TravelMood - Buyer beware !

MidlandsMum

Whether a flight is able to be booked with a deposit or will be fully payable at the time and non-refundable is again, down to the airline and NOT the agent. TravelMood were abiding by the terms and conditions the airline set down for that ticket and not just holding on to money to swell their own accounts.

Hope your parents will be ok soon, OP.

Sam_Bee

Online agencies take a blanket approach to ticket bookings. Irrespective of ticket conditions (instant purchase or need to be issued 30 days prior to departure etc), they make you pay up front and issue the ticket the same day.

The benefits of this is that they keep costs down (far less administration), so they mark up the tickets far less (3% in one case), you are covered in the event of schedule changes and won't incur tax increases (ignoring one recent example courtesy of Mr Brown who reteroactively applied an increase). But you have to pay full whack up front.

You have to weigh that up against using an agency that allows you just to pay a deposit. Although you are liable to pay any tax increases it reduces your risk should you cancel (probably just lose the deposit) and allows you a bit more flexibility (i.e. just pay a small amendment fee to change dates). And you don't have to shell out so much upfront.

However, moving forward, the latter example is on the wane. Airlines are increasingly making all tickets instant purchase, or issue within 14 days of booking. Two examples are Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways for whom all tickets need to be issued within 14 days. This allows them to be more certain of aircraft loads (no agencies not holding definite booking), and more importantly, they get your money sooner. I'm sure all airlines will be like this in 10 years time.

mece

Hello! With reference to being able to claim back tax etc on an unused flight - can anyone tell me how I do this?
I paid by credit card for return flights from Japan to the UK for my son and his girlfriend, (because one way flights were between 5 and 10 times MORE than the return ticket). They are NOT returning to Japan - can I claim back the tax?
Cheers.