Travel agent has issued us county court case over refunded flights

NJ69x

We don't have any legal cover unfortunate. 

With regards to reaching out to the travel agent before we cancelled, we had already reached out to them initially they had told us to deal with the airline directly. It's a long time ago so I can't remember the specifics on if we contacted them before we did the chargeback or not.

Although I don't agree from a moral perspective, I do accept there is a most likely a legal argument that we should only be refunded the unused portion of the flight. Even though not honouring the full flight left my parents stranded and incurring a lot more financial costs.

With regards to the travel agent possibly not being liable - is it not the case that our contract of purchase was with the travel agent and not their airline? The airline was the third party who we did not buy directly from, our contract of purchase was directly with the travel agent. Gulf air would never refund a customer directly in this situation and would say contact your travel agent for a refund. It's quite messy.

I have the booking terms and conditions in my emails, I will copy and paste them into this chat.

To Elsien, you said it's not reasonable to rack up 2 months hotel bills - would you rather my parents slept on the street? They were abandoned by the airline and left to fend for themselves. They gave airline an opportunity to fly them back but the airline messed them around for 2 months. It wasn't possible to arrange a faster alternative flight home due to covid and travel restrictions at the time.

BoGoF

Morals have little to do with what is legal and a little ironic to be talking about morals when they have pocketed the full cost of the flights after using the outbound leg? You really need to take the emotion out of it. One minute you are blaming the agent the next the airline. 

You said this is causing your parents a lot of stress. I would suggest therefore they pay the agent and take up with the airline. 

Hoenir

BoGoF said:

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You said this is causing your parents a lot of stress. I would suggest therefore they pay the agent and take up with the airline. 

Agent is likely to succeed in their court claim. 

NJ69x

To BoGoF my parents had to pay £930 for a one way return flight when the full original return flights were £890 - no one pocketed anything, they were left out of pocket £40. 

I just tried calling Gulf Air customer services, they have no record of the bookings as it's over 3 years ago. They said they don't have any records longer than 12 months.

I guess we will have a day in court and see what the judge says. 

bagand96

NJ69x said:

We don't have any legal cover unfortunate. 

With regards to reaching out to the travel agent before we cancelled, we had already reached out to them initially they had told us to deal with the airline directly. It's a long time ago so I can't remember the specifics on if we contacted them before we did the chargeback or not.

Although I don't agree from a moral perspective, I do accept there is a most likely a legal argument that we should only be refunded the unused portion of the flight. Even though not honouring the full flight left my parents stranded and incurring a lot more financial costs.

With regards to the travel agent possibly not being liable - is it not the case that our contract of purchase was with the travel agent and not their airline? The airline was the third party who we did not buy directly from, our contract of purchase was directly with the travel agent. Gulf air would never refund a customer directly in this situation and would say contact your travel agent for a refund. It's quite messy.

I have the booking terms and conditions in my emails, I will copy and paste them into this chat.

To Elsien, you said it's not reasonable to rack up 2 months hotel bills - would you rather my parents slept on the street? They were abandoned by the airline and left to fend for themselves. They gave airline an opportunity to fly them back but the airline messed them around for 2 months. It wasn't possible to arrange a faster alternative flight home due to covid and travel restrictions at the time.

Nearly all online travel agents will spell out in their T&Cs they they act only as your agent in arranging travel products with the service provider (airline/hotel etc) and you will have a contract with the service provider.

You're correct in saying the airline wouldn't refund a passenger directly, usually when booking via an agent all refunds would go back via the agent. But I don't think that fact would make the agent liable for the performance of the contract with Gulf Air 

It was a crazy time with many travel restrictions causing chaos for airlines and passengers alike. In the fall out chargebacks were banded around a lot as an easy way to get refunds, the problem being that the banks did very little investigation and just actioned them. This is different to Section 75 claims where the credit card company would actually look at the legal position. 

NJ69x

These are the travel agents terms and conditions regarding specifically regarding flight changes:

22.Flight Changes

Should your flight be cancelled your rights and remedies will be governed by the airline's conditions of carriage. As a result you may be entitled to: (a) Carriage on another flight with the same airline without additional costs; (b) Re-routing to your destination with another carrier without additional costs; (c) Receiving a full refund; or (d) Some other right or remedy.

If a schedule change occurs to your itinerary prior to our receipt from you of the full price, or prior to the issue of your tickets (on either the outbound or return flight) we will do our best to notify you on behalf of the carrier.

Should a schedule change occur to your itinerary after full balance/ticket issue, on either the outbound or return flights the relevant supplier's decision will be final and amendment charges may apply.

NJ69x

These are Gulf airs terms and conditions regarding cancellations:

9.2 CANCELLATION, REROUTING, DELAYS, ETC

9.2.2 Except as otherwise provided by the Convention or applicable local law, including in particular EC Regulation 261/2004 on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, if we cancel a flight, fail to operate a flight reasonably according to the schedule, fail to stop at your destination or Transit Point destination, or cause you to miss a connecting flight (on a flight operated or confirmed by us) on which you hold a confirmed reservation, we shall, at your option, either: 
9.2.2.1 carry you at the earliest opportunity on another of our scheduled services on which space is available without additional charge and, where necessary, extend the validity of your Ticket; or 
9.2.2.2 within a reasonable period of time re-route you to the destination shown on your Ticket by our own services or those of another carrier, or by other mutually agreed means and class of transportation without additional charge. If the fare and charges for the revised routing are lower than what you have paid, we shall refund the difference; or 
9.2.2.3 make a refund in accordance with the provisions of Article 10.2.

10.2 INVOLUNTARY REFUNDS

10.2.1 If we cancel a flight, fail to operate a flight reasonably according to schedule, fail to stop at your destination or Transit Point, or cause you to miss a connecting flight (a flight operated or confirmed by us) on which you hold a reservation, the amount of the refund shall be: 
10.2.1.1 if no portion of the Ticket has been used, an amount equal to the fare paid; 
10.2.1.2 if a portion of the Ticket has been used, not less than the difference between the fare paid and the applicable fare for travel between the points for which the Ticket has been used.

HillStreetBlues

I come from it at a different angle.
If you bought return tickets, then that's what the contract is for, they don't automatically get to keep half because they fulfilled 50% of the contract.
As you contacted the travel agent and  they seemed to washed their hands of it, might be worth looking to a counter claim of the cost of the flight home that they failed to provide if they are going to proceed with their claim.

HillStreetBlues

Did your parents get notified before the court letter? as they should have had a LBA with a full breakdown of what the TA will be claiming

NJ69x

Yes we did get a LBA about 18 months ago demanding full payment, we did not respond to the letter.