 Poster: A snowHead
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This is sort of Coronavirus but not fully.
I am in process of claiming back the costs that I can for our holiday which had been booked to Italy for 3rd April, which obviously can't now happen due to FCO advice. I have a couple of elements I am having a little issue with getting back. I contacted my insurers (Nationwide Flexplus), and was told I need to have evidence that my accommodation provider and flights provider, are not going to be refunding me the money. I already have this from the accommodation provider but my flights were from Optiontown - the BA flightpass ones.
We had 6 people on it, with 12 return flights available. 6 used successfully at half term. 4 were scheduled to be used for April (technically the return flight hasn't yet been cancelled by BA). I email Optiontown who tell me speak to BA. I spoke to BA they say, can't do anything as you paid Optiontown, speak to them (no unexpectedly). I email optiontown back who say, contact "BA Trade Center" so that they can provide me with another flight (yes I would love to book to somewhere else but as I type only handful of ski areas still open and I have no faith ANYWHERE will be open come that first week of April), so I say, no, the whole country is now inaccessible so we can't reach our booked accommodation. I am now getting stalling messages, the latest being:
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We would like to advise you that we have raised a request please give us some time to discuss your case with the concerned department and we shall contact you and discuss the case in details/update you on the case.
We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter. |
OK, I get this is a pretty unique situation, but how long should I have to wait to get an answer, I first requested the money for the 4 return journeys of the flightpass, on Tuesday, latest holding message was today.
Second bit is I stupidly (it now turns out!), paid the tourist tax element of the accommodation when I paid the remainder. 14 Euros. This is refundable, as we couldn't stay, I asked for it back, they offered me back £10 into my UK bank account - err No, that is not 14Euros, I said, just pay it back in into my Euro Revolut account, it can stay there until next time. Apparently I will be charged for this by his bank. OK, how about refunding it via the Visa card (Revolut one), I paid it on. This was going to take sometime. I have now recommended Revolut to him (which he is interested in and setting up)... OK great but again few days I am still waiting.
Also paid the deposit (50%) on credit card for the accommodation and the paid the flights on credit card (paid the surcharge for the privilege despite being illegal by my definition). I am now wondering if I should be going through my credit card companies for the refunds? Rather than the travel insurance - under failure to supply... though does this stackup with the message which says, BA Trade Center will give me different flights?
I have no experience of these things. Would appreciate anybody else's insights.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@NickyJ, quite honestly I wouldn’t fret about 14 euros or £12.72.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Pamski wrote: |
| @NickyJ, quite honestly I wouldn’t fret about 14 euros or £12.72. |
I thought that but, to be fair, it's six times that.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Pamski wrote: |
| @NickyJ, quite honestly I wouldn’t fret about 14 euros or £12.72. |
Oh I know it is small fry in the scheme of things, but I am already loosing the £100... it is the principal of it. I know my take away is don't pay anything in advance that I don't have to, and this is what I am going to be loosing.
Good news is the car hire had free cancellation (booked via Expedia, so already have that money back).
I was on verge of booking lessons when this stuff started escalating to made the call to just wait to we get there and take the chance that we may not get the lessons we wanted, we are in the luxurious position that the girls are now quite capable of skiing with us.
Lift passes we had already decided to buy there as wasn't going to be too busy in La Thuile at Easter (half term however we had everything booked and paid for in terms of lift passes a month before and lessons 6 months before).
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Fundamentally though I am wondering if I should be actually not following through with the travel insurance claim, and just using the credit card section 75 protection?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@NickyJ,
I sympathise with your frustration on the reclaims. You and many thousands of others are in a similar position this weekend as Easter holiday plans unwind.
I would anticipate you getting a similar question from your credit card provider - what is the evidence that the merchant has failed to provide? Yes, you (and most people on here) understand that the flights are practically useless if you can't ski, but that probably isn't going to cut it with a contact centre agents who are following a process with little discretion.
At a pinch, you might get somewhere on a s.75 claim for the flights as consequential loss on the other parts of your trip. If you booked all on the same card, and if the card provider is minded to be generous, you might be able to get them to understand the connection between separate transactions.
This is the risk that you bear when you DIY, I'm afraid, as opposed to booking a package with ABTA/ATOL protections. Any chance if the Optiontown can extend your flight options to the summer?
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@tomj, the travel insurance have verbally says they will cover it. It is just I need evidence that I won’t be being refunded by the flights people - quite reasonable really.
I did change our travel insurance to reflect the increased risk to one which has end supplier failure and airline failure cover specifically because we now DIY
We also very very rarely do a summer holiday.
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Put in a credit card claim for the flights if you then get it back via other means you can sort it out
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| pieman666 wrote: |
| Put in a credit card claim for the flights if you then get it back via other means you can sort it out |
If optiontown are an agent and not a provider would that work?
