any travel agents care to advise me please?

[1dilemma]

I'll try and keep this brief and spare the details!
We have booked a flight that we now can't take. As far as we are concerned when we booked it it was refundable, movable and cancellable, the website simply says you must telephone to find out the conditions for your ticket.
We have phoned and asked to move the ticket, we wish to move it by 4 months, the travel agent says we can only move it by 12 days (there is of course no availability in those 12 days) first they said the airline rules prevented them from moving the ticket now they are quoting 'seasonality' at us as the reason why it can't be moved.
I phoned the airline and they said you can move it to whenever you want within the next year, (if it is more expensive you pay more if cheaper no refund-we are happy with that). However the travel agent still say it can't be moved outside those 12 days. I have asked both agent and airline to talk to each other, we doubt whether the agent will bother and the airline sent me a 'non-reply' to my email (a 'non-reply' = something that doesn't address the question eg 'please can you tell the agent what you've just told me?' the non-reply was 'I can confirm that since you have not left yet you would need to change ticket with travel agent'!!!!)
They are ABTA/ATOL whatever else.
So any suggestions as to what I do next?
Thanks for reading this far

Did you book only a flight or a flight with accommodation?

TBH your contract is with the agent, who in turn has a contract with the airline. It works differently if you booked direct with the airline as your contract is with them.

I would say moving it 4 months is unrealistic.

Holiday insurance should cover your costs if you need to cancel and re-book.

Thanks
we booked just flight
don't have to rebook just want to (iyswim) why is 4 months unrealistic? just curious we want to move from Dec to Easter
DO you know what this 'seasonality' stuff is about? Airline is happy for us to move it anytime as long as we are back within 12 months and pay the difference if more expensive.

Shameless self bump!

Your bopking is with the agent not the airline.

Airlines have different T&C's for ticketing agents (who you booked with) than if you booked direct with the airline. The airline should tell you that.

If you book direct with an airline you are NOT covered by and ATOL or bond for example, as you are with your agent.

You are also so close to a December departure, that moving your travle dates sound a bit unreasonable IMHO.

Sorry but I can't help any more with out more details.

Ask to see a copy of the T&C's which should have been sent to you. Did you get anything when you booked?

Was it online?

If your tickets are fully-flex just go ahead and cancel them

It will be easier to rebook separately later

I kind of see your point about moving Inspector but we wish to move away from a popular pre Christmas departure to some random date in the middle of the year not related to anything, The airline should be paying us to move!!. Also if it is unreasonable to move why do they issue tickets with a 12 month validity? My Mother ended up having to move a flight by 1 year and had no trouble whatsoever.
Thanks for trying to help I can't believe there are so few travel agents here (I think they're all journalists)

As far as we thought (if you see what I mean ) we booked with these people because the flights were fully moveable and refundable, now that push comes to shove they are suddenly not moveable and only refundable after we pay about 30% for the pleasure, which multiplied by the number of us there are becomes a lot of money

We booked online.
Blonde if we ever manage to sort this out I will need a holiday!

FWIW I am not a travel agent, but have knowledge of the industry.

Sorry that you are having problems, I can understand your dissapointment. But are you now talking about a whole group of you wanting to change?

A friend of mine has booked her tickets for Aug next year direct with a red logo, long haul company and has had to pay the full amount upfront and there are cancellation and alteration restrictions to her flight tickets. This is booking direct with the airline.

As blond says, on the same flight there will be a difference between seats and each will have booking restrictions. If you look on bmi's website for example, you will see about fully-flex and non-flex tickets, (non-flex are much cheaper at time of booking with different booking conditions) all seats are on the same flight in the same cabin class.

Charter and schedule airlines keep an allocation for themselves and then provide the travel trade with the other seats. They will have different booking conditions for their ticketing agents, as I tried to explain.

You should always make sure you agree the T&C's of anything you book, and get a copy of the T&C's within a set time frame.

I am still interested to know who you booked with?

Will the insurance cough up?

Did the T&Cs that they sent you say it could only be moved by 12 days?

Its all very confusing isn't it The Bonde?

Wait till the £1 levy comes in.

Inspector no just the family but too much multliplied by some people is still too much espc. since Mummy and Daddy have to pay it all (obv.- but am more used to flying as groups of adults therefore if charges split equally now it's us we have to pay it all and it soon adds up especially since dhs blinking parents booked connecting tickets for us without asking and will no doubt be after the money for that too).
Blonde will have to talk/email some time we're moving because we want (ie need)to rather than we have a broken leg IYSWIM
It's confusing for us because airline and agent are saying polar opposite things and both blaming the other one!
We have asked them both for the contact details of their complaints dept, airline have instantly written back asking for datails of the problem to see if they can help, agent hasn't. Agent is difficult to get much sense out of they use a call centre which sounds like it's a a long way away. The agent is an on line one whose name begins with the 5th letter of the alphabet and doesn't end with the first! Airline prides itself on customer service.

Consumer direct might be worth calling DH found them helpful on some other stuff
www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

otherwise here is the ABTA code of conduct which they are supposed to comply with as a member
www.abta.com/download/codeofconduct.pdf