Advice - Wife potentially taken for a ride by OTA TravelJunction
Mar 5, 2024, 6:32 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 223
Advice - Wife potentially taken for a ride by OTA TravelJunction
Hey all,
Bit of an odd one today and if my wife waited till she got home this wouldn't have happened but anyway..
My wife is booked LHR-DOH-MEL-DOH-LHR. She wanted to change the date of LHR-DOH-MEL so googled "Qatar contact number"
You can see where this is going - she ended up getting the number for the OTA TravelJunction, who advised her it was £480 to change dates. When she declined they told her "they already cancelled the ticket" and told her £150 to reinstate or £330 with the new dates. She ended up paying the £330 then called me to tell me what happened.
As such I'm interested in the following:
1) Can these OTAs even change QR directly issued tickets? If so, an Amex chargeback will be impossible.
2) I advised her to call QR and ask for a new PNR to attach the ticket to, they said this isn't possible. Any suggestions for what I need to do here? I consider the current PNR compromised.
3) Anything else we should do? QR has advised they've added a note to the PNR that only myself or my wife can change it but we know how useful notes are.
Appreciate your help with a scenario I didn't expect to find my wife in today
Bit of an odd one today and if my wife waited till she got home this wouldn't have happened but anyway..
My wife is booked LHR-DOH-MEL-DOH-LHR. She wanted to change the date of LHR-DOH-MEL so googled "Qatar contact number"
You can see where this is going - she ended up getting the number for the OTA TravelJunction, who advised her it was £480 to change dates. When she declined they told her "they already cancelled the ticket" and told her £150 to reinstate or £330 with the new dates. She ended up paying the £330 then called me to tell me what happened.
As such I'm interested in the following:
1) Can these OTAs even change QR directly issued tickets? If so, an Amex chargeback will be impossible.
2) I advised her to call QR and ask for a new PNR to attach the ticket to, they said this isn't possible. Any suggestions for what I need to do here? I consider the current PNR compromised.
3) Anything else we should do? QR has advised they've added a note to the PNR that only myself or my wife can change it but we know how useful notes are.
Appreciate your help with a scenario I didn't expect to find my wife in today
Mar 5, 2024, 6:50 am
#2
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: BER
Programs: OW Sapphire, *A Gold
Posts: 988
This might sound harsh, but I just googled "Qatar contact number", and the first result is the Qatar Airways website help page, I'm not sure how your wife got scammed.
- Has the booking actually been changed?
In theory, what is stopping them from changing your wife's flight via MMB, a thing she or you could have done as well? Maybe the fare difference was small, they just pocketed the difference.
- Has the booking actually been changed?
In theory, what is stopping them from changing your wife's flight via MMB, a thing she or you could have done as well? Maybe the fare difference was small, they just pocketed the difference.
Mar 5, 2024, 6:53 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 223
This might sound harsh, but I just googled "Qatar contact number", and the first result is the Qatar Airways website help page, I'm not sure how your wife got scammed.
- Has the booking actually been changed?
In theory, what is stopping them from changing your wife's flight via MMB, a thing she or you could have done as well? Maybe the fare difference was small, they just pocketed the difference.
- Has the booking actually been changed?
In theory, what is stopping them from changing your wife's flight via MMB, a thing she or you could have done as well? Maybe the fare difference was small, they just pocketed the difference.
The PNR hasn't been changed from what I can see on MMB. I'm not sure why she didn't ask me instead.
Mar 5, 2024, 6:55 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 3,918
This does not sound right, normally a travel agent would not have access to modify a ticket issued by another agent on the GDS. Assuming the ticket was issued directly by Qatar rather than this OTA then it smells super scammy, and like the previous reply, I question if they have taken the money but the ticket is unchanged. Unless they were just logging into MMB on behalf of your wife and changing it there?
Mar 5, 2024, 7:00 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 223
This does not sound right, normally a travel agent would not have access to modify a ticket issued by another agent on the GDS. Assuming the ticket was issued directly by Qatar rather than this OTA then it smells super scammy, and like the previous reply, I question if they have taken the money but the ticket is unchanged. Unless they were just logging into MMB on behalf of your wife and changing it there?
Hopefully the notes on the PNR stop them changing it then.
Mar 5, 2024, 7:04 am
#6
Join Date: May 2021
Posts: 2,155
It sucks, but anyone with the PNR and lead passenger's surname can potentially change a booking online. So whilst it wasn't their ticket they could have changed it with information provided and charged you a fee for doing so. How much you may have overpaid probably depends on what the change would have cost had it just.been made through the QR website (which should probably always be the first port of call).
You could try discussing this with your card issuer in case a charge back might be possible. But you would probably need to try and claim from the agent first. If you don't fancy that, or a small claims court or trading standards action if they definitely didn't make it clear they were not the ticket issuer and would be charging a service fee, unfortunately you may have to suck it up.
I'm not sure you can do any more to secure the ticket other than what you have already done, short of cancelling and rebooking. It's potentially an expensive lesson, but presumably the flight change might have cost something anyway even directly with QR?
I think it’s unlikely they had cancelled it by the way, as the refund would go to you and they'd make nothing out of it.
You could try discussing this with your card issuer in case a charge back might be possible. But you would probably need to try and claim from the agent first. If you don't fancy that, or a small claims court or trading standards action if they definitely didn't make it clear they were not the ticket issuer and would be charging a service fee, unfortunately you may have to suck it up.
I'm not sure you can do any more to secure the ticket other than what you have already done, short of cancelling and rebooking. It's potentially an expensive lesson, but presumably the flight change might have cost something anyway even directly with QR?
I think it’s unlikely they had cancelled it by the way, as the refund would go to you and they'd make nothing out of it.
Mar 5, 2024, 12:31 pm
#8
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 273
Sorry this happened to you. Interesting that there was just an article in the Washington Post about this.
https://wapo.st/3InTD57
https://wapo.st/3InTD57