I found that the price I have been quoted and the one I am going to be charged is the same,except for "those companies"that add an extra charge at the very end as a booking fee or some other suspicious tax.Having said so I agree,Skyscanner is my favourite too
Iāve booked a trip to Hong Kong and went through a travel agentā¦STAā¦as they had a slightly better price than booking directly with the airline. At one stage it looked like I might have had to cancel it and on a simple airline booking, no stopovers, no accommodation, airfare of $860, STA charge a $350 cancellation fee plus an airline cancellation fee of $400.
Travel insurance you sayā¦they cover the lesser of $750 or 15% of the payable amount. Even after ringing them, I still couldnāt work out how the 15% was calculated. Whatever it was, I figured after the excess, I would have nothing.
When asking the Travel agent why such a high fee, they said it was because of the āserviceā they provided.
I couldnāt get through to them all morning and they got my special meal request wrong.
Note to self: next time, Iāll be in control as my own travel agent and go through the airlines directā¦even if it costs a bit more.
Hi @Suzique - thanks for sharing. Iām particularly interested in cancellation fees, especially ones that seem very out of proportion like that. Can I ask what airline you were travelling with? The cancellation fee amount makes me think it might be QANTAS, but it would be great if you could confirm.
Iām looking further into airline cancellation fees now, if would be fantastic if you could be in touch at campaigns@choice.com.au with those details as I would love to investigate further.
@JodiBird can also answer your questions about travel insurance, heās the whiz in that department!
Do you recall which travel insurance that was? Itās a strange amount to be covering. Thanks
Iāve found that the really cheap flights are usually with airlines that do not have IOSA safety accreditation: http://www.airlineratings.com/safety_rating_per_airline.php
I know that flying is much safer than driving etc., but when something does go wrong, I want to have the best maintenance, best oversight, best crew etc. When one of those is missing, itās easy for a problem to escalate into a crash.
@TillySouth @JodiBird - I went through STA travel agents and yes, booked a Qantas flight to Hong Kong for $861.
I have had to cancel, as my daughter (my travelling companion) ended up with appendicitis. STA charge $350 cancel fee and QF charge $400.
My travel insurance was one I paid for through Citibank
https://www.citibank.com.au/aus/insurance/insurance_general_travel.htm
The Citibank policy was reasonably priced, under $60, and from what I can see on the claim form, it looks quite easy to claim.
My initial post was directed more at the Agentās fees and I think the Policy covers the Airline cancellation fees, but they impose a limitation on the Agentās feesā¦and Iām still having trouble interpreting that. They use this term āthe amount payableā. Could be 15% of the fareā¦or 15% of my net refundā¦but itās nowhere near $350. I did contact Citibank, and even spoke to someone in Claims, but that didnāt help.
Luckilyā¦I contacted STA via their Facebook page and suggested their fee was high, considering it was only an airfare and not much work involved on their part, so they waived it for me :).
Interestingly, I also looked at my daughterās travel insurance. Herās is through NAB credit card (QBE) and they have a clause in there about high travel agentās feesā¦and they have also limited their refunds in that area.
The other good lesson I learnt was about the timing of buying travel insurance. I bought the airfare and then didnāt rush into buying the TI. Most websites I looked at lulled me into this false sense of security, saying you can purchase up until the day you travel. So, I didnāt purchase my TI until a couple of weeks after purchasing my ticketā¦which ended up being only 5 days before my daughter was in hospital. Next time, I will make sure I buy both at the same time. I was very lucky this time!
Lastlyā¦our accommodation was pre-booked and paid and ānon-refundableā. However, it looks like both Hotels will refund. Langham Place in Mongkok just asked my daughter to send them a copy of her Medical certificate. My daughter then mentioned this when cancelling with Sheraton Hotelsā¦they initially said no refund, but they are now forwarding the request directly to Sheraton Macau for consideration. It never hurts to ask!!
@Suzique thatās a good outcome with some good tips - it never hurts to ask for a refund and buy your travel insurance earlier rather than later.
We advise to get travel insurance on the same day you book your tickets. You only pay for the actual time that youāre travelling but youāre covered from the moment you buy a policy. So the earlier you buy your travel insurance, the more cover you get for your money.
Like you say, most travel insurers have a sub-limit on the amount of cover for travel agentās cancellation fees. Itās most commonly $1500 but varies with each insurer (STAās own travel insurance policy coincidentally covers $350). The Citibank policy says it covers travel agents cancellation fees to the āLesser of $750 or 15% of the refundable amountā. I presume the ārefundable amountā is the amount you were refunded before claiming on travel insurance but Iām not sure so weāve asked Citibank to confirm.
Thanks for sharing this with us, we spend a lot of time combing through travel insurance Product Disclosure Statements so real world scenarios are always enlightening.
Interesting trying to get the ticket refund $$$ from the Travel Agent (STA Travel). They are waiting on the airline (Qantas) and STA say that it can take 6 weeks for the money to come through. You can fly to the moon quicker than that!!
I think I read somewhere that if you are making a claim on Travel insurance, it should be within 30 days of the event happening. Looks like Iāve got some phone calls to make!
@JodiBird Interesting comparisons between Qantas airfare refunds and how quickly they pay. My daughter booked directly through QFA and got her refund very quickly. My booking was with QFA through STA Travel and they are saying QFA takes a while and could be up to 6 weeks until I get my refundā¦my daughter and I cancelled on the same day.
These places are quick to take your money, but not so fast in returning it!
Hi @Suzique if youāre still having problems you can always get in touch with AFTA (the Australian Federation of Travel Agents) - they have a program which helps consumers resolve problems with travel agents: https://www.atas.com.au/provide-your-feedback
