Change/Cancellation/Refund fees blues
Apr 12, 2013, 3:42 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: KYE
Posts: 4,156
Change/Cancellation/Refund fees blues
Starting this thread because I thought it would be useful to others who might have to deal with EY's phone staff that appear to follow no specific guidelines in regards to changing, cancelling and/or refunding a ticket booked directly with EY, either online or over the phone.
I booked an economy freedom return ticket ex-AU that explicitly stated no change/cancellation fees. Sure enough I could change the ticket without any penalties. But then I can't cancel it online. This is where things start to fall apart:
First attempt (yesterday morning): Dialled the Australian EY number. My call got somehow transferred to an Arabic speaking agent despite pressing 1 for English. Since I speak Arabic that didn't matter but still, shouldn't happen in the first place. Anyways, the agent first verified the booking reference and then asked me 'security questions' like 'where is this ticket from/to?, where are you calling from?, and how did you book this ticket?'.
Following that he put me on hold for about 20 minutes to check the terms and conditions. He came back saying that the fees will be 100AED for cancellation, and 210AED for refund, a total of 310AED (about 80AUD). After double checking the figures I asked him to proceed with the cancellation/refund. At this point, he put me on hold but about 10 minutes later the phone call dropped out.
Checking the reservation online, it seems all go and no cancellation was done.
Second attempt (today in the evening): Decided to call EY's office in BEY since I've had marginally positive dealings with them previously. Dialled their numbers (both their reservations and call centre numbers) but both rang out. Several times. I thought fair enough and called EY's SIN number. I got transferred to an agent whose either can't be bothered to work today, or his English is poor. He goes through a similar list of 'security questions', this time asking for more details like specific travel dates for all sectors, and how many people are travelling, my phone number, my email address. Anyhow, when I stated I wanted to cancel and refund he said he'll have to check the fare rules. 12 minutes after listening to EY's hold music, he comes back with a figure for the refund. When I questioned him about the actual penalty/fee, he replied 115AUD. I asked why is it 115AUD, based on what? He said it's our policy, it goes by sale country, you bought it from Australia thus the penalty applies.
<While on hold I had searched for EY cancellation fees and found this: http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/e...Ticketing.aspx where it says 110AUD for Australia, 25SGD for Singapore>
I pointed that to him but to no avail insisting that the 115 is what the system is telling him because this is a ticket ex-AU. I thanked him, asked him to ignore my request to cancel and hung up.
I will follow this through to the end and report back. After last year's experience with EY cancelling some tickets and waiting months for refund, I would caution anyone about booking direct with EY, instead book through Expedia where at least the refund is almost instantaneous and none of these ridiculous fees apply.
I booked an economy freedom return ticket ex-AU that explicitly stated no change/cancellation fees. Sure enough I could change the ticket without any penalties. But then I can't cancel it online. This is where things start to fall apart:
First attempt (yesterday morning): Dialled the Australian EY number. My call got somehow transferred to an Arabic speaking agent despite pressing 1 for English. Since I speak Arabic that didn't matter but still, shouldn't happen in the first place. Anyways, the agent first verified the booking reference and then asked me 'security questions' like 'where is this ticket from/to?, where are you calling from?, and how did you book this ticket?'.
Following that he put me on hold for about 20 minutes to check the terms and conditions. He came back saying that the fees will be 100AED for cancellation, and 210AED for refund, a total of 310AED (about 80AUD). After double checking the figures I asked him to proceed with the cancellation/refund. At this point, he put me on hold but about 10 minutes later the phone call dropped out.
Checking the reservation online, it seems all go and no cancellation was done.
Second attempt (today in the evening): Decided to call EY's office in BEY since I've had marginally positive dealings with them previously. Dialled their numbers (both their reservations and call centre numbers) but both rang out. Several times. I thought fair enough and called EY's SIN number. I got transferred to an agent whose either can't be bothered to work today, or his English is poor. He goes through a similar list of 'security questions', this time asking for more details like specific travel dates for all sectors, and how many people are travelling, my phone number, my email address. Anyhow, when I stated I wanted to cancel and refund he said he'll have to check the fare rules. 12 minutes after listening to EY's hold music, he comes back with a figure for the refund. When I questioned him about the actual penalty/fee, he replied 115AUD. I asked why is it 115AUD, based on what? He said it's our policy, it goes by sale country, you bought it from Australia thus the penalty applies.
<While on hold I had searched for EY cancellation fees and found this: http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/e...Ticketing.aspx where it says 110AUD for Australia, 25SGD for Singapore>
I pointed that to him but to no avail insisting that the 115 is what the system is telling him because this is a ticket ex-AU. I thanked him, asked him to ignore my request to cancel and hung up.
I will follow this through to the end and report back. After last year's experience with EY cancelling some tickets and waiting months for refund, I would caution anyone about booking direct with EY, instead book through Expedia where at least the refund is almost instantaneous and none of these ridiculous fees apply.
Apr 12, 2013, 12:55 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Lausanne
Posts: 164
I had similar problem with a flex ticket ex-EU in Y. Upon purchase it was stated free change/cancellation and when I phoned to cancel I was told that the ticket could only be refunded less a "tax". I asked how come I have to pay tax on something that I never used, then I was told that it's actually a "fuel surcharge collected by the local government". I said YQ's are usually charged by the carrier and no the gov't, then I was told it's what is say on their system and if I don't like it I should email EY in AUH.
I emailed and got a response that they'd look into it...and surely nothing came ever again. Still missing my money too.
I emailed and got a response that they'd look into it...and surely nothing came ever again. Still missing my money too.
