’s to say you wouldn’t get an invoice from LM.com for the admin fees in a few months from now?

michael1234

Jumblebumble said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Robmacca1 said:

Good evening everyone, sorry if this has been covered in some sort of context before. 

We’ve had a flight cancelled to Dalaman with Turkish Airlines that we booked through LastMinute.com, we have now received some comms from LM that we are due a refund (of a sort) the options are;

1) Travel credit extra value offer. £430 as travel credit. 

2) £410.22 as a Voucher

3) Cash refund of £305.22 (admin fee of £105 applied) 

I would obviously prefer the cash refund so we can actually do something as a family this summer, however £105 in admin fees when it is the airline that has cancelled the trip seems ridiculous. It’s like 25% of the outbound flight, we’re still waiting on the return with Jet2 to be cancelled so no doubt this will be a further admin fee  

Has anyone had any luck challenging this? I’m not against paying a reasonable fee if there’s extra work involved in processing a refund, but there wouldn’t have been a fee if we went as planned. What exactly do they think they’ve done to earn 25% of the refund? 

We have not accepted any of the refunds as of yet and any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

If you don't want to pay these fees in future the time to take issue with them and "challenge" them is when you're deciding where to buy your tickets from.

Buy direct from the airline and you may pay more but you won't have to pay these fees.

Buy from agents and you may save a bit on the ticket price but they will charge you for all work they do on your behalf as they are perfectly entitled to do if they have make this clear in the terms and conditions. 

You can't have it both ways unfortunately.

If I were the OP I would be tempted to  believe trading standards view on this matter
There is no value to the OP for any work an agent might have carried out if the flight is cancelled

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/news-policy/news-room/2020/pandemic-cancellations-beware-refund-vouchers-and-admin-fees
Some travel agents have also been deducting significant ‘admin’ fees from refunds, contrary to the law, and this practice should be reported and stopped, according to London Trading Standards. Under EU and UK law, companies must provide a refund in the event that no service is provided to the customer.
( The article makes it crystal clear that if their interpretation of no service is if the flight is cancelled)

In a sea of highly unhelpful and inaccurate responses, this post really stands out to me as being the opposite - very helpful.
OP, who are you going to believe? Some posters on here many of whom respond to tens of thousands of posts (because they really are that knowledgeable on such a wide range of subjects...hmmmm....) or Trading Standards ?

Butts

bagand96 said:

Butts said:

Or even better if you are eligible for a chargeback go down that route, probably not difficult to engineer with LM.com as they never refund within the proscribed timescales.
No Admin Fee to pay with this method.

As others have reported recently on this forum, chargeback isn’t a magic wand that fixes all.  Whilst it may work in practice in this case, who’s to say you wouldn’t get an invoice from LM.com for the admin fees in a few months from now?

I did get one which they quickly retracted when Capital One told them to go forth and multiply 

Jumblebumble

Thrugelmir said:

Jumblebumble said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Robmacca1 said:

Good evening everyone, sorry if this has been covered in some sort of context before. 

We’ve had a flight cancelled to Dalaman with Turkish Airlines that we booked through LastMinute.com, we have now received some comms from LM that we are due a refund (of a sort) the options are;

1) Travel credit extra value offer. £430 as travel credit. 

2) £410.22 as a Voucher

3) Cash refund of £305.22 (admin fee of £105 applied) 

I would obviously prefer the cash refund so we can actually do something as a family this summer, however £105 in admin fees when it is the airline that has cancelled the trip seems ridiculous. It’s like 25% of the outbound flight, we’re still waiting on the return with Jet2 to be cancelled so no doubt this will be a further admin fee  

Has anyone had any luck challenging this? I’m not against paying a reasonable fee if there’s extra work involved in processing a refund, but there wouldn’t have been a fee if we went as planned. What exactly do they think they’ve done to earn 25% of the refund? 

We have not accepted any of the refunds as of yet and any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

If you don't want to pay these fees in future the time to take issue with them and "challenge" them is when you're deciding where to buy your tickets from.

Buy direct from the airline and you may pay more but you won't have to pay these fees.

Buy from agents and you may save a bit on the ticket price but they will charge you for all work they do on your behalf as they are perfectly entitled to do if they have make this clear in the terms and conditions. 

You can't have it both ways unfortunately.

If I were the OP I would be tempted to  believe trading standards view on this matter
There is no value to the OP for any work an agent might have carried out if the flight is cancelled

The business, like any business incurs costs in order to operate.

