Aer Lingus Cancellation

deepriver

Hi

Anyone know anything about this...?

Booked a return flight total cost €107 icluding the handling fee.

I was charged a cancellation fee of €20 per each leg, handling fee was excluded from the refund as well as the cost of fares.

Total tax was €67.68

Cancelled the flight and got a total refund of €27.

In other words I didnt get my tax back

Here are the terms & con's online, I cant see anything about a €20 fee per leg cancellation

Economy/LowFare


Cancellations

• No refund at any time except for business class.
• Government tax refund requests must be made within one month from the booked travel date.

Date & Name Changes

• Itinerary/Date/Route Changes can be made on aerlingus.com for a discounted rate of €35/ £28/ $60 (€50/£40/$80 if made through the aer lingus reservations center) per person per sector, plus any difference in cost between the original price paid and price available at the time the change is being made. However, there will be no refund of the difference in fare should the new fare be of lower value to that of the original fare. Changes, subject to availability, can be made up to 2 hours prior to the flight scheduled departure time. Changes permitted from the same country of origin only.
• Name changes permitted for €100/ £80/ $157 per person. Name changes can be made by contacting your local reservations office up to two hours prior to departure. Name must be changed for all flights in the itinerary.

dudara

It is pretty much standard in the low cost airline world to not refund the airfare part of the price.

You can however, claim a refund on taxes. This is nearly always subject to a administration fee to process the tax refund, which often pretty much negates the tax refund.

From Aer Lingus website

Cancellation policy is specific to the fare type booked.

Low fare

• No refund at any time.
• Government tax refund requests must be made within one month from the booked travel date. Refund Administration Fee of €20 per person, per one-way flight applies.
• Handling Fees (Booking and Credit/Debit Card)/Seat Fees/Baggage Fees are not refundable.

FlexiFare

• Full refund less 15% of flight fare and administration fee (applicable per person, per one-way flight) when cancelled prior to the flight scheduled departure time.
• Government tax refund requests must be made within one month of the booked travel date. A Refund Administration Fee of €20 per person, per one-way flight will apply.
• Handling Fees (Booking and Credit/Debit Card)/ Baggage Fees are not refundable.

Business

• Business class reservations with a fare basis code beginning with J will receive a full refund. Business class reservations with a fare basis code beginning with C/D will receive a full refund less 15% of flight fare and administration fee (applicable per person, per one-way flight).
• Government tax refund requests must be made within one month from the booked travel date.
• Handling Fees (Booking and Credit/Debit Card)/Seat Fees/Baggage Fees are not refundable.

Assuming that you booked a low-cost fare, the only portion of it eligible for refund was the tax. However, they charge €20 per leg admin fee, leaving you with a balance of €67 - €40 = €27

deepriver

yesp exactly... suprised they can get away with this, in a retail environment there would be riots

dudara wrote: »

It is pretty much standard in the low cost airline world to not refund the airfare part of the price.

You can however, claim a refund on taxes. This is nearly always subject to a administration fee to process the tax refund, which often pretty much negates the tax refund.

From Aer Lingus website



Assuming that you booked a low-cost fare, the only portion of it eligible for refund was the tax. However, they charge €20 per leg admin fee, leaving you with a balance of €67 - €40 = €27

Nody

deepriver wrote: »

yesp exactly... suprised they can get away with this, in a retail environment there would be riots

Not really; you would have no legal right for a refund if you decided to hand back a working product because you changed your mind (for what ever reason).

deepriver

thats is true although there are cooling down periods, but as a general policy and in the interest of maintaining good customer relations, retailers refund or exchange no questions asked

does the administration relating to refunding a credit card at retail POS have a different cost associated than through an airlines call centre?

Nody

Only cooldowns coming to my mind would be under the distance selling act for products you can not evaluate properly until you can see them physically; this would not cover most retailers.

As for as cost for a refund; it is mainly the work around it in terms of manpower etc. and like Ryanair no one likes to make it easy or not charge a bit extra for profit on fees if possible

kida

has anyone ever tried a chargeback on a cancelled flight?

AlwaysAmber

kida wrote: »

has anyone ever tried a chargeback on a cancelled flight?

On what grounds? It would be very hard to legally do a charge back.

