r/Flights • u/OrganicSherbert1788 • 1d ago

Help Needed Travel agency is refusing to refund my already cancelled ticket. Advise needed.

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Let me start by saying I have learned my lesson. I will never book through a third party agency ever again. Only directly through the airline from now on.

That being said, I booked a flight through traveloka back in July. It’s a Malaysia Airlines flight.
Sometimes when there’s a schedule change, they let you change your ticket or allow you a refund, even on non-refundable tickets.
When I received a notification that there had been a schedule change, it allowed me the options to change or cancel. I opted to cancel the ticket. I did this through the Malaysia Airlines app (my ticket was already added there).

The cancellation was accepted by the airline and it stated I needed to call for assistance in receiving the refund. When I called, they said the ticket has been cancelled but the refund needs to go through traveloka. Makes sense.

I called traveloka. They said to start the refund process through the app. I did this, it got rejected. I called them again. They put through the refund request manually. Got rejected again. They told me ‘the airline rejected the refund request’. Even though I spoke to the airline and they said this isn’t the case.

I’ve called the airline directly and traveloka directly, at least 10 times at this point. Traveloka keeps repeating the same thing, and now says that if I can get the airline to give me written confirmation of the cancellation, they will reconsider. The airline has told me they won’t do this. They said that traveloka needs to contact them by email and then they will provide traveloka with the confirmation. But traveloka refuses to contact them.

I’m now stuck and so extremely frustrated. They’re refusing to refund me, but the cancellation was accepted, so I no longer have a ticket either.

Where do I go from here? I really need the money at this point and can’t afford to just drop it. Any help/advise is appreciated.

Screenshot included

4 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

12

u/guernica-shah 1d ago

credit card dispute. 

4

u/spicydak 1d ago

Have you tried doing a 3 way call with the airline and traveloka?

4

u/RomanColosseumExpert 1d ago edited 1d ago

Your screenshot already shows the important part: Malaysia Airlines accepted the cancellation and sent the confirmation to Traveloka's own e-ticket inbox, not to you. On an agency booking the airline returns the money to the agency, not to the passenger, so Traveloka has the confirmation, and whether they also have the money is the question to put to the airline.

Call Malaysia Airlines on the number in your screenshot and ask whether the refund was approved and released to the agent. Then email Traveloka and ask them to look at that confirmation. If they still refuse, their answer plus the screenshot is what your card issuer will want for the chargeback, and don't wait on it, because card disputes have time limits.

1

u/OrganicSherbert1788 1d ago

Yep I did this. Malaysia airlines won’t tell me if the refund has released to them. They said they can only communicate about it with the agency not the passenger. I have also called and emailed traveloka telling them to look at the confirmation email. They don’t care.
I’ll contact my bank now I guess.

3

u/Hibisskuss 1d ago

That’s the first rule of buying air tickets - never with an agency

-4

u/Nalsa- 1d ago

It’s also generally speaking nonsense Reddit advice.

1

u/Meh-blah-Ommph 1d ago

I had the same experience, but booked directly with Malaysia Airlines.
I chose the cancellation and got the same message. No email confirmation, and when I tried to look at my booking again it just shows a screen “this booking doesn’t exist”.
Not a peep from Malaysia Airlines- it just disappeared. It has been 1 week and no refund.
Until I saw this post I had no more access to that page with the phone number (I know I could’ve looked it up online…), so decided to give them a chance, and wait to see if the refund would drop.
I’ll be calling today, and if no movement I’ll be doing a charge back on my credit card.

-8

u/rocketwikkit 1d ago

If you're in the US you could file a complaint with the DOT. You could also look at small claims court, but you'd have to figure out the correct jurisdiction and also see if you already agreed to arbitration. If you're not in the US then look into your local consumer rights organizations.

It's a pretty typical !ota story though.

1

u/AutoModerator 1d ago

Did you or are you about to buy a flight via an Online Travel Agency (OTA)?

An Online Travel Agency (OTA) is a website that allows you to search for and buy airfare tickets. Common ones include Expedia, Priceline, Kiwi. When you redeem points on credit card travel portals you are actually purchasing a cash ticket through an OTA. Some examples are Chase Travel, AMEX Travel, Capital One Travel.

Almost all OTAs suffer from the same problem: a lack of customer service and competency when it comes to changes, cancellations, refunds, airline schedule changes and cancellations, and IRROPs.

When you buy a ticket through an OTA, you put an intermediary between you and the airline. If you try to contact the airline for any assistance, they will defer to your OTA. The airline won't help you. They do not have control over the ticket until T-24h and they can still decline to assist you and ask you to talk to your OTA.

Some OTAs, such as Kiwi, will combine separately issued tickets appearing like real layovers but in reality are self-transfers - requiring a lot more planning and contingencies. This includes dealing with single-leg cancellations of your completely disjointed itinerary. See #1 #2 #3 #4

Other OTAs, including Trip.com, don't always issue your tickets immediately. There have been known instances where the OTA contacts you 24-72h later asking for more money as "the price has changed" or your ticket is no longer available at the lower price. See #1.

More reputable OTAs like Expedia, Priceline, and travel portals like Chase Travel, AMEX Travel, Costco Travel, generally have fewer issues issuing tickets and marginally better customer service. They are also more transparent regarding cached stale prices - as you check out and pay, they will do a live refresh of the real ticket price and warn you that prices have changed (it is not a bait and switch).

In short: OTAs sometimes have their place for some people - but most of the time, especially for simple itineraries, provide no benefit and only increases the risk and can end costing a lot more than what you had saved by buying from the OTA.

Common issues you will face:

Things you should do, if you've already purchased from an OTA:

  • check your reservation (PNR) with the airline website directly
  • check your eticket has been issued - look for 13-digit number(s) - a PNR is not enough
  • garden your ticket - check back on it regularly

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1

u/Consistent-Sea-8923 1d ago

The thing is most of those DOT regulations only apply if you bought directly from the airline

Which is why there’s a common refrain on here- don’t buy tickets from a third-party site.