If your employer doesn't get paid by the customer. Should they then not pay you your salary?  

I am answering lots of other peoples views
Let us not forget that the business is the one in the transaction making a profit
They need to take the rough with the smooth
I run a business and quite often do not get paid for work I do in quoting
If I tell a customer I can supply them a widget and then having done the work in ordering it and then stock runs out and is discontinued as the supplier did not have real time information on their system  do you think the customer should pay me for my work and my lost profit.
If the flight is cancelled surely the contract is voided and matters should be wound back to where things were before it took place
If they cannot deliver what was agreed why should they still be allowed to make a charge for trying?
I would give far less weight to ABTAs views than to trading standards as one represents their clients and the other is independent
A court will rule if it is an unfair term so talking about what was agreed in Terms and Conditions is not helpful

eskbanker

Jumblebumble said:

I would give far less weight to ABTAs views than to trading standards as one represents their clients and the other is independent
A court will rule if it is an unfair term so talking about what was agreed in Terms and Conditions is not helpful

Agreed about ABTA, a trade body representing travel agents is hardly going to be impartial!

I don't know if your reference to Ts & Cs was in response to my earlier post, but just to be clear, the point I was making was that Trading Standards are advising flight-only customers to check about admin fees in the Ts & Cs of the contract with the agent, rather than saying that these terms wouldn't apply (in contrast to the package scenario, where providers must comply with the PTRs and refund in full without deduction, regardless of what their Ts & Cs say), so TS are recognising the legitimacy of the principle of admin fees on flight-only bookings.  Of course, some such terms may be unfair, but, as you say, that would ultimately be up to a court to decide, and from a consumer's perspective, it's way more hassle to have to challenge a company on unfair terms rather than reasonably self-evident breaches of travel-related legislation and regulations.

CKhalvashi

michael1234 said:

Jumblebumble said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Robmacca1 said:

Good evening everyone, sorry if this has been covered in some sort of context before. 

We’ve had a flight cancelled to Dalaman with Turkish Airlines that we booked through LastMinute.com, we have now received some comms from LM that we are due a refund (of a sort) the options are;

1) Travel credit extra value offer. £430 as travel credit. 

2) £410.22 as a Voucher

3) Cash refund of £305.22 (admin fee of £105 applied) 

I would obviously prefer the cash refund so we can actually do something as a family this summer, however £105 in admin fees when it is the airline that has cancelled the trip seems ridiculous. It’s like 25% of the outbound flight, we’re still waiting on the return with Jet2 to be cancelled so no doubt this will be a further admin fee  

Has anyone had any luck challenging this? I’m not against paying a reasonable fee if there’s extra work involved in processing a refund, but there wouldn’t have been a fee if we went as planned. What exactly do they think they’ve done to earn 25% of the refund? 

We have not accepted any of the refunds as of yet and any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

If you don't want to pay these fees in future the time to take issue with them and "challenge" them is when you're deciding where to buy your tickets from.

Buy direct from the airline and you may pay more but you won't have to pay these fees.

Buy from agents and you may save a bit on the ticket price but they will charge you for all work they do on your behalf as they are perfectly entitled to do if they have make this clear in the terms and conditions. 

You can't have it both ways unfortunately.

If I were the OP I would be tempted to  believe trading standards view on this matter
There is no value to the OP for any work an agent might have carried out if the flight is cancelled

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/news-policy/news-room/2020/pandemic-cancellations-beware-refund-vouchers-and-admin-fees
Some travel agents have also been deducting significant ‘admin’ fees from refunds, contrary to the law, and this practice should be reported and stopped, according to London Trading Standards. Under EU and UK law, companies must provide a refund in the event that no service is provided to the customer.
( The article makes it crystal clear that if their interpretation of no service is if the flight is cancelled)

In a sea of highly unhelpful and inaccurate responses, this post really stands out to me as being the opposite - very helpful.
OP, who are you going to believe? Some posters on here many of whom respond to tens of thousands of posts (because they really are that knowledgeable on such a wide range of subjects...hmmmm....) or Trading Standards ?

This is the only unhelpful and inaccurate post I can see here. Flight only bookings are not protected, neither are accommodation only. 

Only in the case of a package is what you are saying of any relevance, which definitely is not here.

I do not claim to hold authority in this area, but will note that once again based on real world experience and current legislation, you are incorrect.