It is possible to ask for the fee paid for cancelled flights.

If the flight was paid for by card then it will be refunded back.

They dont advertise this........but it is your right to ask for it !!

Though most airlines will attempt to deduct an 'admin charge' to do this when you ask. Does anyone know the legal position on this? BA for one charge a whopping £30 to refund the fee, pretty much swallowing up the refund anyway.

I believe I am right in saying that the law regarding only states that when a flight is cancelled or if a passenger does not take a flight then the tax is not payable to the government. However the law falls short of stating that the tax should then be paid back to the passenger. This is why you find some airlines saying a refund of the tax can be refunded, however an admin fee is payable in order to get the refund!!!

Are we talking about Air Passenger Duty? The liability for Air Passenger Duty is with the airline rather than the passenger and it is the airline that pays the tax to the Government. It is the choice of the airline whether it passes on that cost to the passenger or not so I'm not really sure it is quite as simple as saying it can be claimed back if a flight is cancelled.

BA charge a service fee for issuing a refund on any ticket regardless of if its fare or taxation refund, only exception I think is on full fares that allow full refunds without charges. If a flight is cancelled and you are not rebooked then you should receive the full ticket cost back without any fees. Often at BA we issue passengers with further transportation vouchers if they want tax refunds. these normally come in the form of an MCO for further transportation. Fees although policy are enforced with a certain level of discretion so its always worth being nice to the person you are speaking to as take it from me you wont get anywhere if your not !!,

That seems to nicely summarise the arrogant attitude I have found in my dealings with BA staff of late. I think BA would be wise to consider 'being nice' to their customers and stop treating them like fools. Following my recent dealings with them I have a) got a complete refund of all charges due to me including the ridiculous £25 PER TICKET (even though the refund for the entire booking is processed in one operation) and b) taken the decision my company or my family will NEVER fly with BA again.

They don't refund the fuel surcharge on your taxes now either... it's normally about 40% of the taxes too! :S

Hi, I cancelled 2 flights with Gulf Air and claimed the cost of the actual flights on my travel insurance, but not the charges. After endless emails with Gulf Air they have agreed to refund the airport tax, less a £20 admin charge. They still refuse to refund the fuel and insurance charges which are most of the charges! Is there any way I can get this back? Thanks

Not a chance of getting anything else back as they are not obliged to refund anything but "applicable taxes". Now I have worked in the industry for 20 years and can tell you that there are up to 15 different "taxes" applied to an airline ticket. To be honest a lot of them make no sense at all and it is designed to make it more difficult

We do refund our clients taxes and it is certainly becoming more popular for people to ask about it but even for us the airline will just give us an amount of a refund for taxes and thats that.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

Hi, I cancelled 2 flights with Gulf Air and claimed the cost of the actual flights on my travel insurance, but not the charges. After endless emails with Gulf Air they have agreed to refund the airport tax, less a £20 admin charge. They still refuse to refund the fuel and insurance charges which are most of the charges! Is there any way I can get this back? Thanks

Hiya,

Can I ask which insurance you used to be able to claim back the cost of the flights after you(?) cancelled them?

I booked some flights on Thursday, found £250 cheaper flights on Saturday but flights are non-refundable from the airline. Looked through all insurance clauses on mine but couldn't find anything that might be able to help me get any money back. Not fussed about the tax, but £680 of the ticket price would be useful!

Your travel insurance will not just refund the cost of the flights if they are non refundable tickets. Check the fare rules they may be non refundable but changeable. To be honest unless you have a death or serious illness that prevents travel( will have to be certified and is restricted to you or a close family memeber ie husabnd wife child or parents) you will not get the money back and no insurance policy covers you for this.

The issue of taxes is slightly different in that you can apply to the airline or travel agent who booked them to get the taxes back however you will end up with a tiny proportion of what you actually paid by the time everyone has applied their admin fees and some of the taxes are non refundable anyway

Sorry I cant be of more help

I have a similar situation. I booked my flight with a travel agent and when I attempted to claim back the taxes I was told that no refund was due at all. I then challenged them to explain where the taxes go and the travel agent responded by saying that the carrier (Virgin in my case) withhold the tax when a ticket is cancelled. I spoke to Virgin Customer Services and Virgin said this is absolute rubbish - all taxes are refundable to the travel agent to pass on back to the customer. In my case its obvious that the travel agent have no intention of returning my money back. I have written off to ATOL to get some advise but it seems the rules around refunds of taxes are quite vague such that they allow travel agents and airlines to pull a fast one if they can get away with it.