Esky cancellation problem

frugalfiz · 27 January 2020 at 9:03PM

My son was travelling in US and booked a flight from Seattle to London with esky departing the following day. The airline had 24 hour cancellation policy and due to severe snow storms the interstate was closed and he would not be able to get to Seattle in time. He tried to call esky 4 times within the 24 hour cancellation period and each time he held on for an hour before being disconnected. He called the airline but they advised he must cancel through booking agent esky. As this appeared impossible he rebooked a flight and returned to UK.
He has emailed esky requesting refund for the flight and no response received in over 30 days.
Esky is based in Poland , so what is next move please?
Thanks

Westin · 28 January 2020 at 1:23AM

The 24h cancellation policy is one that applies if you book in the USA directly with the airline. It does not apply if you book via a third party booking channel.

ESky seem to have extremely poor customer ratings. People are drawn to them often after a lazy google search and clicking on the first displayed link.

I fear you will get no where with eSky.

Your son may be better claiming on his travel insurance for the missed departure following weather delays. Presumably he had insurance?

mattyprice4004 · 28 January 2020 at 2:52AM

Yep, 24 hour policy is usually with the airline only - by going with a cheap agent he’s probably lost this.

Caz3121 · 28 January 2020 at 7:05AM

frugalfiz wrote: »

My son was travelling in US and booked a flight from Seattle to London with esky departing the following day.
as he was booking a flight for the following day, the only place he should have been looking was on the airline site direct, third parties generally don't have stocks of tickets, you make a booking request and they go off to find out if they can fulfil your request - this can take 24 hours+

The airline had 24 hour cancellation policy and due to severe snow storms the interstate was closed and he would not be able to get to Seattle in time.
DOT 24 hour cancellation policy applies to flights booked direct with the airline and more than 7 days in advance
The regulations state:
For airline tickets that are purchased at least seven days before a flight’s scheduled departure, airlines are required to either:
allow passengers to cancel their reservation within 24 hours and receive a full refund without a penalty
BA for example shows:
Your right to cancel within 24 hours
If you notice a mistake with your booking after you have paid for your ticket(s), you may cancel a reservation made on ba.com or through the British Airways call center within 24 hours of ticketing for a full refund by calling the British Airways call center at 800-AIRWAYS provided travel is one week or more from the date of purchase.
A third party may choose to offer a 24 hour cancellation (Expedia) however those that do are not going to offer a 'better' one than the airline

He tried to call esky 4 times within the 24 hour cancellation period and each time he held on for an hour before being disconnected. He called the airline but they advised he must cancel through booking agent esky. As this appeared impossible he rebooked a flight and returned to UK.
had he performed any research on who he was giving his money to he would have found many warnings. One of the many downsides of using a third party is you have no direct contract with the airline

He has emailed esky requesting refund for the flight and no response received in over 30 days.
Esky is based in Poland , so what is next move please?
Thanks

I suspect he is going to have to write this off as an expensive learning lesson
he may be due some taxes refunded as a no-show on the flight but it is possible that esky's service fees for processing may be higher
has he tried to deal with his travel insurance?

frugalfiz · 28 January 2020 at 11:58AM

Thanks for advice. He did have travel insurance but they did not cover this event. We will persevere but have little hope. He has learned from this mistake. He was first time alone in a foreign country with just a mobile phone for communication and desperate to get home! He used skyscanner and it took him straight to esky and unfortunately he didn't know better.

frugalfiz · 28 January 2020 at 12:50PM

Also on esky fair rules policy sent with booking you can cancel within 24 hours. But only possible if you can get through And not put on hold for an hour

martindow · 28 January 2020 at 2:21PM

frugalfiz wrote: »

Thanks for advice. He did have travel insurance but they did not cover this event. We will persevere but have little hope.

Are you sure this is not covered? If roads were closed and it was not possible to travel I'm surprised.

Have a good read through the policy to see if you are being fobbed off. Being armed with wording on the policy that suggests this should be covered will help your cause.

If you name the insurance company and the policy there may be people here who are familiar with its cover who can comment.

frugalfiz · 30 January 2020 at 10:09AM

Thank you, he is away for a couple of days but will tell him to get insurance policy out

frugalfiz · 20 February 2020 at 4:58PM

We finally dug the insurance policy out, checked the Clause in the policy booklet which was a bit of a grey area, but called them very assertively telling them that it looks like he was covered by that clause. They put us on hold for 5 minutes while they checked it out and came back and said he was covered if he could provide all the evidence (which he can). So not fully accepted yet as claim not gone in formally, but looking much more hopeful. Thank you so much for motivating me to call them again after previously being fobbed off!!

Esky cancellation problem

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