Flybe enters administration – what happens next?

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• Aston100 says:

  5 Mar5 March 13:08

  Amex are still telling me they won’t consider the cost difference for purchasing new flights.
  i.e. all that is covered is the flights alone.
  A bit unclear about the hotel.
  Also they wont look at section 75 yet. They say they want to dispute the charges first.
  Is all of this correct?
  I thought Shoestring and others were saying last night that consequential losses would apply, possibly including the travel to another airport and overnight hotels etc?
  Granted the flights are not for a few months – could that be why?

  • james says:

    5 Mar5 March 13:30

    Consequential losses like that – not entitled

    • james says:

      5 Mar5 March 13:35

      Also worth remembering that S75 only applies where goods and services above £100 – in a lot of cases Flybe flights (inc mine) are under £100.

      • Shoestring says:

        5 Mar5 March 13:44

        if S75 applies, it *does* actually cover consequential losses, which might be the higher extra cost of a replacement ticket if you get a refund, plus any other reasonable costs you need to incur to see the original contract fulfilled

        • Aston100 says:

          5 Mar5 March 13:52

          OK so how do I convey this to Amex?
          They’ve told me straight up that if I buy replacement flights, those won’t be treated as consequential loss.

        • Shoestring says:

          5 Mar5 March 14:11

          it’s a slightly tricky situation to negotiate, as you obvs want Amex onside as they will be more helpful this way

          in your position, I would go on Chat first of all & point by point make your case for this to be treated as S75 protection, needing to be confirmed as such right now

          eg
          1. I paid on xyz *credit* card (not charge card)
          2. purchases over £100 are protected by S75
          3. list a few points that S75 covers (just look up some stuff online)
          4. explain you would like to purchase a new ticket, the extra cost if you get a refund through chargeback will be £?
          5. you may need to incur further reasonable costs such as getting to a different airport, staying night in hotel etc if flight makes this necessary
          6. maybe only reasonable option for new flight date is a day later etc, so you’ll need hotel night etc, which is covered under S75
          etc

          then if you get a BS answer, ask to be transferred to a supervisor – I never had to go higher than a supervisor to get my queries resolved but there could easily be another managerial level you can get the Chat transferred to

          if no joy, ask for this to be formally documented as a complaint, they’ll probably say OK & they’ll come back in 10 days

          mention you have the option of referring this case to the Financial Ombudsman because they are not treating the case as a S75 issue and fulfilling their obligations

        • Freddy says:

          5 Mar5 March 16:59

          I had to specifically say I had consequential losses and wanted to claim s.75 when I had a Thomas Cook claim. They sent out a s.75 claim form which I completed with the cost of my replacement flights. Paid up eventually

        • Aston100 says:

          5 Mar5 March 18:59

          *Dear moderators, are you aware literally every post of mine awaits moderation checks?*

          Replying here because I can’t reply directly to comments further down this trail.

          After several attempts, Amex have finally agreed to go down the s75 route. Shocking how on multiple web chat conversations with different agents they kept avoiding s75 and kept pointing me towards some charge dispute instead.
          I literally had to keep saying “no thank you, I want to use s75 please” about 3 times in a row to the last agent before it seems I must have ticked some box somewhere and he went into s75 mode and confirmed I would receive a form in 5 working days.
          It felt as if they are deliberately trained to avoid s75 unless someone asks a set number of times.

          So my question is: I am intending to fly from a London airport and will need to leave the car in a long stay car park. How do I claim for the car park (About £150) and the fuel costs (About £40) if I haven’t already purchased those?
          Can I claim for an estimate?
          I mean I could just book the car park anyway, and hope nothing else changes between now and the summer departure date, which would allow me to put a real figure into the claim form. But what about fuel? How do I claim for that months in advance?

          Thanks again.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          5 Mar5 March 22:19

          Why would parking be a valid claim under s.75?

          You mention London airport. Where was your original flight from and to? If you have many months until you fly Amex May find a more reasonable alternative

        • Alex Sm says:

          6 Mar6 March 00:07

          should I proceed with booking new flights straight away or to get approval from Amex first to do that?

        • Shoestring says:

          6 Mar6 March 09:58

          @Aston 100 – the most important principle is to be reasonable in your claim (and obviously play it very straight/ don’t milk the situation)

          @Alex SM – I’d personally get prior approval but if it’s a S75 situation (ie satisfies S75 parameters), you could do it either way, ie claim after you have incurred the costs.

          I can’t see any credit card co giving you money upfront, they will want to see receipts.

  • mvcvz says:

    6 Mar6 March 11:39

    If Shoestring says it is so, then it must be true.

• Cuchlainn says:

  5 Mar5 March 14:06

  OT ( no Bits ) – Hilton Redemptions.
  OH has Amex Plat and I am her supplementary – I registered and have HH Gold status.
  Q1. It appears only 1 person per household under Amex Plat can be HH Gold at any one time…… ?
  Q2. Booking 3 rooms for 6 adults for 2 nights for DD’s graduation using only my HH Points. Presume only myself ( Gold ) and OH ( sharing my room ) are entitled to complimentary breakfast, so need to pay for additional 8 ( 2 nights x 4 pax ) breakfasts……..?

  All assistance welcomed as 6 return flights and 3 days car hire mid-July is starting to mount up ££ 😀

  • Lee says:

    5 Mar5 March 15:02

    2 diamond and 3 gold in one household, no problem

  • Sean says:

    5 Mar5 March 15:21

    both my wife and i are gold via amex plat and supp. we book 1 room each when booking 2 rooms.

    can you tfer points to your wife and book 1 room in each’s name so get at least 2 of the 3 rooms with free bfast.

