Lastminute.com Refund dilemma.

danjones

Evening,

We booked a trip with lastminute.com to Budapest from Gatwick for a short christmas break. We paid a deposit for the trip which was Flight+Hotel. The flight was with easyJet which departed early morning and came back late evening 2 days later.

EasyJet cancelled our original flights and moved the flight times so we don't arrive into Budapest until 10pm instead of 10am. Lastminute offered this flight as an "alternative". We miss an entire day in Budapest.

I called lastminute to ask if we could be moved to Wizzair from Luton. Customer service is nothing short of diabolical on the phone. We were told we had to settle our balance in full then they could "potentially" look at moving to another airline. They also could just cancel our flights but wouldn't give any breakdown of costs that were paid to the airline or the hotel. So I could be left with a hotel but no flight. I was told both elements of our booking was refundable.

I then emailed to ask for a full cash refund. We've paid around £270. They have offered an "extra value offer" travel voucher at £290 or a cash refund thats £120 less at £170. An administration fee for cancelling the booking. 

Am I stuck with them and should just accept the voucher? Customer services is nothing short of atrioucious by email and telephone. No escalation and no complaints process whatsover.

MATTR5

Its a weird rule but if the flight is less than 12 hrs difference - even by minutes - you have a lot less rights than if its over 12 hrs 
Anything up to 12 hrs is considered a "minor" change - see more info here - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-changes/
Maybe read Last mInutes Terms to see what they say 

If its less than 12 hrs i'd probably take whichever of the above suits you best - could you maybe take the £290 voucher and then use that to book the same trip with the Wizz Air flights?