Sep 9, 2013, 6:50 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: KYE
Posts: 4,156
Here's a final update.
After getting the calls dropped I decided to push the travel dates online to September so that I call and cancel later. I got the time the patience last week to call EY.
First attempt to the AU number resulted in a dropped call. Second attempt to the US number wasted 30 minutes on hold (it got answered by the call centre in Manchester), and just when the agent was about to cancel the booking the call dropped!
I ended up calling the UAE number and got a friendly Arab agent who took care of the cancellation. She put me on hold for 20 minutes while she worked out some details, she then took my number and promised to call back as she said her system was frozen. Less than 30 min later she calls back (despite being an AU number) and then proceeds with the cancellation. She advised me (as usual) that it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the refund to appear on my credit card. The fee was 115AUD and I decided not to haggle as I didn't want to waste any more minutes into this.
The surprise came less than 48 hours later when the funds actually CLEARED into my credit card!
So getting there EY, but gotta iron out the call forwarding issues.
After getting the calls dropped I decided to push the travel dates online to September so that I call and cancel later. I got the time the patience last week to call EY.
First attempt to the AU number resulted in a dropped call. Second attempt to the US number wasted 30 minutes on hold (it got answered by the call centre in Manchester), and just when the agent was about to cancel the booking the call dropped!
I ended up calling the UAE number and got a friendly Arab agent who took care of the cancellation. She put me on hold for 20 minutes while she worked out some details, she then took my number and promised to call back as she said her system was frozen. Less than 30 min later she calls back (despite being an AU number) and then proceeds with the cancellation. She advised me (as usual) that it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the refund to appear on my credit card. The fee was 115AUD and I decided not to haggle as I didn't want to waste any more minutes into this.
The surprise came less than 48 hours later when the funds actually CLEARED into my credit card!
So getting there EY, but gotta iron out the call forwarding issues.
Jul 13, 2015, 4:19 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Ambivalent
Programs: *A
Posts: 62
Worth bumping this as far as I'm concerned.
This practice is still commonplace as I've just discovered.
Booked ex-SIN and tried to cancel knowing full well I would have to pay the disclosed cancellation fee that is clearly stated before booking and is in the fare conditions. Only to then be hit by an 'admin charge' of S$40. When I asked where this was disclosed and told them the website only mentions 'Starting from USD 10', i.e. a floor but no ceiling, one of the many (robotic) 'service agents' said "it's not, it's an internal table we have which shows the charge by country". She then proceeded to agree (off the back of the point I was making) that it is essentially deception, or words to those effect given the fact that calls are recorded. The other fellows I spoke to couldn't care less and offered no response beyond the scripted ''nuh''. Clearly they've been instructed to kill the conversation there.
Not that this joke of an airline cares but they've just lost a chunk of business back to SQ.
Safe travels.
This practice is still commonplace as I've just discovered.
Booked ex-SIN and tried to cancel knowing full well I would have to pay the disclosed cancellation fee that is clearly stated before booking and is in the fare conditions. Only to then be hit by an 'admin charge' of S$40. When I asked where this was disclosed and told them the website only mentions 'Starting from USD 10', i.e. a floor but no ceiling, one of the many (robotic) 'service agents' said "it's not, it's an internal table we have which shows the charge by country". She then proceeded to agree (off the back of the point I was making) that it is essentially deception, or words to those effect given the fact that calls are recorded. The other fellows I spoke to couldn't care less and offered no response beyond the scripted ''nuh''. Clearly they've been instructed to kill the conversation there.
Not that this joke of an airline cares but they've just lost a chunk of business back to SQ.
Safe travels.
Jul 30, 2015, 10:46 am
#5
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 19
Has anyone actually had any success in cancelling a "Freedom" fare with EY, without getting slapped with hidden fees?
I ask because I'm flying economy (xmas mistake fare) and have a 15 hour layover in AUH coming up and wanted to grab a "Business Freedom" one-way, just so I could use the lounge and then cancel it. If it's going to be too much of a pain to cancel, or if I'm going to get stuck with fees, I might have to rethink this plan. Thanks in advance!
I ask because I'm flying economy (xmas mistake fare) and have a 15 hour layover in AUH coming up and wanted to grab a "Business Freedom" one-way, just so I could use the lounge and then cancel it. If it's going to be too much of a pain to cancel, or if I'm going to get stuck with fees, I might have to rethink this plan. Thanks in advance!
Jul 31, 2015, 2:59 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: KYE
Posts: 4,156
Has anyone actually had any success in cancelling a "Freedom" fare with EY, without getting slapped with hidden fees?
I ask because I'm flying economy (xmas mistake fare) and have a 15 hour layover in AUH coming up and wanted to grab a "Business Freedom" one-way, just so I could use the lounge and then cancel it. If it's going to be too much of a pain to cancel, or if I'm going to get stuck with fees, I might have to rethink this plan. Thanks in advance!
I ask because I'm flying economy (xmas mistake fare) and have a 15 hour layover in AUH coming up and wanted to grab a "Business Freedom" one-way, just so I could use the lounge and then cancel it. If it's going to be too much of a pain to cancel, or if I'm going to get stuck with fees, I might have to rethink this plan. Thanks in advance!
15 hours layover at AUH will be such a drag. Just book a hotel out and away from the airport and spend the night/day out. It will cost less.
Jun 27, 2016, 10:52 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 240
I,m totally disgusted with this airline policies and how I wish I had booked it from expedia now. For a totally refundable and flexible fare I find no reason why different extra hidden charges are added. This airline has the worst level of lack of transparency. They do not even offer the option to cancel it online directly to save the headache for their customer who have to suffer by calling the call center and being charged for the suffering as well.