The Chronicle

Scam lost mum her holiday money, can she get get cost of flight back?

- Email your questions to askwhich@which.co.uk

MY MOTHER was recently caught up in an online holiday rental scam. She wanted to book a villa in Marbella for a family celebratio­n but the site was false. She was conned into making a direct transfer to the person’s bank account rather than the rental company’s system. She lost over £5,000.

The fraud department at her bank, NatWest, is negotiatin­g with counterpar­ts at Barclays – the bank where her money ended up – to see if anything can be recovered.

We have to see what will happen here. But as a result of the swindle, the air tickets we booked on Monarch, costing £3,445 were no use to anyone in the family at this time. She asked Monarch for either a refund or credits towards a future flight – we still intend on going to Spain when we are clearer as to where we shall stay.

But Monarch refused, stating it will only refund or offer credit “in exceptiona­l circumstan­ces”. The airline cites death as an example.

Can you help? Martin H MANY reasons for ticket cancellati­on – illness or death either of the traveller or someone close – are covered by travel insurance.

Being scammed out of your accommodat­ion is not something you can claim under a policy.

We’ll follow up on this matter but obviously, losing £5,000 is not comparable to death or serious illness. However, the worry over Monarch’s interpreta­tion of its policy that you have to throw away the airline tickets has given your mother sleepless nights, leading to potential medical interventi­on over her anxiety.

Monarch cites death as an exception that would allow it to refund a ticket which is normally not refundable. But its terms and conditions do not limit the exceptions to this – it’s just an example. By their nature, exceptions cannot be exactly defined – when Monarch came up with these terms, accommodat­ion fraud was almost unheard of – sadly it is now far more common.

However, when Which? approached Monarch for details of other “exceptiona­l circumstan­ces” which would create a refund, it was sympatheti­c.

It said: “As a gesture of goodwill and to help her, we’ll put a credit against the booking. When she contacts customer services again she can cancel her booking and she’ll then be able to re-book flight tickets (to the same value) within 12 months.”

That’s one worry less to deal with.

 ??  ?? Monarch Airlines agreed to credit a customer’s account
Monarch Airlines agreed to credit a customer’s account
 ??  ?? IN ASSOCIATIO­N WITH
IN ASSOCIATIO­N WITH

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