Travel agent unaware (and so far denying) flight was cancelled

[ohanssen]

I saw there was a new airline linking the UK with Italy, Aeroitalia, and booked with them (via an online agency) for a flight during february half term. Out of curiosity, a week ago I looked to see if we could fly a day before, and found the airline was no longer selling tickets between LHR and Bergamo in Italy. I wrote to the agency then, and almost every day since, to try to get in touch with Aeroitalia to figure out what was going on, and each time they said I shouldn’t worry, that the flight was confirmed.
Today, in a new browser, I tried the aeroitalia website again and found a chat function and talked to an airline agent and found that they had in fact cancelled the flight (in fact all london flights) for the foreseeable future, and had then failed to inform me. I had the airline agent draft and send me an email (which was really sparse and lacking in details) that they had in fact cancelled the flight. After this I talked again to the agent at the website, who said my case was going to be investigated and I should send the email I received to their (general) customer service email address.
I’m not sure what I should do, or expect from the travel agency. The airline said I can request my refund from them, which the agency will eventually give to me (probably with some deduction), but I wondered if I have the right to either be re-booked by the travel agency on another carrier, or if they owe me compensation for not notifying me when the flight was cancelled. Normally it is the airline that requires the payment of compensation, but in this case does the travel agency have the responsibility to do something?
Is it better to just make a claim with my insurance company?

[Lady London]

You have the right to

(1) have the operating airline reroute you ie they replace your cancelled flight with a ticket on another airline same route. At no extra cost to you no matter what the ticket you get would normally cost.Your choice whether flights as near as poss to original dates or another date convenient to you. Legally, you choose.

Your claim is on operating airline not travel agent.

(2) if the airline did not inform you (assuming they have your contact details), and not just the travel agent, of the cancellation at least 14 days ahead then the operating aiine also owes you £220 compensation under EU261 and UK equivalent.

Why do I have a feeling you might miss out on that right because you’ve made them tell you just a bit more than 14 days ahead?

(3) if you do want to travel as near as an alternative flight can be found to your original dates, then the operating airline that cancelled you also owes you any accommodation needed due to extra nights, transport costs to and from the accommodation, plus reasonable local costs of all meals where you wait for the later flight(s).

(4) Airlines and travel agents may try to manoeuvre you into taking a refund. Thw moment you do, you lose the right to have the airline replace your ticket “reroute” you (on them or other airline) free of any extra charge. Highly likely with the refund, flight costs will now be so high you couldn’t buy another ticket yourself with that money. So don’t let them force or trick you into a refund till you know what you want to do instead.

Most people can’t accept an earlier flight due to transport issues or because it has too much of an impact on their existing plans. However were you able to accept an earlier flight, then your landing time would of course be brought forward potentially losing you all or some of your compensation. However for some people they prefer this as, for example, it lets them not miss a day’s work.

If you look in the Flight Cancellations and Changes thread here on HfP you will see the steps to pursue these rights. Starting with a request for what you have a right to, followed by a Letter Before Action if airline fails to provide, followed by your choice of any arbitration service the airline is signed up to or a money claim (MCOL) in the UK small claims court.

Personally, “Good Luck With That”, in the circumstances you describe. Not that you wouldn’t be entitled and quite possibly might be awarded your rights one way or another, but because it will require a lot of work and time by you to navigatw the process. Additionally, the way this has happened has got “flaky” written all over it. Giving a higher chance that even if you do it all correctly, you still won’t end up getting your rights paid out to you.

So
(1) put your request in to both airline and travel agent for replacement flights “rerouting”. In writing or carefully noted phone call with date and time and who you spoke to, stressing urgency given how close your flight is.

(2) Call your insurance company and ask to claim – you’ll be able to tell them your flight is cancelled and travel agent and airline haven’t provided replacement flights and ask to claim (I hope your policy covers this).

(3) try not to book via most travel agents in the future, especially OTA’s (online ones), in these cases they add no value and may leave you in a worse position than if you booked direct.

I think Ryanair might still do that route.. have a quick squizz before you call the insurance co.

[yonasl]

And please share who that agency is … website or brick and mortar hopefully people googling them will find this thread and never use them again.

[meta]

The travel agent has a duty to pass on the contact details to the airline. I think there is a ruling on this so airline can’t use the excuse that they informed the agent because they couldn’t contact you.

[JDB]

I don’t think you will be able to resolve the above by any of the standard means suggested above. The airline doesn’t participate in arbitration in the UK and even if you were able to find a UK service address for MCOL, you quite likely wouldn’t be able to enforce any judgment. It is the airline’s responsibility to reroute you and not the agent’s so while you can send an LBA etc. to the agent and even issue proceedings they are essentially liable to refund you and your credit card provider won’t offer more. If you want to be rerouted (although you have very little time) you need to to write immediately to Aeroitalia (cc agent for completeness) setting out all the circumstances and including the form below and give them a very short time to provide you with alternative flights (give them some specific alternatives) failing which you will book flights yourself at a cost of c. £xxx/€xxx and seek to recover the money from them. If they don’t respond after six weeks or they refuse to reroute you in accordance with your EC261 you will escalate to ENAC (see:

https://www.enac.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati/2018-Nov/eu_complaint_form_en.pdf

I think this route was cancelled a while back (ie not long after starting) so you won’t get any cancellation compensation unless you can prove YOU weren’t notified with two week’s notice.

