ETraveli/Flight Network UK t/a GotoGate/Mytrip/Supersaver/Seat24

[Abdul]

I’m seeking some advice on how to go after Flight Network UK, daughter of Swedish ETraveli and trading as GotoGate/MyTrip/SuperSaver/Seat24/Tripstack

I purchased a number of tickets for different carriers via Mytrip and GotoGate. All trips ended up being cancelled by the operating airline during Covid. I informed the agency and the airlines that I would rebook them at a later date, using their flexible rebooking policy. The airline annotated the bookings with comments that pax would rebook. At the time (still the case) the tickets could be flown without recalculation on the same route. As there was irregularity, the carrier could change the ticket without involving the OTA.

When I called the airline, in every case, for all 6 tickets, Mytrip had requested a refund from the airlines and kept the money.

I informed the airlines I would fly the ticket at a later date and they were kept in open status. During Covid, carriers would put retention segments to prevent the PNR’s being archived. Refunds can only be made by the BSP, the refund process is on request, it is not proactive, airlines never refund tickets for agencies unless the request is made.

I’m reaching out to our EC261 regulars, like LL and others, for their advice. It’s been established in case law that the claim is against the operating carrier and therefore I should LBA then sue the carriers *however* I don’t think its fair. I am 100% sure that Mytrip did this deliberately (6 bookings, different airlines and all the same) and the carriers are not at fault. Therefore, I’m looking at LBA then suing them under their UK address for basic breach of contract, bad faith, unfair practices etc: Mytrip / Flight Network UK Ltd, c/o TMF Group, 8th Floor, 20 Farringdon Street, London, EC4A 4AB.

A further complication to suing the airlines might be that 3 of the 6 trips were ex-EU and didn’t touch the UK. The other 3 were all to/from the UK. Nevertheless, I did purchase the tickets from MyTrip using their UK site, charged in £. I’m sure my contract is subject to the law of England and Wales as I contracted with their UK entity.

To be honest, ETraveli/Flight Network UK t/a GotoGate/Mytrip/Supersaver/Seat24 could do with a good kick up the backside, and I am happy to put on my size 13’s and do that.

[JDB]

You don’t give a lot of detail, but I think you are whistling in the wind suing the agent once they have refunded you. If you can get the airlines to rebook you at no cost after they have refunded the agent, you will have done very well but it seems rather unlikely. As for trying to enforce any 261 rights here or in the EU against the airline(s), I think you will struggle at this stage given the way you have gone about it.

[ChrisBCN]

What you have described is yet another reason to avoid OTAs for flight bookings… Maybe you saved a couple of quid when booking, but it’s rarely worth it

[Abdul]

I thought I gave a lot of detail actually…how I went about it? What have I not done? What should I have done better?

In good faith I bought flights. The flights got cancelled by the carrier. The OTA wrote to me to say they would leave the bookings “as is”, that refunds were on my request only. I called them to confirm that I did not want a refund and would rebook in their words “open ticket”. I also informed the carrier and they put comments that I would rebook it at a later date in accordance with their cancellation policy.

When I called to rebook, within ticket validity, the bookings had been refunded, at the agents request, as that’s the way the process works. The OTA had reneged on its written promise to leave the bookings “as is”.

Of the refunds I never requested, I have not received a penny.

Sometimes we focus too much on EC261 and instead should just look at basic principles of contract law. I prefer to sue the OTA, they’re in the UK. They’re rated 1.6/5 “Bad” on Trustpilot.

[Aston100]

Some of those OTAs are notorious. Tripadvisor Air Travel forum filled with horror stories.
Doubt you’ll get anywhere, based on many of the reports on Tripadvisor.

[JDB]

@Abdul apart the the 99 other reasons not to book through an agent, interposing an agent inevitably puts your 261 rights at risk. It just isn’t enough to ask an agent to leave a cancelled booking ‘as is’ which isn’t really very realistic for any length of time. You also can’t expect the airline to leave a booking ‘open’ for an extended period and once they have refunded, they have met their statutory obligations. You need to focus on getting the money refunded. The rest will just waste your time.