Olduvai

Can anybody answer this question how can an airline charge an administration fee on taxes? Taxes are charged on goods and services and if a person did travel these monies are payable in full to revenue and the airport authority. If a person cancels a flight airlines like aer lingus keep the full costs of the flight anyway. So it seems to me that in addition to keeping these monies to charge a 20 euros each way fee is excessive and overly weighted in the interest of the airline.

I also just wonder about the legalities in tax law of charging administrative fees on monies that are taxes... anybody care to enlighten me.

I also wonder whether the airlines pay tax paid on these administrative fees? €20 each way seems a bit steep to me for pressing a couple of buttons, how many minutes work does it take to actually process a refund?

J_Wholesale

deepriver wrote: »

thats is true although there are cooling down periods, but as a general policy and in the interest of maintaining good customer relations, retailers refund or exchange no questions asked

You can buy two different types of tickets, the dirt cheap, no changes or cancellations ticket, or the flexible ticket that allows you to cancel or change your flight. The second is usually about 3 times the cost of the first. If airlines gave refunds on the dirt cheap tickets, then the second wouldn't exist, and probably neither would the airline.

You're looking at this the wrong way. Instead of complaining about not getting a proper refund, you should be jumping up and down everyt ime you get a ticket for €85. Twenty years ago, cheap returns to London cost £120.

mazza

General info, not aimed at the OP:

Cooling off period etc do not apply to certain specific items such as flights, concert tickets etc, so there is no entitlement to a refund of the flight cost.

Trying to chargeback the transaction onto a credit card will undoubtably result in the seller challenging the claim and producing some a basic record to prove the customer placed the order.

I dare say the airlines are well versed in getting these details without too much effort to copy and paste into a standard response doc to the credit card company.

My understanding is chargebacks such as these rarely succeed.

kida

AlwaysAmber wrote: »

On what grounds? It would be very hard to legally do a charge back.

same as anything else - service paid for was not provided

Bluehair

kida wrote: »

same as anything else - service paid for was not provided

Service provided was quite happy to provide the service, they upheld their part of the contract the customer was the one who changed their mind.

jor el

kida wrote: »

same as anything else - service paid for was not provided

The service was still there, the recipient chose not to avail of it. Same is if you buy any product and decide you don't want it. There's no statutory entitlement to a refund. It's at the supplier's discretion.

Cabaal

Bluehair wrote: »

Service provided was quite happy to provide the service, they upheld their part of the contract the customer was the one who changed their mind.

Fully agree, change of mind is not a valid reason for a charge back.

Your credit card company will very likely tell you to go run and jump unless of course you lie to them but that brings bigger issues and would be idiotic to do so.

ScouseMouse

A chargeback can only be done when the supplier cannot or does not supply what you paid for. You accepted his offer of flights but for whatever reasons, you no longer want them. You cannot chargeback your creditcard.

You have no option of a cooling off period either as it does not apply to flights.

The airline is giving you a refund of the taxes, but as is included in the terms and conditions you agreed to, they are applying an administration charge.

You cannot do anything about it I'm afraid.

Barracudaincork

kida wrote: »

has anyone ever tried a chargeback on a cancelled flight?

I assumed this meant when the airline cancels your flight, not that the OP cancelled their flight.

Fergus

I agree with the OP that the administration fee to refund the taxes is wholly disproportionate, typically more than 50% of the taxes themselves. More info at http://www.cearta.ie/2007/03/refunding-unincurred-airport-taxes-and-charges

Is mise le key

Whats the deal here???

I posted a few question on this thread, recived this response just now,

dudara wrote:

Are you referring to Aer Lingus in particular, or any airline?

And when i open the link my post & thhis one above are not there & the thread was not in the main menu?

Is mise le key

My questions again,

Aer lingus flight

If i read right i am entitled to the tax back yes?

Is there a way of offering the ticket to someone so they can pay for the name change & purcahse the ticket from you?

I can change the route for a fee, but can i change the date also for the same fee?

Lowest fare ticket purchased.

jor el

Your post appear to have been moved to a new thread.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72130500#post72130500
Probably because it doesn't really relate to this thread, is not a consumer issue, and this thread is quite old.

dudara

Your posts were moved to a new Thread in the Travel forum, which is probably the best place for your query.

Thread closed.

dudara