Include in your correspondence (as hinted on the firm) that the airline failed to notify you or your agent of the cancellation and the airline also failed to notify either of you about your EC261 rights.

It will take quite a bit of tenacity! Act quickly before these people run out of money.

[Lady London]

Yup @JDB, “Good Luck With That” to @ohanssen from both of us. Hope he runs fast to his insurance company.

I forgot to mention if no insurance, could look at Section 75 claim on UK credit card. If that type of card was used to pay and the flight cost was over £100, for the cost of replacement flight. Although using insurance is the best option all round. Now that the cancellation is known about, though, be aware there’s a time limit to get the claim in to your card company if it turns out insurance doesn’t sort it.

Was there any advantage in going the enac.it route? As the flight was a route starting from the UK

[JDB]

Lady London wrote:

Yup @JDB, “Good Luck With That” to @ohanssen from both of us. Hope he runs fast to his insurance company.

I forgot to mention if no insurance, could look at Section 75 claim on UK credit card. If that type of card was used to pay and the flight cost was over £100, for the cost of replacement flight. Although using insurance is the best option all round. Now that the cancellation is known about, though, be aware there’s a time limit to get the claim in to your card company if it turns out insurance doesn’t sort it.

Was there any advantage in going the enac.it route? As the flight was a route starting from the UK

I suggested ENAC as it don’t think the OP will be able to apply for arbitration or MCOL, so ENAC (as the Italian regulator, doesn’t matter where flight originates) is the maybe only option other than court action in Italy. I don’t understand how s75 can be used given there is no breach of contract or misrepresentation.

[Lady London]

The buyer didn’t get what they paid for so it’s Section 75 claim on UK credit card if paid using one. Section 75 does cover for replacement cost whether higher or lower unlike chargeback. As card is jointly liable with whoever took the money for providing what’s been purchased.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Thats only kicks in if the ticket was more than £100 though

[JDB]

Lady London wrote:

The buyer didn’t get what they paid for so it’s Section 75 claim on UK credit card if paid using one. Section 75 does cover for replacement cost whether higher or lower unlike chargeback. As card is jointly liable with whoever took the money for providing what’s been purchased.

s75 simply doesn’t apply as the travel agent is not required to provide any rerouting or replacement tickets. The travel agent will not be in breach of contract or have made any misrepresentation which are the only two things for which a merchant is jointly liable under the legislation. The agent is also not responsible for the airline’s apparent failure to provide EC261 rights which anyway are statutory and not a contract between the parties. Absent some goodwill gesture, there is no s75 claim and interposing an agent makes it worse.

[ohanssen]

Thanks for everyone’s help here. The ticket was over £100 per person (two people flying), but only just.
The online ticket agency is lastminute.com, which I was using as I had some leftover credit from a cancelled flight during the pandemic with them. Not useful really, except they sold the tickets in GBP as opposed to aeroitalia directly, which charged in EUR (so small avoidance of exchange rate fees).
If you can confirm, my best bet is to go via the credit card company, and get them to sort out a new direct (and much more expensive) flight. What exactly should I do?
I called my travel insurance company yesterday and they said in principle it wouldn’t be covered, as they only cover what the different EU regulations don’t cover (cancellations due to strikes, weather, etc.), but that I could start a claim. This, however, gets to this issue of the window under which I need to make this credit card claim.
It is def within the 14 day window, as I only found out about this yesterday, and the flight is in 9 days from today.
Thanks again!

[JDB]

There is another problem with this fool’s errand of trying to use s75 as a back door to UK/EC261 – before considering an s75 claim the card provider will almost always attempt a chargeback so as to get at least some money back from the merchant rather than paying themselves under s75. Obviously, in doing that your 261 claim is extinguished. The basic problem remains that per the wording of s75 a card provider isn’t (jointly) liable in respect of 261 rights.

[ohanssen]

@JDB, thanks for the additional note, while I wrote, so going via the credit card and s75 doesn’t apply, and I should go via the issuing an email letter to the airline, as noted in your post yesterday at 10 pm.

[JDB]

You need to pursue AeroItalia urgently. Your card provider and or insurer will both require you to attempt to resolve it with the airline first. Obviously Lastminute.com should help you, but I doubt they will and certainly not in a timely manner. You have 120 days to contact your card provider. The 14 days was with reference to notification by the airline to the passenger, even when there is an agent in the middle. Look up Surinam Airways + EC261 for the case. Put that to AeroItalia as well as part of your letter. Theoretically they would need to compensate you as well as reroute you if you were only notified 9 days ahead.

[JDB]

ohanssen wrote:

@JDB, thanks for the additional note, while I wrote, so going via the credit card and s75 doesn’t apply, and I should go via the issuing an email letter to the airline, as noted in your post yesterday at 10 pm.

