Did you know lastminute.com lets you refund non-refundable flights?

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• Kit Brennan says:

  28 Oct28 October 04:13

  The screenshot says £53.85 per segment. As this is a four segment flight, that would be a premium of £215.40, or ~17% of the original ticket price. Still a far cry cheaper than a fully flex ticket, but not quite as good deal.

  • Rob says:

    28 Oct28 October 05:26

    I’ve swapped over the example to a point-to-point flight to remove any confusion!

• The Original David says:

  28 Oct28 October 04:19

  Quite a misleading banner then, given the small print. “Cancel any time for any reason. No questions asked.” Except there’ll be lots of questions asked and no cancellation allowed in various force majeure situations…

  • John says:

    28 Oct28 October 04:48

    Yes that’s exactly what I thought when I read it. Waste of time.

• Aston100 says:

  28 Oct28 October 05:21

  Not surprising that its hardly purchased them.

• Jeremy Gautrey says:

  28 Oct28 October 05:35

  If you book via last minute would you get tier and points on the flights flown?

  • The Original David says:

    28 Oct28 October 05:45

    Yes, although only for whatever fare bucket your ticket books into, which isn’t always advertised by the OTA until after purchase.

    • Alex Sm says:

      28 Oct28 October 13:06

      Speaking about this… Sometimes the booking class letter is important but not all OTAs show it.
      My partner and I normally check Expedia which shows the letter and _assume_ that the flight XXX at the price around £YYY is the same class across all OTAs offering it at that given moment (and the airline itself).
      Normally this assumption works – but tell us if we are wrong in our assumption. Thanks

      • Lady London says:

        28 Oct28 October 15:32

        You could be wrong. Always worth checking around if the booking is price sensitive for you. Suite often one OTA will apply rules or mix flights differently – rightly or wrongly.

        Personally i avoid OTA’s whenever i can as nightmare in case of reschedules etc. As if you book though an OTA you are forced to deal though them on that type of thing. Plus quite a few their staff just dont know anything or May give you a bad steer.

• Aliks says:

  28 Oct28 October 05:52

  Leaving aside flights that start or finish in the European Union, is there any international standard governing flight changes made by the airline?
  If the airline cancels a flight or reschedules, are they obliged to offer alternative flights or a refund? or can they set their terms of carriage to say “no refunds whatever”??

  • John says:

    28 Oct28 October 07:51

    There is no international standard but the US, Canada, Turkey and Israel have their own compensation schemes. EC261 also applies to several non-EU countries like Bosnia and Switzerland. Otherwise you have card protection for a service not delivered.

• BJ says:

  28 Oct28 October 06:06

  The flexibility this offers effectively costs about 17%, and potentially more for indirect flights. In this case £277 or thereabouts. It would have been very helpful if you had given Virgin a quick call to ascertain whether paying this much more might have got you something more flexibly with them directly. I find this is the main problem booking with airline sites, we don’t get to see the full range of fares and conditions available. Sometimes much greater flexibility can be had for very reasonable additional cost. The two other problems I have with this are that the refund is a voucher, and making flight bookings via online travel agents can result in extra grief if flights are changed or cancelled, especially at times of mass disruption such as industrial action, ash clouds and the like. However, I don’t want to be dismissive, this is an interesting article that I’m happy to see here on HFP, I am sure it will provoke an interesting discussion today.

  • Rob says:

    28 Oct28 October 06:35

    Flexibility with Virgin on a slightly pricer tickets would never be better than ‘£300 (at a guess) change fee plus you pay the fare difference ‘. You won’t get the ability to refund without buying a flexible ticket.

• tony says:

  28 Oct28 October 06:45

  I have used this as I booked a sale fare many months out and thought I might not be able to travel so can confirm that it is absolutely a case of no quibbles and no questions asked. As noted, you do pay on both sides of the trade, partly for the premium then also for the excess if used. Presumably lastminute has done the maths here and that’s where the sweet spot lies.

  Within minutes of cancelling (which I had to do by phone) I received a voucher code by e-mail which could be applied to the new booking.

  Another not so well publicised option I’ve seen with another OTA is that Expedia now offers the ability to pay for flights in 3 interest free instalments.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  28 Oct28 October 07:11

  On the subject of cancellations I have a ticket on AA for LHR-IAD-MSY booked via an OTA. It is a single ticket under one PNR, not two separate bookings.

  AA have cancelled the IAD-MSY flight moving me on to their next departure (which is a new flight number). This creates a seven hour layover and a very late arrival into MSY that I am keen to avoid.

  The OTA tells me that nothing can be done. I believe that I will be entitled to compensation for the late arrival under EU law but I would rather reroute in advance to a more convenient flight. There are no better flight times out of IAD so can I force a reroute of the entire ticket to cut out IAD and am I limited to AA metal?

  Thanks in advance

  • Nick says:

    28 Oct28 October 07:25

    Has AA really done this with under two weeks’ notice? Normally they’re better about doing it further out (hence no EU comp would apply).

    In any case, this shows why people should always book direct with an airline. AA would have zero problem rebooking you over CLT in this circumstance. I dare say a ‘traditional’ travel agent would also do it. In answer to your question though, the OTA can apply their own restrictions if they want to (that’s how they keep costs down). You could point out AA’s flexible rebooking policy and keep asking, but the OTA is not obliged to do anything if they don’t want to, and they ‘own’ your booking so the airlines can’t take control and do it themselves. Finally, I don’t see why you think you’re limited to AA metal though, given that LHRIAD will be a BA operated flight, not AA.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      28 Oct28 October 07:33

      Nick,

      Notice will be about four weeks by the time we fly.

  • John says:

    28 Oct28 October 07:58

    Appreciate you want to sort it before leaving home, but if you were departing from the US they would have no trouble rerouting you at the airport (depending on availability), not sure about LHR though, otherwise you could ask when you get to IAD if you know of another suitable option.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      28 Oct28 October 08:19

      John,

      The flight they have moved us to is the next available one, of any airline, making the trip between Washington and New Orleans. Only way to avoid the long layover is to avoid Washington.

      I would concur however, having made numerous US domestic flights, they are treated more like busses and I have found gate agents very accommodating in the past.

      • Nick says:

        28 Oct28 October 08:55

        Right, so 4 weeks’ notice means no compensation at all. And LHRIAD is definitely a BA flight, AA doesn’t fly that route.

        You have three choices here… 1. keep hassling the OTA to reroute you, pointing out that AA allows this (I suggest finding a suitable route first, I would try CLT as the timing works best, or even the direct LHRMSY flight), 2. accept it but learn your lesson about that particular OTA in future, 3. take the first flight, then ask AA when you get there about rerouting. There might be an earlier option via DFW than waiting for yours.

        • Lady London says:

          28 Oct28 October 15:43

          Why not just cancel it? I’d want my money out of that lazy agent and as Nick says, lesson learned. IIRC EU261 does pût thé choice of a refund, or taking a reroute in your hands not the airline’s. So invoke that right. OTA has to refund. It’s a significant change by the airline that is not suitable for you so demand your refund. That might force a more acceptable rerouting.

          Where’s Shoestring when you need him? 🙂

  • Lady London says:

    28 Oct28 October 15:37

    AA did this to me once when they were still selling seats, and many still available, on thé flight I’d originally booked.

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