s75 CCA and Air tickets

Chomeur

So MSE says that you don't get s75 protection for purchases from a travel agent because using an agent breaks the 'direct link' between a purchaser and the supplier. So you have to rely on a chargeback. That's not great. If I book a £200 air ticket and the airline goes bust and it costs me £400 to buy a replacement ticket, s75 would give me the £400 back, chargeback only £200. So I would be out of pocket because I would still need to go if I had hotel bookings etc.

So is there a solution to this? I suppose it would be to book direct on the airline's website. But the same deals are often not available there. Any travel agents with a different model that don't break the 'direct link'?

eskbanker

If you're concerned about consequential losses from airline failure then the most pragmatic solution is likely to be to ensure that the relevant cover is included in your travel insurance policy, rather than relying on a card provider's interpretation of 50 year old legislation that was never intended to be a backstop for routine purchases....

Nebulous2

I, like many other people, had a major problem during the pandemic with travel. My flights were cancelled while I was abroad and it was a struggle to get home.

Pretty much everyone shut up shop and refused to talk to me for months. My travel agent was a well known bargain type headquartered abroad and had given me a modest discount on the flights for booking through them. My credit card company and travel Insurance weren't much better. 

Eventually the credit card company gave me the money I had paid with them, just over £1000, to go away. The travel agent was named and shamed as one of the worst performers, threatened with court action by the FCA, if I remember correctly, and eventually issued vouchers for outstanding claims. I've been back with them since, I had to use that voucher, and they were fine. 

So - despite that breaking of the chain for S75 - the credit card company did give me some money after I sent them an LBA.

I'm going back long-haul, flight only, this year and I'm booking direct with the airline, not a discount agent who'll then try to claw the discount back on extras and doesn't have a UK address to instigate small claims.

Agents are fine the many times things go well, but difficult to tie down when things go wrong. 
 

DullGreyGuy

Chomeur said:

So MSE says that you don't get s75 protection for purchases from a travel agent because using an agent breaks the 'direct link' between a purchaser and the supplier. So you have to rely on a chargeback. That's not great. If I book a £200 air ticket and the airline goes bust and it costs me £400 to buy a replacement ticket, s75 would give me the £400 back, chargeback only £200. So I would be out of pocket because I would still need to go if I had hotel bookings etc.

So is there a solution to this? I suppose it would be to book direct on the airline's website. But the same deals are often not available there. Any travel agents with a different model that don't break the 'direct link'?

Travel insurance or buy a package holiday. 

If they will payout £400 for the new flight or the cancellation of the full trip would depend on the terms of the policy. 

Chomeur

DullGreyGuy said:

Chomeur said:

So MSE says that you don't get s75 protection for purchases from a travel agent because using an agent breaks the 'direct link' between a purchaser and the supplier. So you have to rely on a chargeback. That's not great. If I book a £200 air ticket and the airline goes bust and it costs me £400 to buy a replacement ticket, s75 would give me the £400 back, chargeback only £200. So I would be out of pocket because I would still need to go if I had hotel bookings etc.

So is there a solution to this? I suppose it would be to book direct on the airline's website. But the same deals are often not available there. Any travel agents with a different model that don't break the 'direct link'?

Travel insurance or buy a package holiday. 

If they will payout £400 for the new flight or the cancellation of the full trip would depend on the terms of the policy. 

Yes, and do you know of policies that will pay for your new flight? That is what I would expect travel insurance to do for me. I just checked my existing Admiral policy (I only took it out because it was a requirement for a previous trip) and it says:

"27. Supplier failure We will not pay any claim due to the actions or failure of any company providing or organising your transport or accommodation, to provide those services (whether caused by error, insolvency, bankruptcy, liquidation, omission, default or other reason)."

Which is a joke, really.

Chomeur

eskbanker said:

If you're concerned about consequential losses from airline failure then the most pragmatic solution is likely to be to ensure that the relevant cover is included in your travel insurance policy, rather than relying on a card provider's interpretation of 50 year old legislation that was never intended to be a backstop for routine purchases....

It's not a pragmatic solution to ensure that it's included in my insurance policy as I can't find a policy that does include it! I searched https://www.direct-travel.co.uk/annual-travel-insurance/ for policies covering airline failure and it returns no results!

I did find this https://www.coverforyou.com/airline_failure_cover.php which covers a reimbursement if the failure is before you leave, and costs of booking a flight home in the event that it's after you leave. Still doesn't really insure me fully for my loss though.

I don't care what a card provider's interpretation of the law is - I care what the law is.

DullGreyGuy

Chomeur said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Chomeur said:

So MSE says that you don't get s75 protection for purchases from a travel agent because using an agent breaks the 'direct link' between a purchaser and the supplier. So you have to rely on a chargeback. That's not great. If I book a £200 air ticket and the airline goes bust and it costs me £400 to buy a replacement ticket, s75 would give me the £400 back, chargeback only £200. So I would be out of pocket because I would still need to go if I had hotel bookings etc.

So is there a solution to this? I suppose it would be to book direct on the airline's website. But the same deals are often not available there. Any travel agents with a different model that don't break the 'direct link'?

Travel insurance or buy a package holiday. 

If they will payout £400 for the new flight or the cancellation of the full trip would depend on the terms of the policy. 

Yes, and do you know of policies that will pay for your new flight? That is what I would expect travel insurance to do for me. I just checked my existing Admiral policy (I only took it out because it was a requirement for a previous trip) and it says:

"27. Supplier failure We will not pay any claim due to the actions or failure of any company providing or organising your transport or accommodation, to provide those services (whether caused by error, insolvency, bankruptcy, liquidation, omission, default or other reason)."

Which is a joke, really.

Not really a joke, Admiral are a budget insurance company and so you shouldn't expect their policies to have the breadth of coverage as higher end providers that typically will also be more expensive. 

Someone buys a Suzuki Swift they don't expect to get the performance of a Ferrari but for some reason people think buying the cheapest insurance they can find will give them the same coverage/performance as all other insurance. 

eskbanker

Chomeur said:

I don't care what a card provider's interpretation of the law is - I care what the law is.

Sure, but the point was that the law wasn't written with such scenarios in mind, so isn't clear enough to avoid interpretation issues when making s75 claims - granted there are escalation routes such as FOS and ultimately the courts, but many are easily seduced by the MSE/Martin Lewis hype ("Section 75 is your secret financial superhero") and underestimate what's involved in making it stick when trying to hold a creditor liable!

MEM62

Chomeur said:

So MSE says that you don't get s75 protection for purchases from a travel agent because using an agent breaks the 'direct link' between a purchaser and the supplier. So you have to rely on a chargeback. That's not great. If I book a £200 air ticket and the airline goes bust and it costs me £400 to buy a replacement ticket, s75 would give me the £400 back, chargeback only £200. So I would be out of pocket because I would still need to go if I had hotel bookings etc.

So is there a solution to this? I suppose it would be to book direct on the airline's website. But the same deals are often not available there. Any travel agents with a different model that don't break the 'direct link'?

Of course there is.  It's called travel insurance and it is designed for the purpose - whereas S75 isn't.