Budgetair failed to change my flight

[Kyosanto]

I feel like something has cut short here.

 

What makes you feel that your ticket was fully flexible? Did you pay budgetair extra for that, or was the flexibility offered by the airline instead?

 

What airline were you travelling with, when is the original ticket for, and what is the date you have been trying to change it to?

 

Surely you must appreciate that no matter how flexible your ticket is, nobody has the ability to magic free spots out of thin air if the flights are already full.

 

Try to give us the full details, in brief and concise bullet points

 

Also, do you have travel insurance?

 

 

[Kyosanto]

Alright, so problem one: you purchased a "flexible option" sold by budgetair without knowing exactly what you were signing up for. You need to read the terms and conditions carefully and see what's covered:

*I would assume that you are only covered for a change using the same airline, and the same booking class. Try and find out your booking class it should be in your ticket somewhere. Something like Economy (T).

*I would also guess that this "flexible option" did not include any possibility of getting a refund. If it did it was probably "refund in the form of a budgetair voucher" or something like that.

Only once you find out exactly what you purchased you will know if they breached their contract or not. You might have a chance if their wording is slightly misleading, but most OTAs know their game.

 

Problem two, you want to travel in August. It shouldn't be too much of a surprise to you that this is super peak season and that the cheap booking classes are completely zeroed out already. Whilst your original May ticket was most probably in a cheap off peak booking class. I don't know the cities you are travelling to and from but as an example if I look up London to Delhi with Air India and assuming you are only going for 1 week, all of august is pretty much zeroed out. There is a little bit of cheap T and U economy from London in the last week of august, but the return from Delhi is completely overbooked and only the more expensive economy classes are left.

 

Now what is completely weird to me is that you were told "tickets are not released yet". That is obviously complete bo**ocks are not only they are released but they are also pretty much sold out. Did the guy think you were changing dates to 2023? Please tell me you kept the chat logs as evidence. (Live chat is actually a lot better than phone calls!) Could you upload them here with your personal info redacted?

 

Problem three, it seems you already escalated this with Paypal and they already ruled against you? It seems to me that you may have complained a bit too early instead of lining up your ducks first. 

What are you trying to get back? Just the £50 or the whole ticket?
More importantly, where do you stand now? Do you still have tickets with Air India? Do you have some budgetair credit? Are they going to let you use that on another date or another trip? Exactly how are you at a loss here?

 

 

 

[Kyosanto]

I'm going through a dummy booking with budgetair and I can't find a flexible option. All I see is

 

 

"Ticket Service" for £59

Quote

 

With this service you avoid the risk of losing your money when the airline cannot execute your flight due to bankruptcy.

Over the last few years, a lot of airlines have come into financial difficulties, think of examples like Flybe, Thomas Cook or Air Berlin. Refund the costs of your ticket(s) up to £ 2,000 per ticket (or up to the same amount in your local currency).

 

 

 

 

"Premium Plus" for £24.99

Quote

Extra charges by BudgetAir for changing & cancelling your flight: FREE OF CHARGE

 

 

 

And "Flight delay Compensation Service" for £50

• Quote

   

  • Flight delayed, cancelled or overbooked? You may be entitled to compensation.
  • Up to £500 compensation for flight delays, cancellations and overbooking by airlines.
    Up to £5,000 covered for extra expenses caused by a delay, including lost luggage and missed reservations (hotels, flights, taxi, etc.).
  • With this service, AirHelp’s compensation specialists handle the entire process for getting your money without any hassle.

   

   

 

Every single of these options is a rip-off

 

None of these options sound like "ticket changeable free of charge" to me.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Kyosanto

[Kyosanto]

For the dates in your chat (its not august mind) there is available inventory in L, K

 

Budgetair agents have no idea what they are doing.

 

Provide them the information below exactly as is and they should be able to issue your ticket (and reprice it if your booking class was lesser than L)

 

If you provide them this and they still pretend there is no availability, then insist they explain why, when you can prove otherwise.

 

I suspect you may have bought a fully non changeable and non refundable ticket, and that this is the reason computer says no.

 

Get them to admit that first and foremost, because in that case the premium you paid was officially a scam.

 

I hope of course that Im wrong and that they'll be able to rebook you.

 

Quote

 

Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.

Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.

Fare for 1 adult£696.36

Cancellation of this ticket will incur a penalty fee.

Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.

Fare 1: Carrier AI LLE9MGBI LON to BLR (rules)

Passenger type ADT, ROUND-TRIP fare, booking code L, K

Covers LHR-DEL (Economy), DEL-BLR (Economy)

£187.50

Fare 2: Carrier AI ULE9MGBI BLR to LON (rules)

Passenger type ADT, ROUND-TRIP fare, booking code K, U

Covers BLR-BOM (Economy), BOM-LHR (Economy)

£137.50

Carrier-imposed surcharge (YR)£5.40

United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge Departures (UB)£56.06

United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty APD (GB)£84.00

Carrier-imposed surcharge (YQ)£200.00

India User Development Fee Departures (IN)£14.60

India Aviation Security Fee (P2)£11.30

Subtotal per passenger£696.36

Number of passengersx1

Subtotal for 1 adult£696.36

Fare Construction (can be useful to travel agents)

LON AI X/DEL Q24.85 AI BLR 208.16LLE9MGBI AI X/BOM AI LON 170.88ULE9MGBI NUC 403.89 END ROE 0.804633 XT 84.00GB 56.06UB 14.60IN 11.30P2 200.00YQ 5.40YR

Total Airfare & Taxes£696.36

 

 

[Kyosanto]

I made a mess of the copy paste and it doesnt have the flight numbers. But anyway this info can be obtained online from itasoftware matrix (google it) and will give you the cheapest booking class still available for yoir dates.

 

Its important you find your original booking class too, and even better if you have the fare rules. So you know exactly how much the airline will charge you and can make sure budgetair doesn't add extra.

[Kyosanto]

It's not just "new information" it's the undisputable evidence that the tickets exist and are bookable, all they need to do is put those numbers on their computer, if they say otherwise they are lying.

 

Get this in a chat log evem you hate to speak to them, you'll need them when you try and get your refund, whether it's Paypal, your bank, or SCC.

 

In the corrct order. Only move to the next step once you have exhausted the previous one, and have amassed the evidence that you did.

 

If you skip steps too fast they're just going to fob you back down one level, like Paypal and your bank migjtve done already.

 

Now the OTA probably knows you disputed this already and lost, so they think they can afford to tell you porkies and keep fobbing you off.

 

Thats why you do should get back to them one last time, let them know you're not joking around, get that final bit of evidence. Line up your ducks. Ine by one.