Caught in tickets row: Couple struggle for flight repayment – The Crusader | The Crusader | Finance
Instead of the monies owed to Terry Gibbs landing promptly in his account the process never took off as he expected.
“I go around in circles, do what I’m asked but am losing the will,” he told Crusader.
++ If you’ve been affected by this issue or feel you’ve been a victim of injustice, please contact consumer champion Maisha Frost on maisha.frost@express.co.uk
His journey between online travel agent (OTA) Lastminute.com and low cost carrier Ryanair has been a pretty bumpy one although, with support from Crusader, he has now been repaid.
In April Terry bought two return tickets to Lanzarote for November through Lastminute, paying £418. When notified that Ryanair was changing the outward date, he opted for a refund rather than continue or receive vouchers.
After that he went from one party to the other, verifying his personal details in July and, judging by the texts and emails, receiving a lot of conflicting information, including a warning a refund could take months.
Ryanair is currently in a heated dispute with many OTAs over ticketing sales and service practices and urges customers to book directly.
It says it does not hold customers’ payment details so needs to verify them, making refunding more complicated. A coalition of OTAs takes a very different view and the battle rages on.
Crusader asked both Ryanair and Lastminute to spare Terry further hassle and a few weeks ago Ryanair acted and his bank account was refunded directly as he wanted. [Terry’s name has been changed]