ermis177

Guys you need to relax a bit. It was a special fare ( not an error one ). Some of them stick some of them don’t. I had my BA F fare to Ecuador cancelled but the one to Honolulu stayed. To people want to sue the IB, Priceline, booking.com, call the police, make a complaint and whatever else I would strongly suggest you don’t bother. Just wait for the next one, you might be lucky

SK AAR

Yes very likely that GoToGate/Mytrip will be very slow in processing the refund, typically blaming the airline in being slow to make the refund. This is the overall experience from Covid cancellations and refunds.

But the assumption that the OTA will have little to say if the customer do a charge back, is wrong. If the OTA really wants to defend its right to charge a refund fee, it will dispute the charge back once your bank/cc issuer notify the OTA about the customer charge back. If the OTA informs your bank/credit card issuer that customer agreed to certain refund fees, the bank/cc issuer has not choice than to side with the OTA and either reject the charge back or only allow it for the amount less the OTA fee.

Unless stated in the OTA T&C the OTA is unlikely to make a distinction between why the ticket was cancelled and refund is due.

megaloman

Those who bought their tickets using UK credit card through UK's OTA are in a slightly better position as they're covered by Section 75 - basically credit card company is co-responsible for my purchase. So if either airline or OTA deem my ticket invalid, I don't see other option as to get a full refund. I've done it in the past and it worked.

Even without section 75 - the moment airline or OTA deems the ticket void/invalid - contract does not apply, so refund fees don't apply either. I don't see any ground for OTA to charge any refund fees, if flights in question are still operating, but airline decided to void our tickets.

coleslaw

In the GoToGate T&Cs it does say pretty clearly that there will be an administrative fee if the airline issues a refund. It doesn't specify or make any distinction between possible reasons why an airline would issue the refund.

This is one of those situations in which I hope to be proven wrong - but this is how GoToGate makes its money. It's also one of the reasons why they operate under a multitude of different brands (you get burned by one and vow never to use them again, only to inadvertently use them under another brand). They truly are a terrible company to do business with.

danger

Gotogate.com's conditions (the ones provided to me when booking through booking.com) state:

Quote:

8.7 The total price of your booking will include the price of the Travel Service(s), any add-on products and our service fees. Please note that our service fees are non-refundable. This is because the service fees are charged for our mediation services which shall be considered fulfilled when the booking has been confirmed to You.

The breakdown of my ticket, however (when clicking on "View price breakdown"), has no "service fees" listed:



Also:

Quote:

3.5.2 If You wish to make a change to your booking or request a cancellation refund, as an additional own service, We offer to handle the request on your behalf, provided that the conditions of the airline permit such a change or cancellation refund. During the process of booking such additional services, we will inform You of any further conditions and fees for such services.

I take two things from this clause. First, there's no mention of a fee for cancelling, just for booking "additional services". Second, fees only apply for "such services", being "booking additional services" (my emphasis). Beyond that, I've cancelled one ticket already. During the call, the agent stated that there are no fees charged by booking.com for this particular cancellation. When I asked her to confirm my refund amount, however, she said she couldn't do that because although the fare was fully refundable, "some taxes may not be refundable", which I believe to be completely false.

I haven't read the T&Cs in fine detail but I don't see where a fee for refund is clearly articulated.

coleslaw

When you click through the link during booking on Booking.com it directs you to the T&Cs, including the appendix which has a schedule of fees:

https://www.gotogate.com/terms-condi...PPENDICES_FEES

cfyed

As mentioned the link during booking on Booking.com directs you to different T&C with no mention of fees

https://flights-uk.gotogate.com/rf/travel-conditions

If you look closely the contractual parties are different:

In "general" GTG it is In Booking.com GTG it is

Palmer

Even the mainstream OTAs don’t necessarily act in your interests. For example, lastminute.com (Expedia) issued me with a voucher, plus 10% of the value, for a flight cancelled by Cathay due to the Covid pandemic. When I went to use the voucher, I could only use the voucher on the lastminute.com website directly and not clicking via a link to the lastminute.com website from somewhere such as Kayak or Skyscanner, where prices were significantly cheaper i.e. Skyscanner might show a fare for $500 from lastminute.com. Click through and there was no option to use the voucher on the payment page. Go directly through lastminute.com and the same fare, along with the field to enter the voucher coupon code, which was now visible, was $750.

I took the hit in the end and received a refund less the admin fees.

Palmer

hugolover

Mytrip and GotoGate are the same outfit right? During the height of the pandemic they would illegally refund reservations with cancelled flights, even if the airline had placed retention segments for future rebooking and you'd informed the OTA you wished to fly the ticket. They simply stole the money then lied that the airline had sent them the money on their own accord, which NEVER happens. Through GDPR to the airline I was able to find out that the refund requests had come from Mytrip using their Norwegian IATA.

Flight Network UK Ltd (Gotogate)
Suite 1, 3rd Floor,
11-12 St James's Square,
London, SW1Y 4LB
Great Britain

Flight Network UK is also trading as Gotogate and Mytrip? Something must have changed with their UK company, I remember realising it would be a struggle to sue ETraveli which is their Swedish parent and now they have an address in the UK, that's beautiful, I thought they'd got away with it. That's made my day 😍. Thank you so much for posting that.

megaloman

Yes, they are. Both of my tickets booked via mytrip posted on Amex as FLIGHT NETWORK UK LTD

tr3k

Wait, if they refunded you what do they steal? Or you mean cancelation fee?

Scottyrocket

Is there a single person who booked this flight who has any written correspondence from the airline or OTA that the flight will not be honored?

My flights are still appearing as normal. I think the litmus test on this one will be the guy who mentioned earlier that they're flying tomorrow. Let's see how they go.

tropikey

I thought I was the lucky guy until today's noon. Earlier, I could see my trip (booked at priceline) in every possible place (LA, IB, AY, RJ, OTA). Unfortunately, today disappointing information ("we had a problem with your trip") has appeared in LA's app and website and I can't enter my booking there anymore. However, all the details are still available in other places.
So far, no official statement from any of parties involved
Considering above, I guess it's only a matter of time before you are in similar position.

henhen

anxiously awaiting to hear from the traveler who's booked to fly on the 20th...
it's a big gamble for them as they have to reposition from the US to MAD for an unknown ticket...

Anyone else book this for very upcoming travels to test it out...?

Smiley90

They also have to position? ugh, that's one risky gamble.