I booked and fully paid for a Rocky Mountaineer trip for this month. Pre-COVID, the company was offering cancellations, with 20% process fee, but now they are only offering travel credits for next year and 2022. I no longer wish to access this and am curious about what options are available to me. I am aware of ACCC responses to similar concerns within Australia, but outside of Australia, what recourse do consumers have. We did not have travel insurance at the time of booking.
Would appreciate any advice?
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Hi @peslis99, I have moved your post to this existing thread as it contains information from members with similar situation to your own. There is also information about that avenues may be taken moving forward.
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We had a trip booked for May of this year with TripADeal and obviously because of the pandemic it was cancelled in April. We were contacted by TAD with 2 options and both meant they would take more money from us and we had to choose almost immediately or lose all our money which was around $20,000. We were never offered a refund of any kind even though the trip was cancelled through no fault of our own. Very disappointing and heartless on their part. We have decide to fight them and try and recoup our loses but will never travel with them again.
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Hi @Sarah2. Welcome to the community.
I have moved your post to an existing thread as there is useful information about travel being cancelled due to COVID-19. Some of this information may be useful to you when challenging TADs for a refund.
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Hi Sarah2 & welcome to the forum.
Apart from all the information on this thread, have a look at TripADeal related issues here. (< click on the blue link to take you there)
You will find many people TAD have pulled the same stunt with. One of the things you will see is that if you accept any deal/compensation from them you won’t be able to claim on your travel insurance (which I’m assuming you have).
Please keep us informed on how you go.
.
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STA Travel has gone into administration.
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More angst, as affected travellers will need to wait for the administrator to go through it’s procedures. In the instance of clients of STA who had paid for fully refundable travel components there has been a long chain of advice in the prior posts of this thread.
The ABC has reported advice from STA that clients should be contacting airlines and accommodation providers directly concerning outstanding bookings and refunds.
Customers affected by the announcement are advised to contact their airlines and hotels regarding the status of their bookings, as well as their banks and credit card companies, but some are struggling to get their money back.
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I am sure many of us had travel plans that have been disrupted by this pandemic.
Most of us had to put down a deposit at least, and then to find out that there were major hurdles to get our money back…because of the the MERCHANT CANCELLING THE TRANSACTION…not the consumer.
Some are not getting full refunds, some are being baited to accept a credit and some are not getting anything because they do not know what to do.
Have look at an article in this Weekend Australian.
We need legislative changes in this industry just like the banks, financial advisors etc, to put the consumer first.
We need a strong travel industry that has high ethical and moral standards.
We need CHOICE to get behind this and not put in the too hard basket.
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Welcome to the community @bkuran,
Yours is a good point but these times are unprecedented. In a perfect world the travel industry would have its own insurance pool funded by its own sales to protect its customers from losing out when something happens, be it an insolvency, ‘acts of God’ or civil disorder, or a pandemic.
How much should be in that policy (including reinsurance) to cover the magnitude of how many suppliers and operators have been hit this time? What would that add to costs? Is that amount important in the context of costs and fares versus the good it would do?
Consider a case whereby ‘you’ paid a travel agency, who prepaid a tour operator, who prepaid a hotel, guides, and local transportation companies. Salaries and commissions have since been paid. Then it all falls apart. The supply chain still has its overheads even in survival mode.
Where do the refunds all come from? Some could be easy, some less so, and some impossible, thus an insurance pool. However in the absence of an insurance pool is it the right thing to force one or more of the industry suppliers into insolvency, even though that may not recover cash for refunds?
That is inarguable in any context in any industry, and many operators have seemingly done their best to the point of whether they had to sacrifice their businesses or not.
Does that assume a business, who through no fault of its own, is in the same predicament as its customer, but should be sacrificed?
Considering money becomes the scarce commodity in times such as we live in, beyond mandating an industry insurance scheme what do you propose as delivering
when it becomes untenable for the entire ‘food chain’?
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It seems you are defending the actions of many of the owners in the Travel Business.
I cannot.
I can’t defend the actions of any business to behave in any manner that puts its own livelihood above the people they serve…(look at nursing homes) especially those large companies that are listed on the ASX or have overseas offices. They seem to run and hide from their “end user” obligations.
Most of the issues are with these larger companies.
