Fair Play: Online glitch sends flight price soaring

IF you have ever booked airline tickets online, you will have experienced that awful moment of tension between the time that your payment has passed the point of no return and ‘booking confirmed’ flashes across your screen.

But what happens when you don’t get that message and your all-important reference number?

Has the airline taken your cash and kept your seats? Are your credit card details floating in the ether somewhere? Or do you risk starting all over again?

When Marian and Rick Chambers tried to book their flights to Exeter online they just about got right to the end of the process when the Flybe site crashed.

‘We had entered all the information, including our card details,’ explained Mrs Chambers. ‘We weren’t sure if the transaction had gone through or not so we went straight to the Airport and went through it again at the ticket desk. It came to £273.23 and it came straight off our debit card.’

Afterwards, the couple thought this seemed a lot of money, as they had booked well ahead (the flights were in October) to get a good fare. When they got home their son suggested they had another go to check the price online and it came back as £164.32 – a difference of a whopping £108.91.

The couple contacted the airline again to see if there was any way of paying the cheaper price. The answer was no. So Marian and Rick came straight to Fair Play to see if there was anything we could do about it.

We had a few tries at putting in the same dates and similar details and every time the total fare came out as £164.32. Satisfied that this wasn’t a computer glitch, we then got in touch with Flybe to see what they had to say.

A spokesman sent the following response:
‘May I firstly offer my apologies to Mr and Mrs Chambers for the difficulties encountered. I note the problems with the website and the new fare purchased.

I am now pleased to enclose our cheque in the sum of £108.91. This reflects the difference in the fare paid and that available on our website, in full and final settlement. Once again my apologies, and we look forward to welcoming Mr and Mrs Chambers on board our services.’

Marian and Rick were extremely pleased with the outcome. ‘We are very grateful to you at Fair Play. We’re pensioners and that’s quite a lot of money. It means that the refund can now go towards our spending money when we go on holiday,’ said Marian.

Article posted on 16th July, 2008 - 1.55pm

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