Why do we have to pay Admin fees when Flights get cancelled.

d2singh

Hi All, I book my holidays around 9/10 Months in advance to get a decent deal. However, this year all my flights mostly with Wizz air have ben cancelled and I have been asked to rebook.  They mentioned that I will be gettign full refund but the booking sites such as Trip.com or Thomas cook has applied their own admin fees and I have to let go of around £50 for 4 of us as the sites metoned that the booking/Admin fees isn't refundable. In one case, by mistake I had provided a wrong name for one of the passenger and the booking site (Thomas Cook) charged me £50 for changing the name stating that this is stnadard fees charged by Wizz ari to change the name.  And now they ahev cancelled the flight but they will not return the £50 charged for the name change. I checked theT&Cs and yes they mntion that the cancellation admin fees is non refundable but thi sisn't right it needs to be regulatd and looked at. Firstly there is no standard Admin/bookign fees , each of the websites charge it on thei own terms. And shouldn't the fees for name change or any alteration should be refunded if the flight itself is cancelled?

elsien

They’ve already done the work in changing a name due to your error rather than theirs regardless of whether the flight is cancelled or not. So in those circumstances why would the admin fee be refunded when the extra admin work has already been carried out?
If you don’t want to pay third party fees then book direct with the airline. Or double check you have the correct details before making the booking. 

bagand96

You agreed to the Terms and Conditions of the agents you booked with. Most Online Travel Agents include admin fees for everything, it's part of their business model. 

zagfles

1) Book direct with the airline

2) Don't believe the myth that booking early gets you the best deal, In general for tourist destinations booking later gets you a better deal, although very last minute can be expensive. I've booked loads of flights on budget airlines over the last few years generally 2-3 weeks in advance, cost between around £5 to £40. 

Caz3121

d2singh said:

In one case, by mistake I had provided a wrong name for one of the passenger and the booking site (Thomas Cook) charged me £50 for changing the name stating that this is stnadard fees charged by Wizz ari to change the name.  

name change for Wizzair flights is actually €50 per flight as per their site (applicable if booked direct)
https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/booking-information/changing-your-reservation

not refunding additional fees eg change fees, name changes it standard. The work that you paid for has already been done 

As far as third party fees go these will be in their terms and conditions (which you need to agree to to make the booking) third party fees can be avoided altogether by booking direct with the airline then you would only pay the airline fees with nothing else added on top.

Westin

d2singh said:

Hi All, I book my holidays around 9/10 Months in advance to get a decent deal. However, this year all my flights mostly with Wizz air have ben cancelled and I have been asked to rebook.  They mentioned that I will be gettign full refund but the booking sites such as Trip.com or Thomas cook has applied their own admin fees and I have to let go of around £50 for 4 of us as the sites metoned that the booking/Admin fees isn't refundable. In one case, by mistake I had provided a wrong name for one of the passenger and the booking site (Thomas Cook) charged me £50 for changing the name stating that this is stnadard fees charged by Wizz ari to change the name.  And now they ahev cancelled the flight but they will not return the £50 charged for the name change. I checked theT&Cs and yes they mntion that the cancellation admin fees is non refundable but thi sisn't right it needs to be regulatd and looked at. Firstly there is no standard Admin/bookign fees , each of the websites charge it on thei own terms. And shouldn't the fees for name change or any alteration should be refunded if the flight itself is cancelled?

These intermediaries are businesses. Businesses need to make money to pay staff to do the work that you asked them to do.

You could of course have saved these admin fees had you booked direct with the airline. 

CKhalvashi

zagfles said:

1) Book direct with the airline

2) Don't believe the myth that booking early gets you the best deal, In general for tourist destinations booking later gets you a better deal, although very last minute can be expensive. I've booked loads of flights on budget airlines over the last few years generally 2-3 weeks in advance, cost between around £5 to £40. 

I also tend to book anywhere from 2-6 weeks in advance on low cost carriers on what are traditionally VFR routes and in general the fares are quite low. I may have needed to change a date of return earlier this week and even booking about 4 days out would have been £50-ish.

I also agree that booking direct with the airline would have solved at least part of the expense here.