MyTrip not issuing refund five months after receiving it from airline

aroominyork

We booked April 2020 flights on ElAl via MyTrip. The flights were cancelled and in May of this year the airline refunded MyTrip but they still have not passed this on to us and just say they are working through them, "there is nothing for you to worry about" etc. Is this typical, how long are others waiting, and is there anything I can do abut this please?

Alan_Bowen

If you use the search function on this forum, there are many similar stories. Your story is therefore entirely typical, you could try a claim against your credit card but if they claim they will refund you 'in due course' that may or may not be successful. The company is not based in the UK and therefore taking legal proceedings will be difficult and it belongs to no trade associations to whom you could complain. 

[Deleted User]

A lot of them are having cashflow problems and delaying refunds.

Your best bet is to contact your bank if you paid by credit card. Ask for a chargeback to be started.

eskbanker

[Deleted User] said:

A lot of them are having cashflow problems and delaying refunds.

Your best bet is to contact your bank if you paid by credit card. Ask for a chargeback to be started.

It's way too late for chargeback now (120 day limit), and section 75 is also unlikely to apply when booking flights through an agent....

bagand96

The bottom of their UK website gives a company name and an address in London.  Send a "Letter Before Action" giving them a reasonable amount of time to settle the debt (7/14 days?) and advise them if they fail to do so then will take legal action.  Hopefully the LBA might be enough to motivate them.  If it doesn't then you could consider using small claims court.

Just keep in mind that small claims court will only work if your contract was with a UK company so it would be worth double checking the T&Cs that the UK company was the company you entered into contract with and not one based abroad.

Westin

MyTrip.com is a subsidiary of Go To Gate, themselves part of the eTraveli Group, headquartered in Sweden.  All divisions oversea based.  ‘Service/support’ offshored to India and China.

Perhaps we need a Buy from a British business campaign or a use a real travel agent campaign.  Using these ‘cheap’ online ticket sellers, who are often overseas, only leads to problems if there is travel disruption.  Brave to use them pre pandemic. Almost foolhardy to use them in the middle of a global pandemic. 

For the OP, I would try to establish from ElAl if and when an actual refund was made to MyTrip.com.  Not sure the situation now but ElAl had been delaying refunds and issuing future credit vouchers instead at one time. Possibly the credit sits with ElAl.  If MyTrip.com does have the refund then it could be a slow repetitive job of chasing them up every few weeks. But no doubt it was a bargain fare.

aroominyork

A few more months on and MyTrip have still not refunded the fares they have received back from ElAl. MyTrip's website shows they received the funds from ElAl in May 2021. MyTrip have stopped communicating or responding to emails.

Would this come under s75 of the Consumer Credit Act, so that I could claim from the credit card company? This site suggests not: "If you booked through a travel agent your ability to claim under Section 75 depends on exactly who took your payment and what it was for. Section 75 usually only applies when the payment is made directly to the merchant who is actually providing you with services.  However, the travel agent may have taken payment as agent for the supplier of the travel and you might therefore be covered."

eskbanker

aroominyork said:

Would this come under s75 of the Consumer Credit Act, so that I could claim from the credit card company? This site suggests not: "If you booked through a travel agent your ability to claim under Section 75 depends on exactly who took your payment and what it was for. Section 75 usually only applies when the payment is made directly to the merchant who is actually providing you with services.  However, the travel agent may have taken payment as agent for the supplier of the travel and you might therefore be covered."

As posted back in October, s75 is unlikely to apply here because of that fourth party involvement, although nothing to lose by trying, I suppose, as your only other option would appear to be court action, which, as above, would be challenging.

Upsidedownandaround

aroominyork said:

A few more months on and MyTrip have still not refunded the fares they have received back from ElAl. MyTrip's website shows they received the funds from ElAl in May 2021. MyTrip have stopped communicating or responding to emails.

Would this come under s75 of the Consumer Credit Act, so that I could claim from the credit card company? This site suggests not: "If you booked through a travel agent your ability to claim under Section 75 depends on exactly who took your payment and what it was for. Section 75 usually only applies when the payment is made directly to the merchant who is actually providing you with services.  However, the travel agent may have taken payment as agent for the supplier of the travel and you might therefore be covered."

I think it should apply in this case from the information you have provided.

The paragraph you quote is correct if the breach of contract claim was against the airline and your credit card provider would not be jointly and severally liable in such instance as their is a break in the debtor-creditor-supplier agreement.

In your case your claim is a breach of contract against Mytrip for failing to provide you with a refund for a ticket you were provided with that was cancelled by the airline and mytrip has failed to provide you with the refund provided to them by the airline.

If you paid mytrip with your credit card and they have breached their contract with you then your credit card provider is jointly and severally liable. 

I suspect your bank will reject it by lazily saying a 4th party was involved but this doesn't necessarily mean S.75 doesn't apply it means S.75 doesn't apply with respect to the 4th party.

aroominyork

This nearly worked...

Nationwide took the case under s75 but only, they said, because the airline had refunded the travel agent. MyTrip did not respond to Nationwide so Nationwide were ready to refund me but then asked who the passengers were as they would only cover the booking for myself as the primary cardholder. Unfortunately the booking was for our children and their partners, so we hit a dead end.