Just got screwed out of nearly $500 can.

[blackwing]

I'm wondering if OP can clarify if the fees were purely to select any regular seats or if he paid for extra legroom or something like that.  Is the nonrefundable part because it is booked through NCL?

 

Because our last trip to Europe, BA changed our flights.  I had paid $50 per seat to select seats on the original flight.  I applied for a refund on their website and I got it.  But they said I had to wait until after I got home and after the date of the flight had passed.

[julig22]

If NCL changed the flight, you might be able to request some reimbursement - they usually offer $300 when people have to change flights, so worth a try - make your request in writing, not a phone call.

If the airline made a significant change to your flight, you should be able to try for a refund. True that upgrades aren't usually refundable but that usually applies to just simply changing your mind. But since you were rebooked on a different airline, insurance might be your only recourse.

[itsnotjustme]

7 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

I'd try getting insurance to cover that.

I have never seen that as a covered cost on a trip insurance policy.

 

3 hours ago, erisajd said:

The airline cannot keep your money for a flight you did not take - dispute the charge on your credit card - even f you don't have the US protections on your credit card - a business cannot charge you for a service you did not receive ever.

This can and does happen and is legal.  Any non-refundable fare falls in this category.  Not taking a cruise after final payment/100% penalty does too.

 

To the OP - Sorry this happened to you.  I presume you either had many people or you paid not just to select, but to upgrade your seats.  $500 is really high otherwise.

[MoCruiseFan]

4 hours ago, erisajd said:

The airline cannot keep your money for a flight you did not take - dispute the charge on your credit card - even f you don't have the US protections on your credit card - a business cannot charge you for a service you did not receive ever.  I also think you should byotche quite loudly to NCL - THEY changed your flight within XX days of travel.  Go read the Air surcharge limitations 

 

Yes they can.  What part of non*refundable do you not comprehend.  NCL has no standing in this matter, it is between the OP and the airline.  The OP chose to incur non*refundable charges.  Again one should never let someone else make and have control of your travel plans.  I am wondering as well what was purchased that came to $500.  That is a rather high amunt simply for setasa and luggage unless the seats were upgardes to 1st class.

 

 

[dbrown84]

Is the amount paid really that high?  It's Canadian dollars, not US.  so, we're talking about around $360 US and it's an international flight.  OP say "we" so we're talking about at least 2 people for seats and bags, but it could be a family of three or four.

[dbrown84]

to the OP, I don't know if your flight has an US leg or not, but the US department of transportation rules comes across to me as you are entitled to a refund. Now, I'm not a lawyer, although I did stay at a holiday inn express last night:

 

[dbrown84]

Just now, dbrown84 said:

to the OP, I don't know if your flight has an US leg or not, but the US department of transportation rules comes across to me as you are entitled to a refund. Now, I'm not a lawyer, although I did stay at a holiday inn express last night:

 

the next section on their site speaks on if your tickets are bought thru a travel agent, which I would think NCL is the travel agent in this situation.  It says you are entitled to a refund.  But, their rules apply to flights within the US or has a leg within the US.  I'll say again, I'm not speaking from any personal experience.  I'm just googling.  My opinion is just that, and I have no expertise whatsoever in the matter 

[destar]

This is a hard pill to swallow, I don't want somebody else playing around with my reservations,  looking for the best bargain flights to save their employer a few dollars. I might pay a little more, but I like booking my own flights.

 

[gizfish]

3 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

to the OP, I don't know if your flight has an US leg or not, but the US department of transportation rules comes across to me as you are entitled to a refund. Now, I'm not a lawyer, although I did stay at a holiday inn express last night:

 

The flight was not cancelled or delayed, the airline did not make a schedule change with the flight, and no one was involuntarily denied boarding.  NCL changing a person's flight doesn't have anything to do with those situations.  That being said, OP maybe try calling the airline and requesting a refund or credit.  Of course they don't have to do anything.  But, maybe they will surprise you.