In view of the very tight time line, I would telephone AeroItalia in the first instance to see what they say. If after you have reminded them of their obligations, they are uncooperative, tell them you will raise the matter with ENAC, their regulator. Don’t be fobbed off by them saying speak to the travel agent.

[ohanssen]

They don’t actually have a phone number, but I found yesterday an online chat function that worked. In terms of urgency, I imagine that is what I should do, rather than send an email.

[JDB]

ohanssen wrote:

They don’t actually have a phone number, but I found yesterday an online chat function that worked. In terms of urgency, I imagine that is what I should do, rather than send an email.

Chat is perhaps better as you can keep a record of what is said. I’m probably teaching you to suck eggs, but for these important cases always a good idea to type some of it elsewhere and copy/paste into the chat eg EC261 paras under which you are claiming rerouting, fact it’s irrelevant if they notified agent etc. I think pax have actually been turning up at the airport to check in.

[ohanssen]

Good point. I had everything written in a word file, and after getting in touch with the chat, they refused to do any re-routing “as they have no agreements with other airlines”. So I will proceed with the email as written, with the form attached. I feel with that response, aeroitalia will not do any re-routing and I will have to book the flight myself.
I am not involving my travel insurance, as the message I got from that is “Flight Cancellation: if your flight is cancelled by the airline then you will only be covered if it is a result of strike, industrial action or mechanical breakdown and no alternative transport has been provided within 24 hours. Any other reason such as staff shortages are not covered and you will need to claim directly with your airline/tour operator for any costs incurred.”

[NorthernLass]

Certainly speak to your insurer (if a claim would be worth it after any excess), but they usually expect you to try and recoup any losses from the airline first.

[JDB]

ohanssen wrote:

Good point. I had everything written in a word file, and after getting in touch with the chat, they refused to do any re-routing “as they have no agreements with other airlines”. So I will proceed with the email as written, with the form attached. I feel with that response, aeroitalia will not do any re-routing and I will have to book the flight myself. Should I make a claim with my travel insurance now before buying an alternative flight?

You need to establish what your loss is (ie the additional cost) before claiming. I think the insurers will want you to claim from the airline first but might accept their now documented refusal. At this point, you don’t want to be asking for a refund until the insurer has confirmed they will definitely pay and while you have a claim with the airline which you should properly disclose to your insurer. If you have more than one travel policy, see which one might actually cover this eventuality as some, eg Amex Plat I don’t think would cover this.

[ohanssen]

I edited my post, as I quickly went to my travel insurance page and found when starting a claim that “Flight Cancellation: if your flight is cancelled by the airline then you will only be covered if it is a result of strike, industrial action or mechanical breakdown and no alternative transport has been provided within 24 hours. Any other reason such as staff shortages are not covered and you will need to claim directly with your airline/tour operator for any costs incurred.”
I used the black Barclaycard for the purchase, which I dont believe has a card-related insurance of any sort.

[JDB]

Yes, when people said go to your insurer, I wasn’t sure on what basis and which insurers cover this. Some here have suggested claiming from your card, but they aren’t going to give you a definitive answer for weeks. You can be sure of getting a refund but not the difference between the original cost and the cost of new tickets.

I think that if I were you (but I don’t know how much cost we are talking about) I would go to ENAC on the basis of the fairly definitive statement you got on chat of refusal to reroute.

[ohanssen]

Great, thanks again.
Does this mean to go STRAIGHT to ENAC? Or write to aeroitalia and wait for them to respond within six weeks, and then write to ENAC?
In terms of re-routing, I wanted to check that this only applies to airlines that have agreements with other airlines, but I found this UK-based guidance that states “We are aware that some airlines have agreements in place with other airlines
that facilitate re-routing and allow passengers to be easily transferred onto other
airlines. Such arrangements are welcome in that they can minimise both the cost
to airlines of re-routing passengers and the inconvenience experienced by
passengers in being re-routed. However, where airlines do not have such
arrangements in place, we do not accept that this should be a barrier to re-
routing passengers on other airlines.”
https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/Re-routing%20Guidance%20(CAP2155).pdf

[JDB]

It’s the airline’s problem if they have no special arrangements (ie cheap deals) in place, not yours. They are required to reroute you or pay up if you take matters into your own hands Post their refusal. Problem is this is a tinpot airline!

Personally, I would go to ENAC now. You have had the refusal which is on totally spurious grounds. That response was to your complaint, so meets both conditions of going to ENAC. In any event you have lodged a further complaint with AeroItalia which they will either address or ignore. If ENAC says you need to wait, you can reapply later. You should be aware that I don’t think ENAC actually has enforcement powers but hopefully the airline would comply.

[SamG]

I’ve seen mentioned in a few places online that they’re in trouble. So whilst rerouting yourself at this stage seems the only reasonable option I would be aware you may never recover the cash and limit costs where possible for your own sake.

My understanding is S75 can’t be pursued here as the debtor creditor supplier relationship was broken by using lastminute.com but could still be worth trying if dealing with them directly doesn’t work (or they go bust in the mean time!)