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Times
16 hours ago
- Times
We nearly missed our daughter's wedding, with no flight compensation
In September my wife and I were due to fly to Calgary in Canada for our daughter's wedding. When we got to Heathrow for our flight with the Canadian airline WestJet we were told that the plane's air conditioning had failed. We waited around for several hours while WestJet tried to fix it, but eventually the flight was cancelled. WestJet offered us an alternative flight a few days later, which we turned down because it would have meant missing our daughter's wedding. We asked for a refund of our flight fare, which WestJet has paid. We then made alternative plans to fly to Calgary via Edinburgh the next day. When we got back to the UK we claimed compensation of £520 each. WestJet finally responded six weeks later to say that it wasn't able to approve our claim. It said that our flight disruption was caused by unplanned aircraft maintenance that needed to be carried out for safety reasons, which meant that we are not entitled to compensation. This was nonsense. All airlines flying from the UK are liable to pay a fixed amount of compensation for delays, unless they can claim there was an exceptional circumstance. I said its explanation was wrong, but it now appears to be ignoring me. I then planned to get my money back through the small claims court but WestJet won't provide an address in England or Wales, which means that I can't issue a claim online. Instead I would need the court's permission to serve the claim in Canada and would also have to pay for someone to serve the papers over there. That doesn't seem worth it for a £1,040 claim. Surely it's not right that WestJet is able to dodge its responsibilities in this way? Patrick, address supplied Katherine Denham writes Under UK law airlines must pay compensation if passengers travelling from the UK arrive at their destination three hours late. Each passenger can get up to £520 compensation, with the amount depending on the length of the delay, the amount of notice given and the distance of the flight. The only exception is if the delay or cancellation is caused by an extraordinary circumstance that was outside the airline's control, such as poor weather conditions. As you know, unplanned maintenance does not count as an extraordinary circumstance, so I could see no reason why WestJet had not paid you the compensation you are entitled to. WestJet initially told me that you had never submitted a claim. Given that it had rejected your claim last year, I thought this made no sense. When I pointed this out to the company, it then explained that it thought you had claimed under Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR). Under those rules, compensation doesn't apply when flights are cancelled due to a 'situation that's within the airline's control but which is required for safety purposes'. Yet you showed me an email sent to WestJet that made it clear that you were claiming under the EU legislation EC261, which the UK rules are based on, so I thought it was very strange that it believed you were claiming under Canadian law. WestJet couldn't explain why it had logged this as an APPR claim, but thankfully I was able to get the company to pay you the £1,040 compensation you were owed. It said: 'WestJet sincerely apologises to the guests for their experience. We're grateful that Patrick has received his due compensation and can put this matter to rest.' You said: 'Thank you, it's amazing how fast companies move when you step in. I now wonder how many of the hundreds of other people on the flight were paid the compensation they are entitled to.' I stopped driving at 95. Will I ever see my insurance refund? In April I told my car insurer LV that I had sold my car. I shall soon be 95 and, after many decades of trouble-free motoring, I decided to quit while I was ahead and stop driving. LV agreed to refund the rest of my annual car insurance premium, amounting to £417. It said it would send this money to my HSBC credit card, which I had used to pay the original premium. I told LV that this would not work because HSBC had closed that account last August. I was assured that once the payment had bounced back to LV, it would contact me for instructions as to where to pay this refund. When I didn't hear anything, I called LV a week later and was told that the payment had not been returned by HSBC. LV said I should speak to HSBC and gave me a reference number to try to trace the payment. But HSBC said it had no evidence of £417 ever having been sent. I went back to LV to make a complaint, but have not heard back. I am spending hours on the telephone trying to sort out what would appear to be a relatively straightforward transaction. This is very stressful, particularly when, in this age of electronic banking, one would have reasonably expected my £417 to have been refunded within days, if not minutes. I'm exasperated. Peter, Dorset Katherine Denham writes I thought it was very unfair of the two companies to send you from pillar to post to retrieve your money. It's normal for companies to make refunds to the original payment card — if the payment bounces back, the firm should then get in touch to confirm your new payment details. I spoke to Allianz, the parent company of LV General Insurance, which said it had sent the money: 'While we're sorry for the time and inconvenience this caused, our service team followed our anti-money laundering processes.' So where was your refund? It turned out that HSBC had the payment after all. Usually a transaction contains information to help a bank return it to the sender, but this particular payment didn't. As HSBC didn't know where to send the money, it kept it in a holding account until it knew what to do with it. When it later established that the money belonged to you, it sent it to your active HSBC credit card. There were clearly some communication issues with the bank, and HSBC acknowledged that you were also disconnected during one call. In light of this it has given you £75 as a gesture of goodwill. HSBC said: 'This is an unusual case where a refund was sent back to a closed credit card without sufficient information for us to send it on. We are pleased the money has now been sent to its rightful home and we wish our customer all the best following his 75 years of incident-free driving.' You said: 'Please accept my grateful thanks for the part you played in this strange affair.' • £859,789 The amount Your Money Matters has saved readers this year If you have a money problem you would like Katherine Denham to investigate email yourmoneymatters@
