Being shafted by a travel company, what are my rights and what can I do?

Leard91

I've just had a holiday in Vietnam. During the holiday we booked domestic flights with VietJet Air through a UK travel company called MyTrip. The flights were on 01/03/2023 at 11:10am. A week before the flight, I received notification that the flight had been changed to 06:40am. This was inconvenient for us, so I sought to change the flights to the next day. After a headache of trying to contact MyTrip and VietJet Air, and both passing the buck onto each other to change the flight for me, I instead agreed to a refund with MyTrip. I then went and bought the new flights myself.

Since getting back, I have tried to chase them up about the refund. They are now refusing to give me the refund. The airline does allow refunds if the flight has been changed by more than 4 hours. However it seems that this needs to be requested before the flight departs. I did request the refund before the flight departed, on 25/02/2023, through MyTrip. Yet it seems that they did not do this, and now it's looking like MyTrip won't be able to get the refund for me.

However, they told me they would process the refund. I am not able to deal with the airline since I bought the flights through MyTrip and not them directly.

What can I do here? What are my rights? How can I get my refund?

Just to add, I have begun the charge back procedure with American Express. However I'm not really sure what I need to provide to them to prove I am owed the refund. I have sent them the document showing the original flight time. 

Voyager2002

You need to provide AmEx with the email from MyTrip agreeing to the refund.

You should also look at the MyTrip T and Cs governing your purchase and see if they say anything about refunds when a flight is cancelled (that change in departure time does sound as if your original flight was cancelled and they put you onto a different one: did the 6.40 departure have the same flight number as the 11.40 flight?).

Leard91

Yes, it had the same number. It was the same flight, just changed. Although the airline's own policy is that a change of 4+ hours means you can either change to a different flight or get a refund. We tried to change but that was near impossible to achieve since both the airline and MyTrip tried to claim the other needed to process it.

Amex have already gotten back to me and have approved the charge back, they've credited my account. So I guess I was getting worked up. I didn't realise how easy it would be to get a charge back through Amex.

eskbanker

Leard91 said:

Yes, it had the same number. It was the same flight, just changed. Although the airline's own policy is that a change of 4+ hours means you can either change to a different flight or get a refund. We tried to change but that was near impossible to achieve since both the airline and MyTrip tried to claim the other needed to process it.

Amex have already gotten back to me and have approved the charge back, they've credited my account. So I guess I was getting worked up. I didn't realise how easy it would be to get a charge back through Amex.

That's not necessarily the end of the matter though - chargeback refunds are typically provisional (hence being made so quickly initially) and can be reversed if the merchant challenges them, and even if they don't they can still seek recovery later on.  However, if you can demonstrate that MyTrip failed to act in accordance with their Ts & Cs, then you should be OK....

Alan_Bowen

It would be best if you stuck with AMex as Mytrip is part of the Go to Gate group based in Sweden. The online reviews leave a lot to be desired and for low-cost flights in future, always book direct with the airline. An online agent is not going to act quickly when speed is of the essence