Travel agency charges €200 for change of flight

Canonfan

Hi all,

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this.

I booked return ticket from a well-known travel agency in Dublin city centre. For business reason I need to fly early. I was told I have to pay €200 charge plus the difference of the ticket. In my case the price i need to pay is more than my original ticket.

I was wondering is this normal. The airline is KLM.

Many thanks.

ardmacha

Is this the travel agency charging or the airline. What were the terms of the original ticket?

siobhank

American Airlines charged me 25USD plus any difference in flight money to change.

Kensington

You'll need to check the details of the booking made with KLM, and what conditions apply.

Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus, for example, charge €100 per leg of a journey to change the details on a booking (dates, times, passenger names) - so a return ticket with either two of these carriers will cost €200 to modify.

jor el

The travel agent may be charging a fee, as they don't usually work for free, but the bulk of it is more than likely from the airline themselves. All airlines charge high fees now to prevent people, and travel agents, from booking flights that they don't necessarily want, in the hope they can sell them on (when they're more expensive).

Canonfan

Thanks for the input guys.

KLM said if I booked ticket through travel agency, then I have to contact them.

I think I will have to pay the price which is €553 in total.

kida

Ask for a breakdown of the cost?
Ask for the ticket you have paid for and try to use it to change it online yourself

MOH

Just go through the KLM website flight booking system, go as far as the bit where it shows you the flight details, and there's a link to the cost to change or cancel the flight.

As an example, it's €50 per leg Dublin-Amsterdam economy class.

Or just ring them:
+353 (0) 185 074 7400

(which looks wrong - I presume it's 1850 747 400, there's no 0 prefix)

Canonfan

Again thanks for all the help guys.

I entered the flight details online but there was no change of flight option.

I called them this morning and was told they are not allowed to change anything before depature due to agreement with all the travel agencies.

Also it was confirmed the tax has gone up from €240 to €324 overnight.

craichoe

Canonfan wrote: »

Again thanks for all the help guys.

I entered the flight details online but there was no change of flight option.

I called them this morning and was told they are not allowed to change anything before depature due to agreement with all the travel agencies.

Also it was confirmed the tax has gone up from €240 to €324 overnight.

The only way you dont have to pay for the change is with a Flexible fare, which is an awful lot more.

I'd steer clear of going through a travel agency anyway, they're just middle men.

dudara

All airlines typically charge some form of change fee when you book a standard fare. As a previous poster said, it can be as much as €100 with Ryanair and others.

Your problem is compounded by the fact that you booked through a travel agent. Would it be cheaper to book a new ticket?

Kensington

Kensington wrote: »

You'll need to check the details of the booking made with KLM, and what conditions apply.

Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus, for example, charge €100 per leg of a journey to change the details on a booking (dates, times, passenger names) - so a return ticket with either two of these carriers will cost €200 to modify.

What? AL charge 30 euro + fare difference
if you make the change quick enough it's barely over 30

LiamD

bluewolf wrote: »

What? AL charge 30 euro + fare difference
if you make the change quick enough it's barely over 30

€35 per segment with Aer Lingus plus fare difference.

The €100 euro charge is for a name change with Aer Lingus and Ryanair

tinkerbell

Something similar happened to my folks who booked through a travel agent. I checked the airline online and the cost of changing the flight was something very small but they had to pay about €100-€200 to the travel agency.

In future steer well clear of travel agents, they generally are rip-off merchants.

BeatNikDub

This happened to me last year aswell, with a well known city centre agent I might add!

Had to change a flight and got charged 400 quid for it. Contacted Etihad direct and they told me they have a standard charge of 100 euros which I would have been charged if booked directly through them but because it went through the agent I had to pay whatever they charged me.

The agency were no help, and had consistently got things wrong since I rang to book at the beginning. Basically i was given no choice, if I didn't pay I wasn't going on my holiday, end of. Was so horrible but I had the holiday of a lifetime so had calmed down by the time I got back!

Moral of the story - book direct!