Mum’s $3k warning to savvy travellers
A mum has issued a word of warning for travellers booking flights through third-party platforms after she was left waiting seven months for a refund and $3000 out of pocket.
Chloe Quin purchased three plane tickets for herself, her daughter and her mother in October last year for the trio to fly from London to Florence for a visit that doubled up as a holiday and business travel.
The family was due to fly with British Airways subsidiary Vueling, in a trip they had planned and booked months in advance, which followed a stay in Morocco where they attended a wedding.
“We booked our main long haul flights (from Melbourne to Morocco) through a local and reputable (Australian) travel agent and then we booked the internal Europe flights online,” Ms Quin told news.com.au.
“We searched for those flights through Skyscanner … which gave us a bunch of (flight) options through thirdparty platforms.”
Ms Quin was redirected to discount airfare site My Trip – a subsidiary of global online travel agency Etraveli Group – where she paid $796.10 for two adult tickets and one child ticket.
As the trio jetted from Morocco to Spain, to London, the customer experience manager recalled everything running smoothly up until she received the dreaded email her flight to Florence had been cancelled.
“Dear Chloe, Vueling has been notified of a national air transport strike call in Italy for the 21st October 2022,” the email read.
“This circumstance will force us to make preventive changes in our flying program to minimise as much as possible the impact. Unfortunately this strike will affect your flight.”
With the flight scrapped, Ms Quin was offered three options regarding how she would like to proceed with her booking.
This included a “full refund … processed within seven days of (her) request”, alternative transport to get the family to the destination of the next available flight or changing the date of their flight to an alternative option.
As Ms Quin desperately needed to get to Florence for a work conference, she looked into booking a different flight, however this option quickly became impractical.
“(Vueling) put us on another flight that was a day or two later, which would fly us to Barcelona with a 12 hour layover (before flying to Florence),” she explained
“It was obviously unacceptable … it would have been like a 21 hour trip after you add everything up when Florence was just an hour away from London.”
After contacting Vueling, the 40-year-old opted for a refund and chose to purchase tickets with a different airline, which in addition to extra nights of accommodation and reserving a new Airbnb in Florence, cost her an additional $3000.
While the rest of the family’s trip went somewhat smoothly, Ms Quin’s troubles were only just beginning.
To receive the refund for her initial booking from London to Florence, Ms Quin had to contact My Trip.
“I tried to call them and this is where it really went pearshaped,” she explained.
“I could not get through to them, I think I sat on hold with them for about an hour before I finally could speak to someone who then gave me the run-around and kept putting me through to other people.
“I think I spent about three to four hours trying to sort it out on the phone and called about eight times.”
With this avenue of contact failing, Ms Quin emailed the company to no avail.
“They just kept giving me the same standard response. They were like ‘oh, yeah, it’s been escalated. We haven‘t got the money from the airline’,” she said.
“So that was their big excuse for not refunding me my money.”
As the months went on, Ms Quin grew more annoyed at the company – not at the fact she hadn’t received her refund but rather because of all the time and energy she put into the cause only to get nowhere.
“It‘s the time, it’s the effort, it’s the energy and it’s just principle,” she said.
Ms Quin isn’t the only customer of Etraveli’s subsidiaries to share this experience, with dozens of enraged consumers sharing similar incidents.
Online booking platforms Flight Network and Go to Gate, which are also owned by Etraveli, have received onestar reviews on customer feedback platforms.
A spokesperson for Etraveli said the agency acted as an “intermediary”, or a link between passengers and airlines.
Consequently, it’s not responsible for the cancellation, delay or changes made to flights and is merely a booking organiser.