I have discovered a hidden risk when booking car hire attached to a flight. In October 2013, I booked flights online from Manchester to la Rochelle with FlyBe. I took up the offer to book car hire with FlyBe’s “partner” Avis and prepaid the £268 rental along with the air fare. In January 2014, FlyBe emailed to say flight times had changed by 1 hour 50 minutes and advised that I should contact the car hire company.
Avis insisted that I could not just amend my booking, but that I had to make a completely new one.
Apparently, in the three months since I had booked, the cost had rocketed. To be on the safe side, I paid £548 for a new booking, but kept my original one open as I was sure the second would prove to be a mistake. Sure enough, Avis agreed that I could simply amend the original booking and refunded the £548.
The holiday went ahead, but in October 2014 I received a letter from Avis saying they had erroneously refunded “part” of my booking and would deduct £515.47 from my card. Once again, it admitted an error and I contacted MasterCard and placed the £515.47 as a disputed payment.
When I next contacted Avis I was told they would now only refund £268.12 as the cost of my rental has been deemed to be more than the original booking. I do not understand why this is the case (surely the point of air/car hire partnerships is that the two link up). And why is Avis able to increase the cost a year after I booked it and then debit an arbitrary sum from my credit card? JS, Cupar, Fife
Avis seems curiously reluctant to admit any wrongdoing. “Avis can confirm that original booking fees will be honoured if there is a change to a partner airline’s scheduled flight times but the date remains the same,” says a spokesperson. “We apologise if JS was told otherwise.” This half apology suggests a single, possibly imaginary, miscommunication and ignores the fact that you were refunded the erroneously charged sum, then relieved of it a second time, then promised a second refund and then told you were only entitled to half. The press office declines to elaborate, but the main thing is that this month Avis has graciously confirmed that it will only charge you for the original booking and has finally refunded you the money –for the time being, anyway.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
