My partner and I paid £767 for holiday flights to Japan through Opodo. When we tried to check in for our flight home we were informed Opodo had cancelled our reservation weeks before, despite having sent an email two days earlier reminding us of our “confirmed” booking. Flight details were still showing in the app.
Opodo confirmed, via its web chat, that our booking had, indeed, been cancelled. The agent refused to book us on an alternative flight home, leaving us stranded at Osaka airport. We had to buy new tickets at a cost of £1,100.
Opodo has since admitted the mistake and refunded our initial tickets, but refuses to cover any of the additional costs. As it is not registered with any redress schemes, it seems our only option is to take it to court.
JC, Nottingham
Your ordeal is a warning: there is less consumer protection if you book flights through third-party platforms, and you should read my past pieces on Opodo before you book with it.
Third-party fares may look like bargains, but, crucially, they break the connection between you and the airline, leaving you in limbo if things go wrong. And, as you found, it appears that Opodo does not spend much on customer service.
Your web chat makes me despair. It was left to you to find another flight home on Opodo’s website but it refused to book you on it at its own expense because the seats were “a different class”.
As you were stuck with your luggage at the airport it told you, blithely, that it would take 72 hours to confirm whether it would refund you if you bought the tickets from its own website. On top of that, you incurred over £100 expenses while awaiting a new flight the next day.
Only after I rattled Opodo’s cage did it “apologise unequivocally” and blame a “rare human error” which removed your return flight. That didn’t prevent it appearing as confirmed on the electronic ticket and subsequent notifications. A month after the event, it told me it was escalating your case to ensure “corrective action”. This turned to be a refund of the £1,100 ticket, on top of the original booking refund which had already been processed.
Opodo’s complaints procedure tells you all you need to know. While other companies publish contact details and information on how to escalate complaints, only towards the bottom of its terms and conditions does it direct dissatisfied customers to post a letter to an address in Madrid, and warn that any legal action will be under the jurisdiction of a court in Barcelona.
Email your.problems@observer.co.uk. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions
