Problems cancelling flight with budget airline when booked with Booking.com

GaryBower

Hi
Hope anyone can provide some advice.
I recently booked flights to Budapest and saw that flights from Luton with Wizz were cheapest going via Booking.com.
I purchased the flights but unfortunately circumstances changed so I needed to cancel the flights. This is where the problems start.
Booking.com say that I have to cancel directly with Wizz. However I can't do that because Booking.com made the booking on my behalf using their own purchase details not mine.
Wizz will only cancel if I provide the card details that made the booking, which I don't have.
There's a lesson here about booking direct with budget airlines, but surely as I am Booking.com's customer, they should be responsible for managing the cancellation.
Has anyone else been through this issue before and resolved it?

Kind regards
Gary 

DullGreyGuy

Are you sure you bought tickets that allow cancellations? A quick check at Booking.com shows them selling fixed "standard" tickets and semi-flexible "flexible" ones but neither of these offer a cancellation. 

Caz3121

even booking direct with the airline you would need to purchase the most expensive tickets to qualify for any sort of refund.
eg random searches 'Travel Light' ticket of £19, 'All in & Full Flex' (which allows credit refund) £120 for same flight
similar...£40 for cheapest non-refundable, £144 for All in & Full Flex
I would guess you purchased a non-refundable ticket and any taxes that may be recoverable would be eaten up by fees.
If your reason for not travelling are covered by your travel insurance then make a claim from them...if not probably best to accept the money has gone and not waste any more time on it.

bagand96

What were the T&C's you agreed to at the time of booking?  You'll have agreed to T&Cs for both Booking.com and Wizzair.

Alan_Bowen

The worry is that although it looks as though you booked through Booking.com in many countries they are actually using GotoGate.com to process the bookings and the regulars on here know what a joy they are to deal with.

As others have said, 99% of Wizz flights have no refundable value. So a couple of lessons, never book low-cost flights through anyone other than the airline, you might think it looks cheaper but they charge more for ancillaries so it never is, and assume for most low costs bookings, you can always cancel but apart from the APD tax which is only £13, the only way to see your money again is an insurance claim

GaryBower

Wizz say that a refund is possible at a cost of 130€ plus they charge extra  for a refund made using their call centre even though it is impossible to cancel via their website. The flight is mid August so is within their cancellation window. The problem is that I cannot access it without the card details that Booking.com used. Point taken about booking direct from the advice so far.
I'm waiting for Booking.com to respond to the request for their transaction details.
Thank you for the responses so far 

CKhalvashi

DullGreyGuy said:

Are you sure you bought tickets that allow cancellations? A quick check at Booking.com shows them selling fixed "standard" tickets and semi-flexible "flexible" ones but neither of these offer a cancellation. 

Wizz always allow cancellations but with the exception of a flight I've booked a client on (to Warsaw in July, I think that's the most expensive flight I've ever bought within Europe) it's generally not worth doing as the cancellation fee has almost always been more than paid. Of course as I'd advise, this was booked directly with the airline.

The Wizz Flex that you refer to is in general (for me anyway, but I tend to go away a lot on business and book flights around a single meeting, then diary fill) not worth the money, but it's not refundable in cash and comes with its own terms and conditions, as clearly stated on the website.

GaryBower said:

Wizz say that a refund is possible at a cost of 130€ plus they charge extra  for a refund made using their call centre even though it is impossible to cancel via their website. The flight is mid August so is within their cancellation window. The problem is that I cannot access it without the card details that Booking.com used. Point taken about booking direct from the advice so far.
I'm waiting for Booking.com to respond to the request for their transaction details.
Thank you for the responses so far 

Unfortunately as you're not Wizz's client, they can't provide you with a refund to anything but the card for security reasons and only can provide this to their client.

Your chosen agent may also have additional fees for the refund from them, which will be stipulated in your terms and conditions.

TELLIT01

 CKhalvashi  has a much higher opinion of Wizzair than most people in the UK.  I'm not doubting their experience but, given the number of unresolved legal issued with Wizzair in the UK, I would avoid them like the plague.

CKhalvashi

TELLIT01 said:

 CKhalvashi  has a much higher opinion of Wizzair than most people in the UK.  I'm not doubting their experience but, given the number of unresolved legal issued with Wizzair in the UK, I would avoid them like the plague.

Sorry @TELLIT01 , can you tell me where I've given an opinion on Wizz and the relevance of my experience with them to this thread?

I have explained why I don't feel a particular extra is worth it and explained the refund process.

You appear to be going off topic, in breach of the forum rules.