[dbrown84]

1 hour ago, gizfish said:

The flight was not cancelled or delayed, the airline did not make a schedule change with the flight, and no one was involuntarily denied boarding.  NCL changing a person's flight doesn't have anything to do with those situations.  That being said, OP maybe try calling the airline and requesting a refund or credit.  Of course they don't have to do anything.  But, maybe they will surprise you.

NCL changing a person's flight has everything to do with it.  They are the travel agent in this situation.  I'm guessing you responded before reading all that I posted

[PATRLR]

4 hours ago, gizfish said:

The flight was not cancelled or delayed, the airline did not make a schedule change with the flight, and no one was involuntarily denied boarding.  NCL changing a person's flight doesn't have anything to do with those situations. 

How you know the airline did not make a schedule change?  There had to be some reason NCL changed an already ticketed flight.  My guess is some schedule changed (either the flight or the ship).  Which ever one changed owes him the fees, IMO, but I haven't read the T&Cs for NCL flights (and I don't care to because there is no way in hell I'd ever use them).  Another option is NCL found a cheaper set of flights or they realized the flights they booked wouldn't work - in either of those cases NCL owes him the fees, IMO.

 

[Oakman58]

I simply don't use NCL to book air.  Every time I've checked any savings were minimal or not at all.  I want to have control of what flight times I have.

[JillK]

10 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

Is the amount paid really that high?  It's Canadian dollars, not US.  so, we're talking about around $360 US and it's an international flight.  OP say "we" so we're talking about at least 2 people for seats and bags, but it could be a family of three or four.

 

Our dollar is in the toilet and weak compared to US / Pound and Euro. 

 

Last week I made a purchase of $131.93 USD and was charged $186.48 Cdn with an exchange rate of 1.41348 (daily exchange rate plus 2.5% for the bank). 

 

Looks like the exchange rate today on the GBP is 1.76 (including the 2.5% bank fee) I would ballpark OP paid just under 300 Pounds to land him in the neighbourhood of $500 Cdn. 

 

Everything costs Canadians 35% or more given our dollar. I owe almost $800 Cdn in daily gratuities (3 pax, 10 nights) for my upcoming Med cruise.... the $20 USD/day is converting to $26 and change Cdn/day. I dread exchanging for some euros in a few months!! 

[MoCruiseFan]

18 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

Is the amount paid really that high?  It's Canadian dollars, not US.  so, we're talking about around $360 US and it's an international flight.  OP say "we" so we're talking about at least 2 people for seats and bags, but it could be a family of three or four.

 

I missed that we were talking about monopoly money not real dollars!  $360 is still high.That is abot 8-10 suitcases AFTER the ome free bag per person on most airlines.

[Middleager]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:26 AM, buddy1755 said:

I got flights thru NCL for my upcoming transatlantic,  on the return leg of the trip we were booked out of Gatwick with Air Transat.  I went on to their site and booked our seat selection and paid for our luggage.  WELL NCL just changed everything,  I now fly out of Heathrow with Brittish Airway.  I was told by NCL AND Airtransat that that monies are not refundable.  So in the future I quess I would wait till last minute to choose seats I I will never pay for luggage until I get on the aircraft. 

This is really rough.

 

Just curious how many days till the flight were the changes made?  We don't know the reasons and which airlines.

We've bought air through NCL in the past when the savings were substantial. 

 

We are commoners, so we fly economy, and sometimes we'd pay for seat selections, and sometimes take a chance especially for short flight segments.  For luggages, if we need to pay, we'd try to wait till just before getting on to buy ahead if there's discount, or wait till airport check-in.

 

There's pros and cons for buying air through NCL, but this is a bad negative to consider for the future.

 

--

For changing from Canadian dollars, there are lots of money exchange places that give better rates than the banks, even bank's Private Banking rates.  There was a time I went across the street to buy US$ from a money exchange place, then back to a bank to buy money order (about $1800), saving about $45.  Some people wouldn't bother and just buy from bank.  For me, that extra half hour, saved me $45.