[Abdul]

Where have you been during Covid @JDB? 😀

The procedures were put in place for the Covid pandemic. All airlines had a procedure to leave bookings open, for a certain amount of time, within ticket validity at the very least though many, such as Lufthansa Group, far exceeded ticket validity adding up to more than 2 years.

I didn’t ask the OTA to leave the booking “as is” like a favour to me. The OTA contacted once there had been a cancellation to say they would leave the booking “as is” so I could rebook it at a later date. I confirmed by phone they would do so and I spoke to the airline to further confirm.

Hundreds of thousands of tickets were left open with airlines because they did not want to refund for cash flow reasons. Retention segments had never been used by the airline industry on such a scale before. It’s perfectly reasonable to “expect the airline to leave a booking ‘open’ for an extended period” if that was their written procedure. When I called to rebook, it was within ticket validity. The policy is STILL in place today, (2.5 years on since Covid hit) for cancelled flights with Lufthansa Group.

By refunding my ticket, against my wishes, the OTA breached the contract. I believe it’s that simple. You have an opposing view and seem to think the OTA acted correctly, which I will bear in mind.

[Will]

Have you come here for advice or just to disagree with any opposing opinion? Baffling

[JDB]

@Abdul as you claim to have all the answers, and have asked many questions around this subject previously, you should be able to resolve all this for yourself without any problem. Perhaps look at the contract with the OTA first and what the responsibilities of an agent are vs a supplier.

[Abdul]

Yes! I remember now your comments on Article 8, later date issue. Which is very much from a UK perspective for EU Law. The temporal link issue has not proven to be a problem in the EU insofar as the statute of limitations can be quite specific in national law for transport vs the UK’s flat 5/6 years. The fact it didn’t make it to the ECJ might mean that the issue is not subject to debate.

Do you think it’s relevant the OTA charges the card in full, as “Mytrip” than Expedia style, where the airline charges the card, perhaps with a second transaction for some kind of processing fee/handling fee charged by Expedia. I know Propeller Travel does this.

[Rob]

Assuming you can’t do a chargeback (not clear why you can’t – you paid a supplier, supplier has kept your money and not delivered) then Money Claim Online seems the way to go. We have a guide to this on here if you search, albeit in the context of sueing BA.

[JDB]

Abdul wrote:

Yes! I remember now your comments on Article 8, later date issue. Which is very much from a UK perspective for EU Law. The temporal link issue has not proven to be a problem in the EU insofar as the statute of limitations can be quite specific in national law for transport vs the UK’s flat 5/6 years. The fact it didn’t make it to the ECJ might mean that the issue is not subject to debate.

Do you think it’s relevant the OTA charges the card in full, as “Mytrip” than Expedia style, where the airline charges the card, perhaps with a second transaction for some kind of processing fee/handling fee charged by Expedia. I know Propeller Travel does this.

Limitation, to which you have referred previously, isn’t going to help here. Your potential 261 claims vs the airlines were extinguished once the agent took a refund and the agent has no such obligation to you. The agent does of course owe you a refund but most likely nothing more. If you are going to do a chargeback, you need to get a move on as that has a time limit of 120 days from when you made the transaction or when you were due to receive the service. You may also have s75 protection depending on how you bought the tickets and who they were for and this doesn’t have the 120 limit but could impact it.

While you appear to be relying on limitation, UK261 and most things also rely upon reasonableness and mitigating your losses. If you were to attempt to bring a 261 claim four years on, you would have almost zero prospect of success and CEDR probably wouldn’t listen. The ‘at the passenger’s convenience’ stretches quite a long way and is not defined, but after say two years max, you are likely to struggle. It quite clearly doesn’t give you an endlessly open ticket and by leaving it open with the airline rather than rebooking, you expose yourself to the risk they will renege.

