Lastminute.com NOT refunding airline costs

arnieyule

My wife and I live in Edinburgh. We planned a trip to visit our son and family in Brisbane in mid 2020. While in Australia, we planned a trip to explore Darwin. Unfortunately, due to Covid, all parts of this trip became impossible.  All of this trip has subsequently been refunded, except for one part.

The trip included:

1. Flights between Edinburgh and Brisbane

2. Flight between Brisbane and Darwin (30 Jun 2020 and 6 Jul 2020)

3. Hotels in Darwin.

My complaint is that part of the above trip has not yet been refunded to me.

Refunds have been received for the International flights, and the hotels in Darwin. The flights within Australia have not been refunded. (The flights within Australia were with Virgin Australia, booked via Lastminute.com. The hotels in Darwin were also booked via Lastminute.com).  Also despite repeated phone calls to Lastminute.com, this appears to be never nearing a successful conclusion.

The trip was booked and paid for in Jan/Feb 2020.

In April/May 2020, it became obvious that our trip was not feasible; so the cancellation process was started. When our international travel became impossible, we initiated refund requests for our costs within Australia,

I have logged my complaint with ABTA and CMA.  What else can I do??

Caz3121

assuming this was not an ATOL package holiday...
Virgin Australia were issuing future flight credits and not refunds. They entered into voluntary administration
Information on their website - https://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/experience/service-experience/guarantees/
Lastminute will be able to pass on whatever the airline refunds to them (less any fees) you should be able to ask for the future flight credits, alternatively your travel insurance may be an option

eskbanker

Was the trip all booked together as a single package (with an ATOL certificate confirming this)? 

Did you pay by credit card? 

Did you have travel insurance?

Alan_Bowen

I suspect your only hope for the Virgin Australia flights is a claim on insurance as you didn't pay the airline directly to get s 75 protection. The new VA is not responsible for refunding payments made to the original one and who knows how long it will be before you are allowed to travel to Australia anyway. They announced a cut back in allowing Australian citizens to return home last week by 50% and many airlines are therefore withdrawing service as they can only carry 50 passengers or less. As a result, fares have gone stratospheric