Changed flight, paid, money taken but booking not made

thecrater

Hello
I had two flights from Turkey, one domestic to Istanbul and a connecting flight where I had to check out and then check back in from Istanbul to Heathrow. The internal flight was delayed so I paid to change the "connecting" flight back from Istanbul to the UK. The total was nearly £600. The booking company has a "guarantee" and with that they paid half and I paid nearly £300. Unfortunately, they did not actually make the change and to date their website is still showing that they are "changing" the booking. I was due to fly back Tuesday 7th. When we went to the airport, I was told by the airline that there was no booking for us. I contacted the booking company in the UK and they told me that they had a technical problem and their system was down and they could not do anything for me so I paid out of pocket about £1300 so that we could return. My son is disabled and we just wanted to get home as we were all exhausted.

The website is still showing the "change in progress" and I have not yet contacted the company. I want to know what are my rights? Can I claim the out of pocket expenses plus the refund for the £300 I paid to change the booking? What shall I do?

Thank you in advance 

eskbanker

thecrater said:

The website is still showing the "change in progress" and I have not yet contacted the company. I want to know what are my rights? Can I claim the out of pocket expenses plus the refund for the £300 I paid to change the booking? What shall I do?

Contacting the company seems the obvious place to start, and take it from there - who is it by the way?

thecrater

I appreciate that but I want to know what my rights are before I contact them hence the question here first :-)

Westin

If it is someone like Kiwi, or eDreams - good luck.

thecrater

Oh dear. It is one of them indeed!

bagand96

Booking "self-connection" flights is risky as you have found out.  The airlines have no obligations to you.  Some agents have their own connection guarantee policies, but you're largely at the mercy of the agent and their connection guarantee - which often have a large list of exclusions and get-outs.

Your rights in this case will be solely dependent on the T&C's of the agent and of their connection guarantee, so you probably need to name them.

I fear you're going to have an uphill battle here, if they even engage with you.

eskbanker

eskbanker said:

thecrater said:

The website is still showing the "change in progress" and I have not yet contacted the company. I want to know what are my rights? Can I claim the out of pocket expenses plus the refund for the £300 I paid to change the booking? What shall I do?

Contacting the company seems the obvious place to start, and take it from there - who is it by the way?

thecrater said:

I appreciate that but I want to know what my rights are before I contact them hence the question here first :-)

It's all going to be a bit of a standoff then, as nobody can advise what your rights are (if any) without knowing, for example, the legal jurisdiction under which your contract is governed, or its terms.

It is possible that if you paid for something that you didn't get, you may have some recourse via the credit/debit card company you (presumably/hopefully) paid with, but that would come later....