[ChrisBCN]

Abdul wrote:

Where have you been during Covid @JDB? 😀

Here’s been here pretty much every day giving people like you advice! Where have YOU been 😉

[Lady London]

Hi Abdul

I agree with your feelings about the agent.

What you do, depends on your aims.
It will be a lot of work to get anywhere. Most people wouldn’t do it as they are not public-spirited and b100dy-minded enough to sacrifice themselves trying to sort this sleazeball travel seller out. Especially when chance of failure is very high indeed. Not because you are wrong, but because there are a lot of sticky points that can derail you.

GotoGate have the worst reputation it seems except possibly eDreams. Were you not yet into frequent flying info sources when you booked with them? You could check flyertalk to see what progress anyone else might have made with them.

If you do want to pursue this aa a reroute rather than refund you need to have costed up a set of replacement options for each booking to prove reasonable cost of rerouting which is a lot of work.

I would try for s75 if I paid on UK credit card. As your purchase did include a statutory right 261 which you’d be using s75 to request the cardco to honour. If they say no but offer chargeback, grab it. Just because as JDB says, most of this looks practically, as though getting your money back is the likely best practically achievable outcome. And this way you deal with cardco not agency (though cardco may ask you to get refusal of refund from agency). Contact agency quickly bearing in mind timeclocks to claim start when you first become aware of your loss, or agent refuses refund or reroute.

I’d suggest to agency process it as a chargeback now (meaning they take money back off agent) or I’ll insist it’s an s75 claim for 261 rights inherent in the product for rerouting, that have not been provided by agent (so jointly liable cardco is being asked to cover cost of rerouting). But I’m stroppy and I think JDB’s recommendation is best for most people :- take a refund anyhow you can get it, and walk away.

It seems clear the agent instigated a refund of your tickets to help their own cashflow. Or they got sick of autoreminders or straggly reports on their system every two weeks so cleaned up/out. I have a feeling it’s good for your case that they told you in writing they would not cancel the ticket without you requesting this, and have not put in writing anything different since.

But your language about this with the agent uses word ‘rebook’ and ‘open ticket’ which are ok consumer words, but in the industry might open the door a bit to agent claiming you were leaving it with them for a credit to be held against a new future booking. It’s this that makes me follow JDB’s view. I think the airline noted it correctly but then the agent overrode that for their own purposes – which sadly an agent you booked through can get the airline to do.

If the writing you got from the agent used the words ‘not cancel’ and that you would be ‘rerouting’ not ‘rebooking’, then even though I know an ordinary traveller wouldn’t know the meanings here, then I’d be happier. If so then I’d think of MCOLing all the agency’s companies you contracted with, together with all the airlines, as co-defendants for denial of rerouting rights under 261 if my records of when I said what to who and any written records, were strong enough. All in one claim if court will take it as one, as the common factor is the single agency group involved. Name their overall owning/holding company as the lead name then follow with the agent trading vehicle names you contracted with, then the airlines.

This would have to be very well organised and succinct and well indexed, again a lot of work and paper, and few would consider it.

How much of your life do you want to spend on this?

[Lady London]

[suspenseful music plays]

****Submitted reply two times here it has not displayed. No quotes, nothing contentious, not even a reply to a post, no links, no rude language… Just a Reply added to the end of this thread****

Twice posting was a bit much as it was a longish reply – not posting it again to avoid polluting the thread. Hopefully the HfP team will unblock it on Monday.

<<Spoiler alert – I went with @JDB on the practicalities of this. Even though I too would be outraged. The agent should have kept the ticket or if some system problem in doing that, you can ask the agent to turn over control of it to the airline, tell the airline this too. The agent should have contacted you if they wanted to cancel it given what they had written to you and they didn’t so you had no chance to tell them this.>>

[Lady London]

******** 2 posts swallowed by the system here *******
First one posted twice, then a different one