Airlines, Online Travel Agents & Cruise Lines Steal Refunds

Recent hostilities in the Middle-East have led to dozens of millions of passengers to miss their hotel bookings, flights and cruises. Carriers and online travel agencies (OTA) are exploiting the situation. When a refund is carried out, both OTA and the carrier lose money. They deliberately sabotage refunds by frustrating customers so that they give up their money.

Case example: Gotogate and Wizzair

When you book a Wizzair flight through Gotogate, you may save a few euros. Problems arise when there are schedule changes or flight cancellations. In both cases, Wizzair website and customer service refuse to help and tell to contact Gotogate instead. Customers have no means to use Wizzair website for managing their bookings because Gotogate creates bookings using non-functional, shady Russian email addresses ending with @busyportableaccess.com. If you somehow manage to get in touch with Gotogate support, they tell you to contact Wizzair directly and assume no responsibility.

In such case the only way to get a refund is to spend half a day queueing to Gotogate chat support to initiate a cancellation request. After that you will receive a confirmation email telling you to wait:

Our current average handling time for refunds after receiving funds from the airline is 6 days. We promptly submit claims to the airline(s) upon receiving your request. While most airlines process refunds in under 5 business days, the entire process can take 10-15 business days from the time you confirm cancellation until we process the payout. Please note that we have no control over the processing time by your payment provider or bank after refunding your account.

These are all lies. No matter how long you wait, you will never get your refund. The next step is contacting Wizzair. You must call them and bypass the automated response system to speak with a real person. Otherwise you will be told to contact the travel agency, in this case Gotogate, which leads to a dead end. Do not give any booking numbers or other information. Instead select choices that get you through to an agent. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you get to speak with a real person. Then simply give them your booking number, PNR and ask them to use the original payment method for the refund. Your money will be returned to your credit card or bank account in a few days. Nothing else works.

Case example: A cruise line and cruise broker

If you book a cruise from a cruise broker like VacationsToGo, and the cruise is cancelled, it is their responsibility to get your money back. However, often the agent who served you will lose their interest in helping you because they will lose their commission. You may be told that they have requested a refund and due to extremely high volumes of cancellations processing times are very long and you should keep waiting patiently. If you just sit back and wait, you'll never see your money. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to get a refund.

For issuing a refund, both the cruise line and the cruise broker have to agree. Otherwise the refund is stuck. You need to contact the cruise line and reach a person high enough in the hierachy to help you. Sales or support will not do as they will direct you back to the cruise broker and blame them for the delay. When the cruise line initiates a refund and tells you it is pending because of the cruise broker's comission, you need to get back to your cruise broker and ask them to kindly stop misleading you and approve the refund. What they are doing is fraudulent.

How to avoid the refund scam?

There are a few things you can do. Firstly, never use online travel agents, middlemen or any other third parties for bookings (or Ryanair). Although lower prices are attractive, they do not outweigh the stress and loss in case of cancellations and rescheduling. Secondly, always do everything in your power to get the refund. Everyone who give up their refund encourages stealing refunds. Writing a negative review to warn others is not enough. Do not give up. Fight for your refund and inform others.