What to do when a travel agent and an airline blame each other

slb2020

There are many articles on the web about claiming compensation from airlines for flights that are delayed and cancelled. However, my situation is more complicated than usual.

I had been in Botswana and the problem arose with my return journey to the UK via South Africa. I had flights with two different airlines but on one ticket which I had bought from a UK online travel agent, MyTrip. I see in other threads that many others have had problems with this company.

Ten days before I was due to fly, the second flight was brought forward 90 minutes so the connection in South Africa was no longer viable. I asked the travel agent to rebook the first flight. It took several phone calls over the course of a week but eventually they did so 3 days before I was due to travel.

On arriving at the airport in Botswana, I was informed that the ticket had been cancelled. They could not explain why it was cancelled and referred me back to the travel agent. The travel agent said they had not cancelled the ticket and referred me back to the airline.

I was then informed that the travel agent could not rebook flights with the same airlines on any flights in the coming week. They also said that they would not transfer my booking to any other airline. The only option they offered me was to cancel the booking and leave me to rebook the flights at a substantially higher cost than the original flights.

I would like to recover the extra costs incurred as a result of my flight being cancelled. How could I go about this?

Even just to get back the unused portion of the original flight, I need a claim form from the travel agent, they promised to send it but so far have not done so. I also note that they charge for processing cancellations.

The travel agent and airlines all have complaint forms, so I could file a complaint with either of them, though I suspect they will continue to blame each other

I paid for the flights by credit card, so I could dispute the transaction.

I also have travel insurance so I could claim this as a 'missed departure'. However, the airline checkin staff were unable to provide written confirmation of the cancellation. I have asked their customer service organisation to help with this but as yet have no response.

The travel agent proudly boasts that they are 'IATA Certified Travel Agents so you can book with confidence'. On checking with IATA I see "​While we serve the airline industry, we are not a regulatory body, and cannot intervene in service disputes or other commercial matters involving airlines or agents and their customers". So OK, I should probably have booked with an ABTA member.

The flight that was cancelled was from Botswana to South Africa, so the UK rules about compensation for flight cancellation presumably do not apply.

NoodleDoodleMan

Could Resolver assist you ?

https://www.resolver.co.uk/users/sign_in

Westin

MyTrip.com is neither a British company or a travel agent. They are an overseas based online ticket seller.  Part of the Etraveli Group which I think is either Italian or Swedish based.

slb2020

Westin said:

MyTrip.com is neither a British company or a travel agent. They are an overseas based online ticket seller.  Part of the Etraveli Group which I think is either Italian or Swedish based.

Etraveli describe themselves as "among the leading flight-centric online travel agencies globally".

It appears to be a Swedish company and is listed as a member of The Association of Swedish Travel Agents and Tour Operators (SRF)

https://uk.mytrip.com/terms-conditions?domain=google&campaign=DSA&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4PKTBhD8ARIsAHChzRJS4gdr43oAfrxlj4zVoTObHirm7WXaTym3P0eIC-SY01yp3uJliUcaAvQMEALw_wcB
states:

Swedish law applies exclusively to these T&Cs and the contract between You and us
As a consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident. Nothing in these T&Cs, including this Section 13.1, affects your rights as a consumer to rely on such mandatory provisions of local law.
The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution (ODS) under: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/

They also have other terms and conditions which attempt to deny responsibility for any problems that may arise.

Alan_Bowen

I strongly suspect the issue lies with the travel agent, these booking agents abroad work on wafer thin margins and cannot cope when things go wrong. They have no incentive to put things right because people who use them book on price and will use another agent next time if they are £10 cheaper.

Using an overseas-based agent is even more foolish as we are no longer part of the EU, you cannot use the European Small Claims procedure and would have to sue in Sweden, which you clearly are not going to do, and they know this.

To add to your issues, most African based airlines are living hand to mouth financially and don't have teams of staff ready to assist customers who won't be travelling with them again, so it may be difficult to get information from them, but if you want to pursue an insurance claim you may need to ask them to email you a copy of the PNR trail which should show whether or not Mytrip are at fault. Best of luck, as I think you may need it!1

slb2020

Well the airline (Airlink) turned out to be very helpful, informing me that after rebooking the flight "the agent never revalidated or reissued the ticket to display the new flight and therefore the system automatically cancelled the sectors, as they were not ticketed"

So I shall pursue this with mytrip. Their UK terms and conditions reference the "online dispute resolution (ODS) under: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/". I also have the option of claiming against credit card or travel insurance.