Flight Cancelled by Airline (via Opodo) - Potential refund timeline shows 3-6 Months!

nirajn123

Hello,

I booked return flights in Jan for travel in late March for the family that involved a stopover in Munich via Opodo (Lufthansa) 

On 16th Feb, I got a notification that the outbound leg of the flight is cancelled by Airline and an alternative may be provided in 24/48 hrs. Waited for 5 days and decided to cancel the flight as nothing came through. Opodo interface is really light on information -

1. First an obvious/stupid question - After I pressed the cancel button website says "As your travel agent we have requested a cash refund on your behalf", I assume they mean they have cancelled the whole return flight booking
2. Email confirmation - which arrived after a couple of hours of request says - "the request is sent to airline and they are taking 3-6 months for response " now this is shown against pending airline approval - is there a reason to believe Airline would refuse to pay? Flights were close to £2K 
3. I now need to rebook the flights, prices keep going up all the time and already above +£700 than when I originally booked - is there a reason I should hold up booking the flights before I hear more from Opodo?
4. I have a travel insurance - is that any help at all - I am guessing not

Apologies, but this is extremely annoying and a lot of money will now be tied up for months, plus there is no guarantee that it won't happen again so it is quite stressful and worrying.

Westin

Ouch.

First up, not great to use Opodo. They have poor reviews. Using them at the best of times is it seem problematic, using them in a pandemic when schedules and travel plans change would be IMO very unwise.  Any perceived saving will be eaten up by the aggravation you face when you need to reach them or if travel plans are disrupted - as you are about to discover.

To your questions -

1.  I sincerely hope this was not the first step in a big mistake. If something on the Opodo site you reacted to to say your flight was cancelled and you want a refund, then fine. If however you just accessed your booking and selected to cancel then I fear this will just initiate a cancellation of the booking and normal fare and booking terms applied.  This might be 100% cancellation, less possibly APD refunded, less and fees and changes that Opodo levy to administer. 
Whilst annoying time consuming I think this might have necessitated a call to Opodo to find out the LH rescheduling option.
2.  This is linked to 1. above.  The timescales would fit in a worse case scenario for a passenger initiated cancellation.   "is there a reason to believe Airline would refuse to pay?" - yes, if the LH cancellation was not matched to Opodo's system and Opodo see this just as a passenger initiated cancellation (on a non-refundable ticket).
3.  If you need to travel and go then you kind of have your answer.
4. No, not really.

Good luck. 

nirajn123

Thank you.
1. No, I received an email and waited whole 5 days and checked every day for alternatives to appear before asking for cancellation - kept a screenshot that says "Flight cancelled by the airline" as it appeared on the site.
2. It was two week between my original booking and flight cancellation by LH notice so I do hope LH pays up or I'll have annoying fight on my hand with Opodo in future - hope it doesn't come to it
3. Not pleased with the whole thing but this trip was to see family after 3 years, and waited long enough for it was safe enough to travel, but will book it with the airline directly this time.

CKhalvashi

Lufthansa definitely weren't taking 6 months to deal with last month, so this is likely Opodo taking 6 months to process refunds.

Unfortunately you gave away various legal rights when booking with an agent.

Westin covers the rest perfectly here.