Fight for flight response
GETTING compensation for a flight delay went horribly wrong for a mum and daughter after they made a claim through self-styled travel consultant Refundor, whose processes and stonewalling nearly made them miss out on £1,040.
Well done to their carrier BA however, which once alerted by Crusader to its customers’ problems, paid Carol and Sandra Evans their due promptly and safely, ending what had become a long haul.
For other travellers this cautionary tale has one main message: be super careful before putting your problems and personal details in the hands of companies you don’t know and haven’t first thoroughly checked out.
Unscrupulous operators are well aware they’ve been given the upper hand, along with a trove of valuable data.
Carol and Sandra’s problems began when they were stuck for hours in the departure lounge at New York’s JFK last November. Sandra started trawling the web to find out about delay compensation and when Refundor popped up, she and Carol signed up for it to handle their claim with BA.
Service charges, they learned later, would be 25 per cent of what they got back for the flights plus a further fee of £21.25 each.
Details were sent to the Latvia-based company – and so began a maddening merry-goround of contradictory emails, with Refundor’s arcane utterances littered with pleas for understanding about what it described as its “extraordinary high workload”.
After pressing Refundor to find out what was going on, in September Sandra was told it had “great news” for her and “the compensation payment from the airline has been received!”.
But in December it warned BA could take “a fair bit of time – up to three months in some cases” adding: “Please also be aware the airline may contact you directly to avoid paying or decrease the compensation amount. To ensure the best possible outcome for your claim, you should not accept any offers of vouchers, settlement or similar. Instead, please refer them to Refundor or simply do not reply.”
Also in December, confusion grew when Carol notified Refundor after spotting a different claim number for Sandra. By March enough was enough; the women asked Crusader for help and were delighted when BA compensated them within three days. Refundor was contacted for comment.
On its website it states: “We are a travel consulting company with strong emphasis on air passengers’ rights. Our mission is to help you make travelling less stressful.”
‘Check out claims delay firms before giving details’
● Names have been changed