Just because we are in a Pandemic… consumer negligence is not acceptable.
I am not interested, nor should I, in the “food chain” or its complexities.
In the USA and EU their systems demand higher standards of this industry, than what is in OZ .
Self regulation is fine, but in “unusual times” it gets manipulated to the disadvantage of the consumer.
“It is not fault of their own” does not infer that they can behave as they like. They are still trading, still making money, still employing at different levels…just like many other businesses THAT CAN.
To be in business, you must know the risks…and one of those risks is “what happens if?”.
I run a business as well, but my obligations to my clients are paramount. no excuses- in good times and bad times.
I adapt.
Not at all. I’ll add there is no excuse for the inconsistencies customers have encountered, as well as having to deal with companies that seemed unsure of their obligations by ignorance, or others who discounted them by choice.
BTW I am violently in agreement that self regulation is a total fail in any industry, not just travel. If you would state what they are and how they work during this pandemic it would go a ways to answering my honest question. eg do they mandate insurance pools or more?
I’ll add travel is not the only industry that we vote to have laissez faire oversights of through electoral choices, and addressing even one at a time is a step ahead.
When/if your funds go to zero and you have no business, how have you adapted?
How would putting them into administration solve the end customers problem? The customers would need to deal with administrators, not customer service people, although the administrators would be able to ‘tell like it is’ quite succinctly, eg get in the line of creditors and you might get some return after/if the secured creditors are paid. Not considering the newly unemployed become part of another problem. Trading does not necessarily mean profitably trading, although maybe some are able and doing so.
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My travel agent in Melbourne emailed the following in July:
“At present in Italy, all hotels and supplies have adopted a credit note/voucher option (which is valid for 12 months) versus any refund. In fact, this policy has been endorsed and supported by the Italian government and almost all hotels in Italy are adhering to this.
Our operator has stated that if the situation in the world is still so unstable in relation to travel, we may need to relook at all options. They suggested that we wait until towards the end of the year to see how things are looking before making any decisions. If by then it is looking like travel to Italy in May 2021 will not be possible, we will discuss refund options as well as looking at extending out the voucher date for longer than 12 months. “
It is a very complex matter, not of anybody’s fault, and I’m comfortable with waiting the outcome. Compared to other disruptions caused by the Corona virus, this one doesn’t seem so very bad.
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When you pay for a service you are legally entitled to that service.
If the service cannot be provided, the merchant is expected to refund your monies.
if you accept an offer that is an alternative that is fine.
You are not expected to commit to that alternative(s).
I don’t know of any ASX travel companies that have gone into liquidation as a result of the pandemic.
I am not talking about airlines, but many are still around.
The strong survive!
As for my business, I chose what I wanted. I planned ahead, adapted and can weather this storm.
That being said…of course I have had a downturn, and profits are down…so be it…I have a good run.
Now tell that to many in the travel industry…they have had decades of making profits …but now a reality check of what can happen and they forget who they are serving.
I am sincerely happy for you, that you can afford and have the flexibility to do so.
There are thousands that cannot.
Many, and I am not supporting this method of discretionary spending, borrowed to go on a holiday.
It is a way of life for many. Live for today …borrow but don’t save.
And there are those…the elderly, some with illnesses who paid in full or via a deposit for that “last trip” or their “dream trip”. The young ones may have the flexibility of time but not the elderly.
They have been treated shabbily.
You are making a lot of assumptions about my wealth and age and health @bkuran.
However, no matter how disappointed I am on missing out on my trip, I wouldn’t dream of whingeing about it, knowing the number of people who have succumbed to the virus: that’s the real tragedy IMO.
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I understand whre you coming from, but bad behavior at any time is not acceptable.
One could twist the discussion on this, that the many “bad travel agents were looking to benefit from the pandemic.
Of course we should be grateful we are not having the illness.
In these times we need to look after those who are less capable than you or I to stand up to the :bad players” in our society. There are many elderly who got caught up with losing deposits or full up front payments. These people might have saved and saved for that “last trip” and cannot wait for next year…time is not on their side…who knows.as one client of mine said…I’ll probably be dead next year.!
The travel agency service includes their fees for the time taken to make the booking on your behalf. If you engage a travel agent, then it could be seen as reasonable that they are paid for their time and costs associated with making bookings on your behalf.