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| marcellus wrote: |
| pieman666 wrote: |
| Put in a credit card claim for the flights if you then get it back via other means you can sort it out |
If optiontown are an agent and not a provider would that work? |
And does that matter? Isn’t that the way things work? My contract is with the company that took my money- their contract is with whoever behind the scenes?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| NickyJ wrote: |
| marcellus wrote: |
| pieman666 wrote: |
| Put in a credit card claim for the flights if you then get it back via other means you can sort it out |
If optiontown are an agent and not a provider would that work? |
And does that matter? Isn’t that the way things work? My contract is with the company that took my money- their contract is with whoever behind the scenes? |
As you say you actually have no contract with BA (privity of contract) and I think within the CRA (which covers section 75 reclaims) if you have no contract with the actual provider (BA) then section 75 reclaims are very tricky, which is why I asked the question.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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If I've booked lessons with ESF and the resort is closed - presumably they will provide a refund as they won't be running the lessons?
Wondering though about an apartment booked through an agency - I suppose technically you could go and stay in the apartment even though there is no skiing. Do people think the agency might offer a refund or is something for insurance?
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4 Valleys (Verbier) have offered to credit next weekend's ski passes for next season. No refund.
A bit cheeky I'd say, but I'm OK with it as I'd like to go there anyway.
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You know it makes sense.
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@frejul, one for your travel insurance
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| @frejul, one for your travel insurance |
Checked small print on Winter Sports cover. Mine says not covered when outside the dates of 1st December and 31st March. We were due to go 3rd April. That was a waste of money!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Avoriaz are refunding unused passes and even unused days on passes.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Dougie wrote: |
| Hells Bells wrote: |
| @frejul, one for your travel insurance |
Checked small print on Winter Sports cover. Mine says not covered when outside the dates of 1st December and 31st March. We were due to go 3rd April. That was a waste of money! |
Is that for all aspects of the winter sports cover? I've only seen a date restriction on piste closure in the ones I've read.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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And now Jet2 are stopping Geneva flights out from UK from now and flights back from Sat 21st. I have a one way flight back to LBA on Sun 22nd (was going out on BA on Weds) so will now get a refund.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anybody know if you can reschedule an individual EJ flight when you didn't make the booking but you ere art of a block booking made by someone else?
Since there's no point in taking our flight to GVA next weekend (coz VT is now closed) we can reschedule for free. The flights for 11 people were booked by one of the other party members but a couple of us will want to reschedule our flights to other destinations on other dates and others want to go elsewhere or forfeit their flight. Can this be done?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@halfhand, I’ve got the same issue. I’ve scoured their website and it’s not mentioned anywhere. I plan to call their customer services tomorrow and get some guidance. Certainly it seems impossible to split a booking using the app and online service from my efforts this morning. I’ll post a response from EJ tomorrow hopefully
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@jirac18 Good luck getting through to EJ on the phone
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| jirac18 wrote: |
| @halfhand, I’ve got the same issue. I’ve scoured their website and it’s not mentioned anywhere. I plan to call their customer services tomorrow and get some guidance. Certainly it seems impossible to split a booking using the app and online service from my efforts this morning. I’ll post a response from EJ tomorrow hopefully |
Will do same if I get anywhere 
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| andy from embsay wrote: |
| And now Jet2 are stopping Geneva flights out from UK from now and flights back from Sat 21st. I have a one way flight back to LBA on Sun 22nd (was going out on BA on Weds) so will now get a refund. |
Same with Lyon and Grenoble now
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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halfhand, jirac18,
Mrs B and I were booked to fly to Geneva tomorrow with Easyjet. Ideally we would like to have amended the flights to fly to GVA next winter - but EJ's schedule runs only until the end of October this year.
I have just amended the flights and, on logging on to the website, was given the option of selecting the passenger and the flights that I wished to change - so it would have been possible to amend only 1 passenger's flights, if required.
We have therefore amended the flights to fly at the end of October (free of charge) for flights of similar cost (to Faro, as it happens...) - with the intention of amending those flights in September to a winter trip to Geneva, when EJ publishes its winter schedule. We could have booked onto much cheaper flights than Faro but are concerned that a further amendment in September may tie us into the cost of the cheaper flights when it comes to rebooking (meaning we would possibly have a difference to pay in fares), although I'm not sure if it works that way in reality. Not to worry though - we are happy to try Faro if there are any problems rescheduling again, as it's somewhere we've not visited.
We also have Geneva flights booked for next month, so have those to amend as well 
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@Bergmeister, super info, thanks
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Bergmeister, useful info thank you I’ll look at it again tomorrow. Re Faro, I haven’t stayed there but have flown there for holidays in Carvoeiro and Loule and absolutely loved it. The Portuguese people were so nice. you could do worse than ending up there for sure
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Just been onto Easyjet website this morning rather than the app. Our flights to Basel have been cancelled by EasyJet and fully refunded.
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I heard on a phone in show - if booked by CC you could make a claim against your CC Provider using consumer credit act section 75 to get a refund.
the advise was to not take vouchers - as there is no guarantee the company may be in business this time next year.
Maybe try CAB.
also check any travel insurance policy you may have?
good luck.
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FAQ
