Originally Posted by
kng86
1. Called Priceline (again) and the agent said, Latam canceled one leg (LIM-SCL) but both the MAD-SCL and SCL-MAD are still confirmed. But because Latam made changes to the booking directly, Priceline cannot make any more changes. He asked me to call the airline (Latam).
2. I called Latam - the agent told me that based on the notes, Iberia asked them to cancel the flights, and in my booking, all flights are canceled (all 3 legs). But since I booked it on Priceline, I need to call the agent (Priceline) to ask them for the next options, cause he didnt have control over my reservation. I told him Priceline told me to call the airline because the airline made changes to my booking directly hence Priceline did not have anymore control over my reservation. And then he went on ranting for a few minutes about how the travel agents will just say anything to not provide the service to their customer.. bla bla bla.. it's not my fault but it's the travel agent... bla bla bla, lol.
3. I called IB - and IB said my booking is confirmed and nothing changed, and because I booked it with a travel agent, so I should call them if I need any other services
He was able to re-read all the legs in my itinerary to me.
Maybe that's how they get back at us - make us go round in circles calling all parties and no one is able to do anything about our (probably soon to be canceled) flights lol...
Allow me to shed some light on this.
Both the OTA and the airline are correct and incorrect at the same time
When you book flights with an OTA, the OTA has to take care of the pax in case of schedule changes, rebookings, cancellations according to the b2b contract with the airline.
If you depart the EU or you fly with a EU carrier, EU261 2004 applies, so in case there is a schedule change, cancellations (anything involuntary), the operating carrier has to take care of you, not the ticketing carrier, not the OTA.
Most airlines ofc won't do that, because they just don't follow the law.
Voluntary changes / vol. (!!!) refunds must still be done with the ticketing agency = OTA.
Now in your case:
The airline has made a change to the booking, so the ticketing agency (OTA=PL) is not able to make any changes whatsoever, since the ticketing control is with the airline.
So PL is not able to make any voluntary changes or refunds within the GDS. To put it simply, they lost the write access, they can only read everything now. But they can still add / remove segments, just not reissue the eticket. But they could just call the b2b airline support hotline and have them reissue it. That is the standard guideline what the airlines want the travel agencies to do.
Usually you can refund the booking within the GDS with just 1-2 commands. When the airline takes over the etix coupons, the OTA can't do so anymore.
The OTA then needs to file a refund request via BSP link (in the rest of the world) or contact the airline via ARC (in the U.S.), so PL would need to go through ARC.
That involves lots of more work, filling out forms manually, looking things up, copy pasting,...
Most OTA agents don't know how this work, they haven't even heard of such a system and don't have access to it, only the higher tier agents.
Thats why OTAs just say, talk to the airline then even thou they can still refund via BSP link / ARC.
But if you ask the airline / IATA, they will say, standard guideline is, the (O)TA has to fill out the form in BSP link / ARC.
If the passenger charges a chargeback with their card issuer, then the airline receives the chargeback but will penalize the (O)TA for it since they didn't work on the refund.
But at the same time, if you're departing from the EU or fly with a EU carrier, then the operating airline has to refund you! Not the ticketing agency ((O)TA), not the ticketing airline (in case of codeshares) but the operating carrier.
Airlines have a BIG problem with that for many reasons:
They don't want to work for free
Operating carriers can't refund, there is no process for it, only ticketing carriers.
But that doesn't stop EU261 2004, the law is clear, op carrier, not OTA or ticketing carrier.
So i.e. when you fly Eurowings (EW) HAM-LHR and then LHR-JFK with UA and EW cancels the 1st flight, EW has to refund you the entire ticket HAM-LHR-JFK and return), not UA (ticketing carrier) or the OTA.
But EW won't be able to do so, so you need to sue, you win in court and then they wire the money.
By EU261 you can even request the refund for INVOL to be processed by wire, not as a refund on your credit card. Airlines won't do that unless you sue, but then again, not your problem.
The next steps depend on what you'd like to achieve.
If you just want your money back, then send an email to the operating airline (and to be safe also to the ticketing carrier since they are the one which charged your credit card and Visa/MC asks for you to provide proof you tried to contact the merchant who charged your card) and request a full refund within 7 days in accordance with EU261, put a friend / family member in BCC so you have proof you sent it and then after 7 days file a chargeback and be done with it.
If you want to fly it and won't depart soon, then wait, then at some point call the airline and ask what the coupon status is for your booking and if they don't want to work on your booking, tell them, they're obligated by EU261 / 2004 to rebook you on the next available flight free of charge.