  • Anna says:

    5 Mar5 March 18:16

    Is there no decent Hampton or other Hilton brand where breakfast would be included anyway? This would be the best value for 6 of you.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Mar5 March 22:22

    Each supp holder can match Hilton Gold

    Book 1 room in your name and one in your wife’s and the hotel might give you all breakfast anyway. Infact email or phone them before booking and ask if they will.

• Shoestring says:

  5 Mar5 March 15:21

  Flybe collapse: will coronavirus kill off more airlines? – great article in The Times, get behind paywall by googling [Flybe has been on life support for years, having been narrowly saved twice in the past 12 months alone. ]

  • marcw says:

    5 Mar5 March 16:39

    But cheap fares were the problem. According to management.

    • Shoestring says:

      5 Mar5 March 17:11

      poor cashflow because people aren’t booking and paying in advance for tickets over the next 6 month

      half empty planes but the overhead is still nearly as high as before

      failing the ‘going concern’ analysis/ judgement

  • Brighton Belle says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:12

    Shoestring is good but has work to do 🙂
    Full marks for Press Reader tips but I always hit the Times Paywall following his guidance. Doh, what am I doing wrong?

  • Alex Sm says:

    7 Mar7 March 13:14

    It’s an ok article, not that revealing…
    But there is another one underneath which IS interesting as it provides an insight from a well-placed industry source:

    “The fallout from the global coronavirus outbreak is likely to trigger more mergers and takeovers in the airline industry, the boss of one of the world’s largest carriers has said.
    Ben Smith, 48, chief executive of Air France-KLM, said that the drop in bookings caused by the outbreak would intensify pressure on airlines to curb capacity and consolidate.”

• Chrisasaurus says:

  5 Mar5 March 20:23

  Plus fly in F, obvs 🙂

• Chrisasaurus says:

  5 Mar5 March 20:24

  Hmmm.. ‘often’ is a way off your original posture, though

  • Shoestring says:

    5 Mar5 March 20:26

    masks are pretty pointless unless you are the spreader, coughing & spluttering

    • Odin says:

      5 Mar5 March 20:36

      I’ve been reassured it’s a Pussycat virus so no precautions for me

      • Lady London says:

        6 Mar6 March 11:56

        Pussycats may look fluffy and cuddly but are vicious predators.

        Didn’t Australia try to ban cats as pets for that?

  • Shoestring says:

    5 Mar5 March 20:42

    I don’t deny there are possibly serious complications for old folk or those with underlying medical problems, something was always going to carry them off

    we don’t live forever

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      5 Mar5 March 21:52

      You can say the same about crossing the road without looking

      What about the doctor in Wuhan who was told to stop raising the alarm? Istr he was reasonably young and healthy?

      I promise you I don’t want there to be any cause for concern – clicking my username demonstrates why – but its definitely above a zero

      • Rui N. says:

        6 Mar6 March 08:52

        I think he was quite overweight, no?

• Dave says:

  5 Mar5 March 20:25

  Can anyone wit experience of Amex Platinum help me out with a query on Flybe flights. My scenario is as follows:
  – flights booked by my partner via lastminute.com travelling out on easyJet (no issue) but returning on Flybe
  – no refund opportunity from lastminute.com for flight only bookings
  – paid for on my partners Amex platinum Supplementary cardholder card
  – nowhere in the lastminute.com breakdown does it show the costs of the FlyBe flights

  Is it suggested that I should seek a chargeback for a partial amount (not sure how I obtain this) and then rebook the Flybe return leg via a different airline? If so do I have to cover the difference in cost myself (as s.75 consequential losses won’t be applicable to both a charge card booking and a booking via a 3rd party agency!)

  Also is Amex Platinum travel insurance of any use here? It’s a cancelled flight Which I could interpret as meaning costs upto £x are covered per person for alternative travel. However I can’t see anything in the policy which includes a provision for airline failure but equally can’t find anything to suggest there is an exclusion for airline failure!

  Wondering if anyone has previous experience of this sort of scenario and what approaches have been successful.

  • Freddy says:

    5 Mar5 March 20:40

    What does last minute.com have to say about it? I’d make contact with them first. S.75 may not apply due to last-minute being classed as an intermediary and such claims will not succeed.

    How much are the easyJet flights at the minute, minus that off the total and make a chargeback for that if last-minute don’t assist

    • Dave says:

      5 Mar5 March 20:50

      Lastminute,com have advised that they cannot issue a refund or any changes to the flights booked and that as this is a flight only booking I should make my own arrangements for alternative travel.

      Yes I was thinking the overall booking cost minus cost of the original easyJet outbound flight at current price would be appropriate but didn’t want to just come up with my own approach in case that invalidates the chargeback claim.

      Fairly sure that s75 won’t apply so won’t even explore that option.

      Does anyone know if Amex platinum travel insurance can kick in for claiming the cost of replacement return flights (assuming chargeback unsuccessful for a partial amount)?

• Shoestring says:

  5 Mar5 March 20:39

  UK had its first Coronavirus victim today – and indeed, condolences to his family & friends – dead guy was 87 and had about 5 other conditions going on, had previously been hospitalized for serious stuff, was going to die of something anyway (natural causes, old guy)

  • Corona says:

    5 Mar5 March 21:02

    Actually the 87 y/o guy is a 75 y/o woman

  • Shoestring says:

    5 Mar5 March 21:10

    something like that, not contributing to the economy: indeed – a drain

  • Shoestring says:

    5 Mar5 March 21:13

    I’m not saying Coronavirus will be good for GDP/ per capita, don’t get me wrong 🙂

  • Shoestring says:

    5 Mar5 March 22:10

    transgender at that old age?

• Alex Sm says:

  6 Mar6 March 00:08

  It’s WHO recommendation, not UAE’s

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