Concerto

I booked an award seat on Flybe through the BAEC using Avios and was pleased with the result: plenty of availability and easy to change routing, date and time due to a change in plan (against the usual fee). However, the British Airways e-ticket, when it is issued, states 0 baggage allowance. Similarly, on the Flybe website, the same non existent baggage allowance is shown. So I went and paid for a bag, a hefty 20 pounds.

Now I have discovered, thanks to info provided on Raffles' blog, that all award tix on Flybe, whether booked through BAEC or at Avios.com, include 1 checked bag. Scrolling down to the bottom of the following link will prove it:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_gb

Any experience with getting baggage refunded from Flybe or can I kiss it goodbye? The first agent I spoke to was very nice but had never heard of BAEC, she insisted that Avios was the company to deal with (understandable, because it is not apparent to all that there are different programmes dealing with Avios). The second said I would never get a refund, Flybe doesn't do refunds. Sounds like easyJet.

Swiss Tony

Here's what you do.

Take a screen shot of where it says no luggage.

Write to flybe, explaining what you've done and why you've done it, tell them they have 14 days to respond or you'll instigate a charge back through your credit card provider.

I suspect that'll get you the response you need.

(Oh and for reference, about 5 years ago I flew with easyJet. We paid for a bag as we needed to take a travel cot for one of the kids, but I then found out that they carried these free of charge. I called easyJet and they promptly refunded me!)

dobba

Chargeback is supposed to be for goods you didnt receive or goods you didnt order but were charged for.

Although I would be surprised if Flybe would contest this, a chargeback may be considered fraudulent as the OP did mean to purchase an additional bag and has the option of taking one.

cornishsimon

Has the OP tried actually asking flybe for a refund for the baggage charges ?


cs

Concerto

Yes I did, but I got an East European agent who hadn't even heard of the BAEC. The answer, after she checked with her supervisor, was no, no refunds. This might be a good example of HUCA, which I didn't do. The trouble is, it's a bit tricky to explain, because there are two companies dealing in Avios, namely BAEC and Avios.

I'm reluctant to do a chargeback, for the reasons stated in post n#3 above. But I will certainly write to Flybe, as suggested.

cornishsimon

To be fair to flybe the social media team are quite responsive. Ping them a Facebook message and they normally reply within an hour and tend to get someone uk based to phone you for anything complicated.

That's been my experience of the odd difficult to explain issue that's cropped up.


cs

Concerto

Thanks, cornishsimon, really appreciate it. Problem is, I don't do Facebook, which is somewhat duff for someone in my profession. Will have to suck it up and finally join, I guess! But for the moment, I'll have to use the phone route.

What about the ticket desks in the airport (presumably there's one in MAN)? Are the staff there reasonably friendly and knowledgeable?

cornishsimon

All airport staff as far as I'm aware are outsourced to handling agents so not actual flybe employees. As such they probably have very little autonomy.

Iv always had best results with Facebook but if you can find a head office number in Exeter somewhere they should be able to deal with this. As far as I'm aware it's only the customer contact center and booking number which is now Answered overseas. All other head office functions remain within the head office at EXT.


cs

Concerto

At Manchester airport I spoke to a really nice agent at the ticket (customer service) desk, who gave me the contact details of the Flybe refund department. Finally, now back in Germany, I gave them a call today and landed on an even nicer agent, who said she would process a refund of the baggage fees to my card (process takes about 5 days). She was aware of the situation (i.e. BAEC Avios award tickets already having a free baggage allowance). Good outcome, although I haven't actually received the refund yet.

Dubliner1

Good to hear - please keep us posted.

Concerto

Needless to say, she also reminded me that Flybe is normally a "non refund" airline, that it might not always be possible to process a refund like this and that I should pay attention to the details on my booking in future. No problem with that, because it was technically my "fault" that this happened.

Guy Betsy

The link above does not show any information about baggage with AVIOS booking. Can someone please help to confirm that this is still in place?

Ta !

pauldb

Expand the Flybe tab on this page: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...age-allowances

I flew a reward in June: no problem with our bags despite the 0kg on the BA and flybe websites.

Guy Betsy

Thank you ! ^

TGflyergirl