TWO Islanders who made a mistake when booking their flights online with Flybe are not alone in feeling badly done by because of a simple error.
They both accidentally entered the wrong name when they filled in their details online and paid a very hefty price for the subsequent name-change. Fair Play is currently trying to sort out the problem on their behalf.
And now a report by an air travel consumer group has highlighted the problems passengers face when they make mistakes booking flights online.
The Air Transport Users Council (AUC) say that complaints from passengers about problems making reservations have more than doubled in the last few years.
In one case, a father buying four tickets for a bmibaby flight was asked to pay an extra £340 after his booking showed that all the tickets were in his name and needed to be changed.
He cancelled his tickets but was refused a refund and therefore spent £452 on flights which he never took. In another case, a woman passenger, told that her booking could not be processed ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’, decided to book through another website.
Checking her e-mail later, she found her first booking had, after all, gone through and she now had two tickets for the same flight.
The AUC said the first airline had initially refused to refund her but did so after the AUC intervened.
Another case involved a male passenger who is still trying to get back a £35 ‘administration fee’ charged by an airline after the man had been charged twice when his debit card was rejected the first time.
AUC chairman Tina Tietjen said: ‘In the last few years the number of complaints to the AUC from passengers who have had problems making reservations for airline tickets has more than doubled. The majority of these complaints were about reservations made through the internet.’
‘Complaints to the AUC show that a number of airlines regularly leave passengers out of pocket following innocent mistakes or, sometimes, even if there are glitches in their own booking systems. Reservations systems do not always work smoothly and we believe that the risks of booking over the internet should not be always be loaded on to passengers.’
She added: ‘We have therefore written to the chief executives of those airlines about which we have most unresolved complaints in this area and asked them to put into place polices that are more customer-friendly.’
Article posted on 9th July, 2008 - 2.53pm
7 Article Comments
This is another example of why resurrecting a discarded idea would be good for commercial aviation in Europe, and in America:
A single, EU supported, airline which, to minimize competition, would serve “secondary airports” (ie: Luton, LeBorge.) This government-operated airline would not be established with any intention of making a profit–only to keep losses under control and, most important, to provide the type of service the “for-profit” airlines no longer provide, such as—
Greater flexibility on refunds and changes to a ticket.
Greater leg room–a minimum “seat pitch,” in coach, of 36 inches (91 centimeters.)
A reasonable free baggage allowance
Seating for the disabled.
On longer flights, a separate section for families with young children.
The reasoning is that such an airline would serve people traveling on holiday and other family-related travel. In return for the type of services mentioned, this group of travelers would be willing to accept the inconvenience of leaving from, and arriving at, a remote airport.
I have had the same happen to me. One name error cost me a new seat of £115.
I just had the same problem, A friend book a fly with BMI for me using my cc and by mistake he used my nickname, I contacted BMI and ask to correct the error and guess what!! they charge me £35 for that and over £10 for using my cc, were the fly cost were £130 pound I now pay £233 what a rip off, I had complaint to ABTA and I try to send an email to the chairman as the email for BMI costumer care those not exist, my first and only ever fly with BMI I also had sent and email to my clients and guess how many on my datebase? over 5000 clients I guess that the extra money they charge me its going to cost BMI lots and lots more.
Same here BMI is a total rip off! they cost me £130 due to a simple error when booking which we tried to change by telephone within in 3 minutes of the original booking
If enough of us avoid using this company as all my familly do it may have some effect but I doubht it this is jersey after all !!!!!!!!!!!
Is this the company our goverment generously subsidises!!!!!!!!!!
No sympathy - You do make problems that dont exist. Just do your booking right first time - its not hard. If you cant do it right, go to a travel agent who can - like the good old days. Problem solved - next please.
We have just found out that our fiend one of 4 of us going to Las Vegas/Hawaii in 11 day’s had given my wife’s name as Joanne instead of Josephine. She has received the tickets today and now is desperately trying to amend this.
We are unsure now, if we can go as I wouldn’t go without my wife.
Can you give me any advice on this
Arlines involved are bmi 7 Hawaiian Airlines
D. Smedley while i agree with you on this one i do however believe that the treatment that Mike recieved was over the top. If you call the airline within a resonable time period then you would expect a little bit of understanding. We all make mistakes and as long as we try and rectify them quickly the airlines should allow cheaper servcies to correct them.
Dont forget we are all subsidising BMI and others though our taxes.