Maxjet Gone Bust

mickeypops

pixie1 wrote: »

My friends have contacted egg and they have been advised to contact abta if maxjet was a member to claim their money back via them?? Does this sound right?

Also, how can i find out if maxjet were members? Their website is useless now.

Thanks

Hi. Bookings made directly with airlines are not ATOL protected. ATOL is an association for travel agents and agencies, not airlines. See the Civil Airline Authority website here:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1080&pagetype=70&gid=1084&faqid=693

So, Egg are wrong - my credit card provider tried the same angle.

M

Alan_Bowen

To avoid anyone wasting their time, Maxjet was an airline and as such is not permitted in law to have an ATOL licence nor were they ABTA members, no airline ever has been. If you have booked direct and not yet travelled, contact your credit card company to claim a refund of the amount you paid direct to the airline. If you paid by debit card, there is no legal obligation on the acrd company to replay you, some may as a matter of goodwill.

Be warned, the rules under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act are far from clear, I would not go and rebook with another airline and expect a card company to pay the difference, the fact was Maxjet didn't charge enough to make a profit and their service was not in the league of Club Class with BA etc. You would be getting a much better service and no Bank is going to pay out for that.

If you booked with a travel agent, some may have charged you an additional five pounds or so for 'scheduled airline failure insurance' and this would appear on your invoice. If it does, the agent will assist you in making a claim and you should get a refund in due course. In this case booking through a travel agent, hated though they may be by some readers of thsi website, may have saved you money!

moonrakerz

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

Be warned, the rules under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act are far from clear, I would not go and rebook with another airline and expect a card company to pay the difference, the fact was Maxjet didn't charge enough to make a profit and their service was not in the league of Club Class with BA etc. You would be getting a much better service and no Bank is going to pay out for that.

Debatable point - Maxjet/credit card company are in breach of contract, they have stated quite clearly in writing that they have not and will not provide the service for which they have been contracted.

English Law states that as a result of a breach of contract the "victim" is entitled to recover his "losses" (and no more !). If you booked a business class seat with Maxjet, that is what you have lost - therefore you have a good claim for the credit card company to provide you with a similar product.
To say that Maxjet wasn't as good as BA is not really relevant, they were selling a product called business class and Visa/Mastercard were happy to take money on that basis. If it wasn't really that, weren't the credit card companies aiding and abetting in a fraud ??? They can't have their cake and eat it !

gogetitgirl

pixie1 wrote: »

My friends have contacted egg and they have been advised to contact abta if maxjet was a member to claim their money back via them?? Does this sound right?

Also, how can i find out if maxjet were members? Their website is useless now.

Thanks

Unfortunately Maxjet were not members of ABTA...

jetboy

probably because they were American.

bagand96

For those with VISA DEBIT payments....

There may be some hope. Visa Debit DO offer some protection similar to that of a credit card. It is called a chargeback. I'm no expert, but I remember a lot of MSE members got money back from this during the farepak crisis last year. More information...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/4260806.stm

For those others it IS your credit card's responsibility to sort this. They will try and send you round the houses first and make excuses (ABTA/ATOL/CAA etc), but as stated Maxjet are not part of any of these schemes, so it does fall to the credit card company.

ferf1223

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

To avoid anyone wasting their time, Maxjet was an airline and as such is not permitted in law to have an ATOL licence nor were they ABTA members, no airline ever has been. If you have booked direct and not yet travelled, contact your credit card company to claim a refund of the amount you paid direct to the airline.

Thanks so much for this and also bagand96. Haven't been able to speak to our CC yet (Post Office and the disputes department is on holiday until 2nd Jan!) but this is so helpful to know before speaking to them as I have no doubt that they will give us the run-around. Really appreciate the info so much.

jonesMUFCforever

bagand96 wrote: »

For those with VISA DEBIT payments....

There may be some hope. Visa Debit DO offer some protection similar to that of a credit card. It is called a chargeback. I'm no expert, but I remember a lot of MSE members got money back from this during the farepak crisis last year. More information...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/4260806.stm

For those others it IS your credit card's responsibility to sort this. They will try and send you round the houses first and make excuses (ABTA/ATOL/CAA etc), but as stated Maxjet are not part of any of these schemes, so it does fall to the credit card company.

Chargeback is when the company is forced to refund a customer for not providing the service or goods they paid for.
If the company has gone bust it is unlikely that they will have funds to pay these chargebacks.

Section 75 of the CCA provides cover for CREDit cards only not debit.

As has been said before some banks will refund as a gesture of good will with a debit card but they are under no legal obligation to do so.

People who paid using debit cards please don't get your hopes up - just in case.

inmypocketnottheirs

ejones999 wrote: »

Chargeback is when the company is forced to refund a customer for not providing the service or goods they paid for.
If the company has gone bust it is unlikely that they will have funds to pay these chargebacks.

Section 75 of the CCA provides cover for CREDit cards only not debit.

As has been said before some banks will refund as a gesture of good will with a debit card but they are under no legal obligation to do so.

People who paid using debit cards please don't get your hopes up - just in case.

Not exactly true. Visa debit card holders may be covered:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/4260806.stm

ejones note the part that says 'Unfortunately not all bank staff have been trained about its existence, so some customers have told us they've had problems making claims' ;-)

jonesMUFCforever

Not a very reliable source is it a BBC programme from September 2005.
My post was referring to this.

What exactly are you saying with ''Not exactly true? Visa debit card holders may be covered''?

Are they or are they not?
If so please quote the relevant law that states this.