Unfortunately, travel agents can’t control their providers (transport, accommodation, entries etc) and if they will provide a refund back to them to pass onto their clients. A travel agent possibly shouldn’t be responsible for third party suppliers, the client has agreed for the travel agent to book, not meeting the expectation of the client in the event of a cancellation.
When one uses the services of a travel agent, they enter into an agreement which is bound by terms and conditions. These terms and conditions can explain how cancellations are dealt with. Often one doesn’t read these terms and conditions before engaging a travel agent and they only are read after something goes wrong.
I am unsure what ASX listed companies has to so with going into liquidation, but there has been a number of Australian based travel agents which have gone into administration due to the pandemic. The days of the pandemic are still relatively young as there is chatter that international travel may not be possible for another 12-18 months. In this time, it is likely that a number of other travel agents will be under financial pressure and some may not survive.
If travel agents were required to refund all monies, this would be a certain way for clients to lose all their money as the rush for refunds will cause many to become insolvent (they won’t be able to refunds from their own supplier nor be able to get paid for time and costs incurred to make a booking for a client). The last thing we would want is for a travel agent to go under as everyone who booked through these agents would be far worse off.
The current situation is very much ‘between a rock and a hard place’, where actions which one may think they have ‘rights’ which may have unintended consequences.
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Is this an informed discussion?
Without labelling any business or travel agent as bad, don’t we first need to understand how the business operates, where the money goes and who is currently the beneficiary/holder of the funds they have taken? There are many differing circumstances.
If the service provider is not providing a refund, there is a long discussion of different circumstances and experiences over at
This includes numerous references to the ACCC’s advice.
My take away from all this and as a past regular traveller. The travel industry and our own CofA have consistently advised travellers to ensure they have adequate travel insurance protection.
There are reasons there is not effective cover for when there are exceptional circumstances. A pandemic, outbreak of war etc are a few common examples.
How might it be done differently in future, such that both the service provider and traveller are not at risk? The travel industry and travellers might ask for a zero risk solution, but can any of us afford it?
That’s not intended to take away from the fact many would be travellers have outlaid substantial amounts of money, and what has not been refunded has gone to someone’s account. It’s not necessarily the travel agent who is holding the cash.
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On reading all the above and noting that in some circumstances the Airlines etc have refunded monies to Travel Agents who have not yet transferred that money back to the clients that perhaps Clients should be considered “secured creditors” in the cases of TAs becoming insolvent. The provision of a service by the TAs may require some amount of payment, but if they fail to refund monies as they are received that seems a gross failure of the service, and thus a breach of the ACL. What it seems some are doing are using those refunds to bolster the business at the complete expense of their so called clients. I use so called in the meaning that they are treated not as clients of a service but rather a wallet that can be plundered almost at whim and with no consequences for the shareholders/owners/operators of those businesses. Travel Insurance in these cases is worthless, in fact worse than worthless as again it has cost clients to gain coverage which has then not paid out. This is a double whammy for the clients.
It would seem from this experience that some perhaps even many TAs must be trading insolvent. They appear not to have enough reserves/income/profit to cover everyday operating expenses and are pushing the liability further forward as they take from the next client money to pay past debts…a Ponzi scheme perhaps.(strongly suggestive to me of that).
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This may be so for some travel agents and end service providers. It is a simple assumption to make, and one that generates great angst. As a generalisation it is open to discussion. Is it true of 20%, 50% or 80% of travel agents? Or is it simply the way the business always operates? Applying forward sales to prop up loses is a time honoured shonky evident in many types of enterprise.
It would seem a simple matter for all travel agents and service providers to issue within 30 days a statement to all clients with outstanding travel credits or travel not taken. The statements should account for how all moneys received have been disbursed. IE who has been the beneficiary of your payments. The same statement should also report any refunds the agent or service provider has received to your account.
Banks do it, share registries hold such records, equity fund accounts provide such statements, super funds provide statements os current balances and transactions. Any business that is professionally run and has needs to accounts for expenditure and services by customer should also be keeping it’s house in order.
Not a solution, but one starting point that the ACCC and each state government could legally direct, politics willing? 
Better to start somewhere than an Royal Commission because of the immediacy. But then RC’s typically defer learnings, for future reference.
The entry of STA Travel into Administration will be on the minds of many.
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