Hi,

I booked 5 flights to Cancun from Manchester in November with Flightline and was phoned yesterday to be told that Monarch had cancelled all their flights there from Manchester. Flightline contacted AVRO (through whom the tickets had been booked) and said that AVRO would offer me a refund but not alternative flights. I subsequently phoned Airflights and booked 5 Thomson flights with them (at an extra cost of £800 more than the originals). 5 minutes after receiving a confirmation email from Airflights, Flightline phoned to say that AVRO had had a change of mind and would offer me alternative flights for the original cost. I immediately phoned Airflights (20 mins after receiving their email) to cancel the flights I had booked with them and was told that I would have to pay £21 per flight(£105) cancellation fee. Is this legal bearing in mind that I booked over the phone and was not informed of any cancellation charges at the time, charges were mentioned in the email but I phoned them within 20mins of receiving it. The charges are all from Airflights as Thomson told me they would not charge me a cancellation fee in my circumstances.

Your post to date shows AVRO is the villain of the piece + + + aren't all phone calls recorded? Surely it's not your problem that they gave you a firm commitment REFUND and then changed their minds. I suggest you call Airflights and reasonably ask them for the legal wording that entitles them to the cancellation fee and I can't see why you shouldn't mention why you need it (to claim off AVRO). They might even give you some guidance - no skin off their nose. Then once you've got the recording or asked for their complaints procedure, governing body see if you can get what you want plus an "ex gratio" payment. Something along those lines.

Just a thought.