travel refund

hi,

does anyone have any help. i bought a travel ticket to australia, i had to cancel due to work commitments. i told them a month in advance, they advised that as the tickets had been issued by the airlines i would not get a refund. the tickets cost 1200.00, they advised i would get refund on taxes which would be around 250.00. i still havent got a refund, this is going back to jan/feb. the trip was due on 23/02/07 but i cancelled on 21/01/07. anyone got any ideas. i din't buy travel insurance at that stage.

You should be able to get a refund of any taxes/airport charges paid. You will have to chase this up with the airline(s?) involved. You may be charged an admin fee for this.

thanks, i presume thats what trailsfinders told when they said i taxes back. the thing that baffles me is that i canx a month before inception, so the worst i thought i would be charged a high canx charge

The cancellation issue and the tax/charges refund issue are separate. The former depends on the terms & conditions of your booking agreement. The latter needs to be pursued with the carrier I presume. I don't think that the agent (Trailfinders) will chase it up for you.

My son purchased tickets to Miami but was unable to go. (through Lastminute.com.) Even though he cancelled 6 months in advance there was no refund. He managed to get his taxes back and some other commission charges but that was it. The ticket was a non refund ticket.

A friend of mine cancelled her trip to Egypt, a full 7 months before travel, but as it was the lowest fare possible, totally non-refundable. It all depends on the fare. Sometimes it is worth paying some extra (in her case an extra €75) if you are not sure you can go and that way you could atleast get a refund minus a cancellation fee, probably €100-150. In exceptional circumstances, travel insurance could cover it.

Alot depends on the airline and the type of ticket, surely there must be some site out there to give some information re cancellation.

Surely the only useful advice is (a) read the booking agreement terms & conditions to check what, if any, refund on the tickets themselves is possible and in what circumstances and (b) read the relevant carrier's guidelines for claiming back taxes/charges on unused tickets?

As Clubman says, read the small print. If you have a non-refundable ticket it may be possible to:
a) Pay for a name change on it (so someone else can use it).
b) Exchange it for another date (with the exchange fee and any difference in seat price to be paid).

Both of these will depend on the terms and conditions of the ticket (really on the booking class the flight coupon is booked in). They will also vary from airline to airline in the sense that some airlines allow some leeway to their staff to make changes and others don't (so some will over-ride the rules, while others have no option but to stick to them).