ABC News
30-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Collapsed tourism agent Traveldream may have taken customers' money while insolvent
Australians who say they have been left stranded overseas and broke after their travel agency collapsed have now been told the company was likely trading while insolvent. Melbourne-based agency Traveldream — which was registered as Australian Travel Deals Pty Ltd and sold discounted flights, cruises and international tour packages — collapsed in April and went into voluntary administration. Now, an administrator's report has found the company was "likely" trading while insolvent from 30 June 2024, more than nine months prior to entering voluntary administration. Directors found guilty of allowing a company to trade while insolvent can face civil or criminal penalties and be banned from managing companies. Do you have a story to share? Email ABC News has spoken to dozens of travellers who booked once-in-a-lifetime overseas trips through the agency, many spending between $10,000 and $30,000, only to discover their bookings had been cancelled — in some cases mid-trip. If the company went into liquidation, there would be some possibility their costs could be recovered, but it would be a lengthy process. Debts to customers, who are considered "unsecured creditors," would be some of the last — and least likely — to be repaid. Cairns healthcare worker Glenys Carpenter and her husband Glen booked a $32,000 tour of Canada and the US in February — during the period the travel agency was likely trading insolvent, according to the administrator's report. They were due to fly out on Monday, but this week discovered several tours and the hotel rooms they paid for had been cancelled. "I've lost sleep, lost weight and the stress has been unbelievable. People need to be held accountable." Some customers remain overseas, re-booking hotels and tours at their own expense. Others have cancelled plans they cannot afford to pay for again. Brisbane couple Michelle and Peter Brown landed in Toronto after 20 hours in transit — only to be told their hotel room did not exist. Days later, their Las Vegas accommodation was also cancelled. "We had confirmation emails for everything. We borrowed money and planned for this for years," Ms Brown said. Administrator Mcleod's investigation into the full financial picture remains ongoing. Since March, Traveldream's sole director has been Christopher Banson, who co-owns Saltwater Properties — a company operating high-end holiday rentals across Australia and which holds stakes in more than 30 other businesses. Documents filed with ASIC show Traveldream owed Saltwater Properties more than $758,000. The administrator's report also showed nearly $1 million in payments flowed from Traveldream to Saltwater Properties over four years. "I note that the company and Saltwater Properties regularly transferred funds between one another," the administrator wrote. Mr Banson told ABC News Traveldream was "funded by Saltwater Properties" and blamed the company's downfall on a separate wholesaler, My Travel Experience. He said Traveldream paid My Travel Experience in full for customer bookings and that it was the wholesaler who failed to pass on funds to hotels and airlines. But the wholesaler's director, Russ Masterson, rejected this, and said his company never took money directly from Traveldream customers and that cancellations were likely due to non-payment. Traveldream was stripped of accreditation by the Australian Travel Industry Association in 2020 over concerns about its directorship and finances. Despite that, the company's website continued to display badges claiming affiliation with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). ABC News has confirmed Traveldream was never a CLIA member and can also reveal it was operating without a trust account to hold customers' money — a key consumer protection mechanism used protect client funds in the event of collapse. Jodi Bird, an insurance expert at consumer group CHOICE, said the collapse exposed major weaknesses in consumer protection for those booking travel online. He said Australians left out of pocket by failed travel booking companies had limited options to recover their money. Australia once had a national consumer protection scheme for travel bookings known as the Travel Compensation Fund (TCF), that would compensate customers if a travel agent became insolvent. Membership in the TCF was mandatory for licensed agents, but the scheme was abolished in 2014. Swinburne University corporate governance expert Helen Bird said the travel industry should consider an emergency indemnity fund to protect consumers. "If I were the big players in the industry, I would be doing that, because it's their reputation as much as the little players'," she said. Kim Arnold — director of policy and education at the Australian Restructuring, Insolvency and Turnaround Association — said if the company was placed into liquidation, the liquidator may be able to pursue the director personally for debts incurred while the company was insolvent. "Either they reach a settlement, or the court makes an order and then the director has to pay that money into the liquidation," she said. Ms Arnold said customers would likely remain unsecured creditors and sit low on the list for repayment. A second creditors' meeting will be held on June 3 to determine the future of the company — including whether it will move into liquidation. In the meantime, impacted customers, uncertain whether their holidays will go ahead, have begun tying yellow ribbons to their suitcases — a quiet show of solidarity for those left in limbo. Ms Carpenter said she was clinging to hope that someone will be held responsible. "This isn't just bad luck," she said.
