Holidaymakers who book online warned they may struggle to get refunds if flights are cancelled

Online travel agents  have become an increasingly popular way to book package holidays and last-minute breaks.

Holidaymakers who book trips through online travel agents are being warned they may struggle to secure a refund if their flights are cancelled or delayed, and risk being left out of pocket indefinitely.  

Pat Dawson, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA), said the poor treatment of Irish holidaymakers by online travel agents over the past number of years is going “under the radar” and he believes thousands of consumers have lost money.

“I would say in the course of the pandemic, there were several millions of euro lost by consumers as a result of this,” he said.

Online travel agents (OTAs) have become an increasingly popular way to book package holidays and last-minute breaks. 

However, growing numbers of customers are discovering that if their flight is cancelled or delayed due to external issues, they are unable to get their money back.

Many customers who book through these agents have reported receiving no notification of cancelled or delayed flights and find it almost impossible to receive a refund — essentially caught between the airlines and OTAs.

Customers out of communication loop

Most OTAs generates unique email addresses to supply to airlines when making bookings, which means that important communication such as cancelled or delayed flights does not reach the customer.

In the case of cancelled flights, refunds are often processed to the payment details used for the booking, which are the OTAs and in some cases have not been passed onto the customer.

Aware of the practice, Ryanair has introduced Customer Verification Forms for those who book through OTAs and require a refund.

One holidaymaker who booked through the popular OTA, Loveholidays.ie,
and whose flight was cancelled in September because of air traffic control strikes did not receive any notification of the cancellation.

They booked a different flight for the following day and sought a refund from Loveholidays.ie but was told that it was the airline’s responsibility to refund the customer and not Loveholidays.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This passenger booked their flight through an unauthorised online travel agent (OTA), who (like many OTAs) provided Ryanair with incorrect payment details and email address for the passenger, meaning that Ryanair could not refund or communicate with the passenger directly.

As such, passengers who book through an unauthorised OTA are required to complete a Customer Verification form in order to receive their refund directly. 

The Irish Examiner reached out to Loveholidays.ie for comment and gave the booking reference for the above customer.

The holidaymaker had attempted to secure a refund directly from Loveholidays previously but had not received a response. They were refunded promptly once the booking reference was provided by the Irish Examiner

A spokesperson for Loveholidays said: “We have checked all correspondence sent to the customer by the airline and cannot see any evidence that the airline notified them of the flight cancellation. 

"Once the customer notified us that there was an issue, we got in touch with them and began working to process a refund as quickly as possible.”

Ryanair's head of communications Jade Kirwan said airlines get paid regardless if bookings are made through OTAs, but that it is the customer who is at a loss when things go wrong and are often significantly overcharged for add ons.

Exorbitant markups of up to 140%

An audit of fees charged by OTAs found markups of up to 140% for different products or services such as bags, priority passes, and allocated seating.

Kiwi.com, who reported a 140% increase in bookings this summer, was found to be charging €22 for allocated seating on a Ryanair flight which would have cost €10 if booked directly with the airline, a markup of 120% while Opodo.com charged €23.99, a markup of 140%.

When asked about the 120% markup, a Kiwi.com spokesperson said: “We invite customers to check for themselves. Everyday, thousands of customers choose to book Ryanair flights on Kiwi.com because they can find better fares and much better service.” 

Markups were seen across six popular OTAs including Edreams, Lastminute.com, Loveholidays and Onthebeach.

CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) Pat Dawson said customers mistakenly believe they are dealing with Irish companies when they see a .ie domain name.

“A lot of these companies advertise with a Dublin number and an Irish email address and that’s the ‘conjob’ because people think they are dealing with Irish companies,” he said.

Mr Dawson said the problem with OTAs first emerged during the pandemic when flights were cancelled due to travel restrictions.

Growing numbers of customers who book flights through online travel agents are discovering that if their flight is cancelled or delayed due to external issues, they are unable to get their money back. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

“It’s going on for a lot of people but they’re too embarrassed to admit that they got caught,” he said.

He said that the ITAA has received countless calls from customers who were unable to make contact with the online agents that they had booked through or get refunds.

Mr Dawson said that OTAs' failure to communicate directly with the customer, or respond to queries is leaving people deeply frustrated. 

“Nine times out of 10, they can’t get through on the phone, they don’t answer emails. There are several companies at this, not just one or two,” he said.

“All our complaints' calls refer to this problem, it’s a major problem. We’re very frustrated because it gives our trade a very bad name but the ITAA have nothing whatsoever to do with it,” he said.

He said consumers who do make contact with the ITAA in relation to OTAs are only a fraction of those who have lost money, and that many just accept their money is gone due to the barriers of inconvenience in place.

Mary O’Quigley went to Nice at the end of September which she booked through Loveholidays.ie. She never received an email to say that her flight was cancelled but saw the notice on the Ryanair app and booked a separate flight home herself.

Unique email address issues

Her booking with Loveholidays.ie involved a unique email address which was used to setup a Ryanair account for her which she then used to request a refund.

Soon after, the refund was processed and was in her Ryanair account wallet.

However, when she tried to log into the Ryanair account her Loveholidays.ie email address had been disabled.

She was advised by the OTA to submit a “Post Travel” query which has a current wait time of 56 days due to high volumes of queries.

“I did not believe at any stage that there was anyone able to answer my query. I want to know why I was given an email address that is not mine for a booking when they could have used mine.

“I also want to know how I am going to get access to the booking as it seems to be an issue with access to the email address used being disabled,” she said.

Ms O’Quiqley is still awaiting access to the refund almost three weeks since her flight was cancelled despite Ryanair refunding within days.