Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and refunds (restrictions, reservations, airlines, European)

[k374]

Looks like my flight on NZ from LAX to LHR in late August has been permanently cancelled:

https://www.businesstraveller.com/bu...urn-to-london/

Now, comes the hard part of getting my money back from the web site that I bought the ticket from which is Ovago (ovago.com). I have not heard anything from either Air New Zealand and have not contacted the Travel agency yet, i'm just giving it a few more weeks since it was just announced but nevertheless wanted to collect some information on my rights as I have heard many travel websites are trying to keep an outrageous cut ($200+ etc.) from the refund amount saying it's their "fees".

The way I look at it...

When you book a ticket through a travel agency the product you are buying and are expecting to be delivered is a VALID AND SERVICEABLE reservation for transportation. When an airline cancels the flight the product becomes unavailable and the travel agency has not delivered a valid product to the consumer so the contract has not been fulfilled.

This is akin to you ordering some apparel from an online clothing store, they take your money and give you a shipping date... unfortunately their supplier says that design is no longer going to be manufactured, the online clothing store cannot keep a cut of the money and give you only a portion of it back to you saying that is their fee for using the website. That is ridculous!

However, some travel portals are claiming the product is the actual service of booking regardless if the actual delivered product exists or not. This makes no sense because if this was the case there wouldn't be any responsibility for the travel agent to deliver anything, they could just make up a phony reservation and send it to you and claim they have booked a flight. Obviously this ins't going to be seen as legitimate in the legal realm.

When the product is no longer available before the consumer has a chance to make use of it then in effect the product has not been delivered to the consumer as agreed, hence the entire transaction is void. When the transaction is void the question of "fees" does not exist as it isn't a transaction that was completed as agreed.

I want to know your thoughts on the above and if these arguments make sense in case I need to file a lawsuit, which I most definitely will if I don't get my refund in full. In my view it isn't appropriate for either the online travel portal or the airline to keep any money if absolutely nothing of usable value was delivered to the consumer.

I know the DOT does not regulate travel agencies but they do regulate airlines and there is a snippet of text saying that if the airlines refund tickets then travel agencies should refund the ticket within 7 days as well. Right now on Ovago's site it says "Refunds could take upto 6 months" which is ridiculous as well.

https://ovago.com/exchange-refund-request

https://www.transportation.gov/indiv...ection/refunds

How quickly is an airline, travel agent, or online travel agency required to process a refund?

If a passenger is owed a refund, an airline, travel agent, or online travel agency must process it within seven business days if the passenger paid by credit card, and 20 business days if the passenger paid by cash or check.

[Jkgourmet]

I'm confident that the stated DOT refund policy has been waived for the time being.

Why haven't you already used the link you provided to file for a refund? You're just delaying it longer.

I would also suggest politely contacting Air NZ, preferably via email, FB or Twitter so you get information in writing.

Personally, I think you're working yourself up for a battle that hasn't even started and probably never will. (This is another example why it's usually a bad idea to book airline tickets thru a third party agency.)

[Bamaman1]

I booked a flight to Berlin thru Ovago.com who booked the flight thru American Airlines. They passed on the flight to their partner, British Airways.

B/A cancelled the flight last month. Now American's sitting on a credit and the promised cash refund was never seen.

Trouble is that next years' European flights are 3 times that of the special airfare we worked so hard to find. And we have to make reservations by 7/31/2020 to use our credit.

I assume we'll stay in the U.S., even though there's no place we care to visit here. Might fly to Hawaii. Everything is subject to the handling of the Coro 19 virus, however.

[Dd714]

And that's yet another example of why we don't recommend OTA's here (instead - use a search engine to find cheapest flight, and book directly in airline website - 9 out of 10 times it will be same price or cheaper).

[prospectheightsresident]

Originally Posted by Dd714

And that's yet another example of why we don't recommend OTA's here (instead - use a search engine to find cheapest flight, and book directly in airline website - 9 out of 10 times it will be same price or cheaper).

I will say that this will be the reason why I stop booking via the OTAs. Granted, even if this case (and I would be able to get a refund in the event that the flights are canceled, though it would be a bit more of a pain than if I booked directly with the airline) I'm not put out too much as I'll likely gladly take the airline credit as I'll be flying again this year for sure once restrictions are lifted. But just the idea of having to deal with this mess again (or a similar situation) if covid comes back in the Fall or whenever is enough to make me change things up.

[k374]

Originally Posted by Bamaman1

B/A cancelled the flight last month. Now American's sitting on a credit and the promised cash refund was never seen.

There have been complaitns about this agency that states that many are seeing fees charged $100-250 range when the airline cancels the flight. As I said earlier this is completely unacceptable because when the airline cancels the booking wasn't delivered to the customer as promised - i.e. the customer wasn't given the product that he bought. Giving a series of letters as a "booking number" isn't a "service" unless that number translates into a valid reservation. The customer bought a valid ticket - a valid ticket was not delivered.

I will be pursuing all of the following if I do not get a refund for the FULL amount:

- DOT complaint
- BBB complaint
- Small Claims court

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/ovago.com