Trying to get my APD refund

ddmm_123

I was pleased to read your recent article entitled “Missed or cancelled a flight? Claim Air Passenger Duty refund” in September 2024 on the Money Saving Expert website.   Below, I describe how I have tried to get my APD refund.  If anyone can suggest any alternative avenues I haven’t yet tried, I'd be pleased to hear from you.  Thank you.

I am trying to find out if I can reclaim the Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax from my travel agent because I cancelled my non-refundable flight in January 2024.   (The travel agent I used is protected by ATOL, but is not an ABTA member).    My Travel Insurance company has refunded me for the cost of my flight minus £91 (the APD).    I wrote to my travel agent to ask them to refund the APD to me (£91), and they replied as follows (this is a copy of their email): 

          Kindly be informed the APD is for the young adult aged 12 till 16. so I'm afraid this is non-refundable in any case.

(I was over the age of 21 at the time.)  I then wrote to United Airlines (the flight I cancelled was from Heathrow to Denver, USA with United Airlines), and they replied as follows (this is a copy of their email):

          Our records show that we processed a tax refund (GBP163.99) to your Travel Agent on January 30, 2024. Please contact them directly for your claim quoting the Refund Application Number XXXXXXXX.

I wrote back to the travel agent to let them know what UA had told me, and I quoted the refund application number, and they replied as follows (this is a copy of their email):

          Kindly be informed as advised earlier unfortunately no refund has been allocated. as advised the apd is refundable for the youth passengers aged mentioned in my previous email. as you are older than 16 so no apd can be refunded

I then emailed the Civil Aviation Authority to ask them how I should claim back the APD and they replied as follows on Feb 26, 2024 (this is a copy of their email):

          Thank you for contacting us. We cannot advise on APD issues unfortunately. You will need to discuss this with HM Revenue & Customs.

I then sent a postal letter to HM Revenue & Customs on 4th March 2024 to ask them what I should do. Unfortunately, the Post Office returned the letter to me on 9th March 2024.  The reason they gave is (this was written on the returned envelope):

          We were unable to deliver this item because addressee gone away.

eskbanker

ddmm_123 said:

I am trying to find out if I can reclaim the Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax from my travel agent because I cancelled my non-refundable flight in January 2024.   (The travel agent I used is protected by ATOL, but is not an ABTA member).    My Travel Insurance company has refunded me for the cost of my flight minus £91 (the APD).    I wrote to my travel agent to ask them to refund the APD to me (£91), and they replied as follows (this is a copy of their email): 

          Kindly be informed the APD is for the young adult aged 12 till 16. so I'm afraid this is non-refundable in any case.

(I was over the age of 21 at the time.)

Was there an under-16 passenger on the booking, or was it solely for a 21-year old?  APD isn't payable for under-16s so there would seem to be some crossed wires somewhere.

Who is the travel agent?

ddmm_123

There was no under 16 on the booking, only me.  
The travel agent is TravelUp.  I contacted them several times to explain, but they didn't want to know and stuck to the same answer.  I suspect they know what they are doing.  

eskbanker

The TravelUp terms highlight that (a) they deduct an admin fee of £75 from any such refund, and (b) that taxes are refunded in credit voucher form rather than cash:

Where you cancel your confirmed booking, you must pay an administration fee to us of £75 per person (unless you have purchased a service pack, in which case the administration fee payable will be as per the terms of your chosen service pack). For all non-refundable airline tickets if the recoverable tax components are less than the administration charge the ticket will be deemed to be fully non-refundable. Any applicable tax refunds recovered from the supplier for non-refundable tickets will be issued in the form of a TravelUp electronic credit voucher, this will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue

No idea why they'd go on about a non-existent child but it sounds like you'd only be due a £15 credit voucher even if you can persuade them that they should align with reality, so suspect that the juice isn't going to be worth the squeezing!

ddmm_123

Thanks for checking the details.  It is a pity that TravelUp couldn't have let me know this information.  I will avoid them in future.  
I can only guess that their information on children under 16 refers to a 2016 tax change by the UK Government whereby children under 16 on the day of the flight and in the lowest class of travel are no longer required to pay APD.  It was then possible to claim back the tax, if it had been paid.  However, it was clear from my booking that I was over 21, and travelling alone!