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For personal reasons I may need to cancel some flights I've got booked for a holiday next year. Been on the airlines website (canadian affairs) and they're saying they wont refund "instant purchase" tickets. Obviously this is most unsatisfactory as it might leave me £600+ out of pocket!?!
Any legal loopholes I can use to get my money back?
Yours,
Clutching at straws.
Travel insurance, that's what it's for.
I was faced with the same situation many years ago but wanted to re-book rather than refund - after a lot of call centre types I eventually got through to the man in charge. He was still refusing to change the tickets so I went for the cheeky option and said "OK, so I'm losing 400 quid regardless. What will it cost your airline if someone checks in a bag then forgets to get on the plane?". He rebooked the tickets for me 😉
Or could you sell them on (I assume there will be a transfer cost though). Probably Ebay?
You could well be screwed.
If you bought non-refundable tickets then that was your lookout I am afraid. You would have had the option to either choose a higher fare with flexibility or use another carrier whose product suited your requirements.
If there is a very good reason you can't travel then the airline may show some discretion (e.g a death in the family etc) but otherwise you will be at the mercy of your travel insurance which you may not even have bought yet.
Airline tickets are generally untransferable (ie. no name changes). Depends on the ticket types and how close you are to departure. Very likely to be prohibited within a certain timeframe to stop intermediaries brokering airline tickets.
Of course I do not believe you have been screwed maybe mis-sold - did you buy on line? Where the T&Cs disclosed at time of booking/sale etc?
So i could buy travel insurance then claim that i cant go in say a months time?
TKID
I have just taken a look at CanadianAffairs website and I would never have bought a ticket from them but I guess they offered a good price compared with the flag carriers etc
Their instant purchase tickets allow no changes or cancellations after time or booking and payment which is the same. Whilst their standard fare tickets (available for what looks like an extra £10 each way) do not offer a great deal more flexibility. Within 10 weeks of departure the penalty is 80% of the fare paid.
T&Cs seem fairly clear although whether they are re-iterated at the payment page I didn't check that far.
Travel insurance will only pay out under certain conditions - medical etc. Although I guess you could sort of deliberately miss your flight but be seen to have made every effort to get to the airport on time - car/rail problems etc