[genealogyfan]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:26 AM, buddy1755 said:

I got flights thru NCL for my upcoming transatlantic,  on the return leg of the trip we were booked out of Gatwick with Air Transat.  I went on to their site and booked our seat selection and paid for our luggage.  WELL NCL just changed everything,  I now fly out of Heathrow with Brittish Airway.  I was told by NCL AND Airtransat that that monies are not refundable.  So in the future I quess I would wait till last minute to choose seats I I will never pay for luggage until I get on the aircraft. 

Maybe try your travel insurance to see if you can get it covered.

[buddy1755]

On 4/19/2024 at 7:19 PM, blackwing said:

I'm wondering if OP can clarify if the fees were purely to select any regular seats or if he paid for extra legroom or something like that.  Is the nonrefundable part because it is booked through NCL?

 

Because our last trip to Europe, BA changed our flights.  I had paid $50 per seat to select seats on the original flight.  I applied for a refund on their website and I got it.  But they said I had to wait until after I got home and after the date of the flight had passed.

It was regular seats, I wanted yo make sure I was sitting with my wife.

[buddy1755]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:55 PM, dbrown84 said:

to the OP, I don't know if your flight has an US leg or not, but the US department of transportation rules comes across to me as you are entitled to a refund. Now, I'm not a lawyer, although I did stay at a holiday inn express last night:

 

No I fly from England to Toronto then to hlfx 

[DCGuy64]

On 4/19/2024 at 8:00 PM, itsnotjustme said:

I have never seen that as a covered cost on a trip insurance policy.

Interesting. I have. Pretty much every travel insurance policy I've bought has a provision for cancelled flights, which the baggage fees were a part of. I believe it would fall under the trip cancellation provision.

[dbrown84]

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

Interesting. I have. Pretty much every travel insurance policy I've bought has a provision for cancelled flights, which the baggage fees were a part of. I believe it would fall under the trip cancellation provision.

hmmm, interesting.  I never thought of it before, but would this be considered a cancelled flight for the purposes of insurance?  The flight itself was not cancelled.  The OP was changed to another flight.  

[DCGuy64]

8 minutes ago, dbrown84 said:

hmmm, interesting.  I never thought of it before, but would this be considered a cancelled flight for the purposes of insurance?  The flight itself was not cancelled.  The OP was changed to another flight.  

I would argue that substituting one flight for another represents a cancellation. If you were booked on flight ABC123 and were moved to DEF456, your 1st flight was cancelled. That's how I'd look at it, anyway. At a minimum, my reservation was cancelled.

Edited April 22 by DCGuy64

[DCGuy64]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:03 PM, destar said:

This is a hard pill to swallow, I don't want somebody else playing around with my reservations,  looking for the best bargain flights to save their employer a few dollars. I might pay a little more, but I like booking my own flights.

 

How much more you pay often depends where you live. I have seen many times on this site people claiming they've saved $1,000s by using NCL's BOGO. I don't know about you, but $1,000 or more isn't "a little more." There's no one right answer to this. Some people like to have control over their reservations, while others are happy to relinquish control in exchange for saving money. Same with travel agents. Some like to do their own bookings, while people like me enjoy letting someone else make the phone calls, etc.

[dbrown84]

14 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

I would argue that substituting one flight for another represents a cancellation. If you were booked on flight ABC123 and were moved to DEF456, your 1st flight was cancelled. That's how I'd look at it, anyway. At a minimum, my reservation was cancelled.

yeah, I agree.  but any reason to deny the claim..... 🙂 

[DCGuy64]

8 minutes ago, dbrown84 said:

yeah, I agree.  but any reason to deny the claim..... 🙂 

Exactly. Although, one could argue that if the insurance company can always find a reason to deny, why purchase insurance in the first place?

[Capitan Obvious]

10 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Exactly. Although, one could argue that if the insurance company can always find a reason to deny, why purchase insurance in the first place?

 

It isn't just purchasing insurance, but purchasing the right insurance. One policy might cover cancelled flights, while another might cover changed flights. You can't bellyache because you purchased the wrong policy.