My complaint:
In June 2021, I booked a return flight to and from London to Lisbon. The return flight was with TAP airline and I paid £34676 for the tickets. Almost immediately after booking the trip. Portugal was declared a red country and I was unable to make the trip for COVID reasons. Despite having to defer my trip to comply with UK Govt regulations, when I made enquiries to Opodo, I was told that I was not eligible for a refund – supposedly advised by TAP – and to add insult to injury I had to pay a further £130.00, to make changes to travel in May this year. My requested flight to Lisbon was made by phone to an Opodo agent and I asked to travel on the 11,20 TAP flight from London Heathrow to Lisbon on 5 May 2022. The return trip was booked for 8 May travelling back to London Heathrow. Friends and family joining me, then made separate bookings to arrive in Lisbon at the same time on 5 May, travelling from different UK airports. In mid March one of my friends who had booked the same flights as me, advised me that she had been informed that the outbound 11.20 departure had been cancelled and had Ineen advised of this. I said no, I had not Ben advised of that and it was at this point that I discovered that the Opodo agent(Sahib) had booked me on the wrong flight. He had booked me on the 06,00 hours departure and not the 11,20 flight which I had specifically requested. I phoned Opodo on March 17 and spoke to someone called Khyati, explaining all of the above. I said that I wanted to be put on the 11.20 flight as originally requested many months ago AND THAT I EXPECTEDTHIS TO BE DONE WITHOUT ANY CHARG WHATSOEVER, SINCETHE ERROR WAS MADE BY OPODO.Khyati said this would be looked into by the. ‘Back-end’ team and that I would be contacted within 3 days. I was not contacted by Opodo, until I phoned them again on 4 April 2022, when I had returned from an overseas trip. On my 4 April call, I first spoke to someone called Mandeep, he put me through to someone called Kalesh (allegedly in the senior team), who then put me through to someone (female) called Nicky, in the change team. I explained the situation numerous times and Nicky said she understood the problem, she would raise the query with the airline and ‘someone’ would get back to me within 3 days. When I had heard nothing by today – some 5 days later- I spoke to Khyati again. She tole me that Opodo had closed my enquiry of 18 March, because the airline had not responded to Opodo’s query. Nobody at Opodo bothered to tell me that, nor clearly did they raise the still unresolved issue with TAP again……. What kind of Customer Service is this, when I clearly am the only one trying to get this matter sorted. Khyati told me that she is raising this as a priority issue and that I will hear from Opodo by end of day on Monday 11 April. I have no confidence whatsoever that this matter will be satisfactorily resolved by end of day on April 11, given the exceptionally poor service that I have received from Opodo. I question also whether I really was not eligible for a refund when my original June 2021 flights had to be cancelled. Most airlines that I am aware of offered refunds when people could not travel due to travel being prohibited. It is less than 4 weeks before I am due to travel and I cannot yet tell my friends whether or not I will be on the 11.20 outbound departure from London Heathrow, to Lisbon, as originally requested……. without a further charge. My friend who is due to travel on the same 11.20 outbound flight and the correct inbound flight with me paid approx £97 for her return flight. My 2 sisters flying from another UK airport paid around the same. My costs for this trip are £477.76 and I am not even booked on the correct flight. This is wholly unsatisfactory customer service from Opodo. I logged a complain last June ( Ref no: 2303251) under my original booking reference: 7145508957and as far as I am concerned the matter is still unresolved. Despite asking several requests I have been unable to speak to a manager who has some authority to sort this matter out.
Suggested solution:
If I can be booked on the TAP 11,20 departure from London Heathrow to Lisbon on 5 May 2022 - without any charge for the change - I will accept that. I have spent many hours constantly trying to get this matter sorted and have spoken to numerous Opodo staff.
If the above cannot be affected and written ation of this is not received by me by end of day on MONDAY 11 APRIL, I expect the flights to be cancelled and I require full reimbursement to all monies paid, given the most dreadful customer service by Opodo.
