My complaint:
I purchased a student ticket thinking it was at a discounted price for ANY student from ANY country. It did not state that I have to be a student studying abroad at the booking destination. I thought I needed the documents such as a letter of admission from my current university and my student ID card in my origin country to PROVE that I am a student to be eligible for a student-discounted ticket.
The website was misleading. There were no specific details as to what to find in a student in terms of the flight travel arrangements. The website only mentioned student discount without defining what constitutes the student. Accordingly, there is no specific term, excluding myself to travel on that ticket. The regulations of the airline and the laws of the country have no bearing to the agreement of purchasing a ticket to Trip.com. The terms and conditions were not displayed and they have breached contract.
Since I do not have a student visa and do not intend on applying for one as I am only going there for holiday purposes, I have tried calling Trip.com and Phillipines Airlines back and fourth for a request to change my ticket from a student ticket to a regular adult ticket but they were not able to do that due to “airline regulations”.
Trip.com should have provided more information on who exactly is eligible for student tickets, because I myself am a student in my country, but not a student who is going to study or work abroad at the booking destination. They have only stated “This ticket is only available for students” and I thought I was eligible for one. I have decided to edit their screenshot and send it to them for them to send to the IT department to make changes to this information so that it is more detailed and makes more sense.
The website must clearly contain all the terms and conditions. If anything is mist or term is ambiguous, you cannot change or make the term more specific after the contract has been entered into. Clearly, this is misleading, and you are now in breach of contract.
Now I need to pay an extra fee of $199.20 for the cancellation of this ticket and look for a regular ticket, but I find this highly unfair and do not deserve to pay this fee as the information stated on the website was misleading and caused a misunderstanding in purchasing the ticket. Please refund the cancellation fee immediately, or further action will be taken.
Can you please try and follow them up to refund my cancellation fee as well please? I would highly appreciate it and it will be something I will always remember.
Suggested solution:
Refund me my $199.20 since I have already requested a refund with this undeserved fee.
