Lastminute.com partial refund offer

adyble

We booked a long weekend in Austria as they are on our green list. We didn't realize until 2 days later that Austria will not let us in because of covid, so we cancelled our booking 2 weeks before due to depart.  They have offered just over half the money but there is no way that they have lost out except for some admin time.  It seems that because they are a Swiss company they are not governed by UK laws.  We have not accepted the refund and when we spoke to them they said they would escalate it which of course the haven't.  The have now processed the partial refund but we didn't ask them to. I've asked the credit card company to recover the money but I'm sure that's a long and difficult job.  I'm surprised there was no warning to try to prevent us making a booking that we weren't able to go on. I'd be quite happy accept an admin fee from them.

eskbanker

adyble said:

We didn't realize until 2 days later that Austria will not let us in because of covid, so we cancelled our booking 2 weeks before due to depart.

What gave you the impression that you wouldn't be allowed in?  If you mean that you're actually infected with Covid then that would be understandable, but in general there's no issue with UK tourists going there, or was this at some stage in the past?

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/austria

If you unilaterally chose to cancel then you have no refund rights other than what's specified in the booking terms....

adyble

We checked about 2 weeks ago and you could go but had to isolate on arrival for 10 days. I'll have to see if I can find the site. They usually only list the current advice though.

adyble

It looks like they lifted the quarantine requirement just after we cancelled !

I can't past links but below is the web page

Austria Lifts Quarantine Requirement for Travellers From UK, India, Russia & Several Other Countries - SchengenVisaInfo.com

Caz3121

was this flight-only or a package?
what were the cancellation terms?
you paid Lasminute and they then paid the supplier(s). They will be relying on the suppliers to return funds to them to be able to refund you. The terms and conditions will determine what the suppliers will refund. eg If you booked a non-refundable flight then the airline may refund only some taxes to Lastminute.
You say you did not ask them to process the refund but what did you expect them to do when you cancelled your booking?
I assume you mean a chargeback with the credit card, what evidence have you provided them that you are entitled to this money back? - note if they do refund anything I would keep it to one side as Lastminute will very likely be able to provide them the evidence that you are not entitled to it so they will take it back again.

adyble

This is at July 14th - 

All travellers from virus variant zones such as the following list indicates are banned from non-essential travelling to Austria, and they can enter the country only for medical reasons, business travel, or other essential purposes:

• Botswana
• Brazil
• Eswatini
• India
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nepal
• Russia
• South Africa
• the United Kingdom
• Uruguay
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

eskbanker

But were those restrictions introduced in the two days between making the booking and cancelling it?

adyble

No they were already in place at booking at cancellation. We (wrongly) assumed that when a country is on our Green list that we can travel without quarantine. We only found out that the over next two days that we'd misinterpreted it. It looks like the green list is actually the other way around. I don't believe they should have allowed us to make the booking without at least a warning. We tried to book a skiing holiday late last year but we told by the company the Norway wasn't accepting visitors which is what lastminute.com should have done. They are the experts here.

eskbanker

They may be experts in making travel bookings but, like their competitors, won't accept liability for checking all entry requirements, visas, passports, etc, and there'll be some exclusion in their Ts & Cs stating that the travellers have to be responsible for validating this.

adyble

I do suspect we will get nowhere with them.

Caz3121

I would not say Lastminute/Bravofly are experts
As with majority of third party agents / airlines etc they will always state that is is the passengers responsibility to check they are able to enter the country. Things change so rapidly it would be impractical for them all to update their info every time there is a change.
They do however provide a handy map https://www.lastminute.com/travel-inspiration/where-can-i-go-on-holiday.html?int_type=CMS_MUL&int_campaign=CNT&int_detail=MHP_LMUK_info_safe_travel_advice which contains links to FCO site.
What would be key is the situation at time of travel rather than two weeks before travel.