Unsure if I have flights booked or not!

[rogdmum]

I’m in a bit of a crazy travel situation. We’d booked flights to Orlando for this summer with Lastminute.com. These were cancelled by the airline last week so we’re going through the refund process. Last minute.com didn’t have a suitable alternative at a reasonable price but I found (actually better though a bit more expensive) flights on Opodo with Aer Lingus.

I received flight confirmation direct from Aer Lingus the next morning and was able to go into my bookings and select seats for the outward journey- ie everything looked fine. A few hours later, I received an email from Opodo saying they had been unable to process my booking and so it was cancelled but not to worry as no money had been taken from my bank/card.

I phoned Opodo who were actually good at trying to help. They tried to speak to Aer Lingus to find out if I did have a booking, but Aer Lingus wouldn’t speak to them and said I needed to phone.

So I phoned Aer Lingus who said everything was fine and I did have flights booked.

At this point, the transaction was showing as pending on my credit card.

Yesterday, I checked my credit card and the transaction has completely disappeared. There is no charge for the flights showing at all. Not pending. Not completed. It’s just not there.

I can still see my booking on the Aer Lingus website and Aer Lingus are unable to tell me if it has been paid, but say the flights are booked.

Now I’m worried that Aer Lingus will realise I haven’t paid for the flights and they will be cancelled on me at some point in the next couple of months! I couldn’t get Aer Lingus to understand this concern as they just kept saying my booking looked fine at their end.

Now what? Does anyone know if there is a way for me to escalate this within Aer Lingus to make sure the flights are paid and the booking is not cancelled?

And Opodo are still sending daily updates about my non existent booking suggesting that I might want to add car hire etc!

(Which is irrelevant, but bizarre nonetheless for a non existent booking)

Serial posting.

Just phoned Aer Lingus again and this time they told me the booking would not have been confirmed at their end unless Aer Lingus had revived payment from Opodo and that Aer Lingus would not now cancel it on be between now and the departure date as they have received payment from Opodo. And there’s no email address that I can email to get this confirmed in writing by them!

How weird! Can you speak to your credit card company and check with them what they think is happening with the payment?

That’s a good idea- they are the one bit I haven’t spoken to. 😂

Check your credit card again - I had something similar with Lufthansa - was pending then disappear - phone call to them then went back on my credit card.

I think I saw some one have a similar problem on the 'it's Orlando time' Facebook page recently with Aer Lingus. May be worth joining and searching or asking there!

I would also suggest you contact your credit card company re this payment.

BTW Opodo are now based in Spain so they are not a part of the ATOL scheme designed to protect UK based holidaymakers. For future reference therefore I would suggest you book with the airline directly.

As LoudingVoice suggests, speak to who ever is responsible for payment and explain because of the situation you are in you need written confirmation.

Thanks, the credit card line opens at 9:00 apparently so will try then and report back.

I have a long long history of problems with flights- usually they are cancelled while I am actually on the holiday so I’m hoping this means once this is sorted, it there will be no further issues. 😁

I had this issue direct with Virgin

I changed my flight and had to pay an additional £1k, using the secure link the sent me. Booking confirmed I went on site and picked my new seats etc, all looked good. Payment showing pending

1 month later they sent message saying payment had been declined and I should contact my bank, who after an hour of waiting to get through, said no payment has been requested or declined

Virgin also said I had 14 days to pay or they were cancelling the flights

After speaking to Virgin I paid the outstanding £1k and got proper automated confirmation back that I didn’t get last time. I've no idea what happened to the original payment that never went through

rogdmum if they are missing your cash I’d expect them to eventually get in touch like virgin did with me a month later, hopefully it won’t mess up your booking

OK, spoke to the credit card company and they say Opodo reversed the transaction at midnight on the 14th so I need to go back to Opodo!

I would be tempted to rebook directly!

I’m mulling that over.

I now can’t get through to Opodo as the number I used last week now says they are only dealing with bookings prior to my date and so got cut off. Their chat bot is useless. Sent me to an online form to complete which isn’t working.

I’m going to leave it for now and maybe phone Aer Lingus again next week to see if I’d be better off cancelling this booking with them and rebooking direct. I just don’t know if that will further complicate things!

I'd personally contact Aer Lingus next week and try and book direct with them

I’ve found an email address for Aer Lingus and have emailed them to explain. I’ll see what they come back to say.

I did some Googling and I’m not the only one this has happened to. What seems to happen is that the passengers don’t query it (surely they noticed a lack of charges to their credit card/bank account…) and turned up to check in at the airport to be told by the airline that Opodo or whoever hadn’t paid the airline and they didn’t have a booking.

The oddest bit is that I have a full receipt from Aer Lingus which shows the air fares and checked baggage price and grand total. So a receipt for something I haven’t (yet) paid for!

Very strange

Yeah with my Virgin flight my booking had changed, I could pick my seat and order my food but no payment had actually been taken. This was through their own payment system as well

Was only aware a month later when they threatened to cancel my booking if I didn’t pay what I thought I’d already paid

At least I know I haven’t yet paid! I’m going to see if Aer Lingus would just take payment direct from me. I don’t want to confuse things by cancelling the flights before I hear back from them.

Serial posting again. I phoned Aer Lingus to see if I could just pay direct to them and was told there was no way to do that as there is nothing to pay. He said that he can see on my booking that they received payment from Opodo.

I have emailed though, will see what they come back with.

This is really quite mad.

A bit too late OP, but never again use those shisters Opodo. I did and I’ve had no refund (that was unlikely anyway) nor a voucher two years on.
Fucking abysmal. They don't give a shit, didn’t want to honour the travel insurance I took out with them, difficult to communicate with - just awful.

If there are no tickets on the booking then it’s not confirmed. Have you got ticket numbers?

Are Lingus can’t take payment on the agents booking. You will need to book again. Opodo need to realise any space they have as it will cause problems as a duplicate if you rebook with Aer Lingus.

My advice is to stop using these online agents (last minute, opodo). They generally aren’t very helpful when things go wrong, book direct and your luck will change. However if you do use these agents then don’t ring the airline direct, everything should go through the agent. You are confusing things yourself. Opodo told you it was cancelled, you should have believed them as they haven’t accepted your payment so there will be no booking.

Yes, I have ticket numbers from Aer Lingus. I can go onto My Booking, and have, for example, selected seats for the outward journeys.

Opodo auto message says with my booking I have to speak to the airline direct as it is a low cost airline. The only time I have managed to get through to Opodo on the phone., the agent did try to help and contacted Aer Lingus who refused to speak to him and said they would only speak to me (confirmed that this is policy when I spoke to Aer Lingus).

I’ve had just as many problems in the past booking direct with airlines so I’m really not fussed about booking direct vs not direct.

I also have a receipt from Aer Lingus that says my tickets have been paid.

Aer Lingus are not a low cost carrier, they are a full service airline. What are the first 3 digits of your ticket number? Opodo may have voided the tickets so they can’t be travelled on if they have reversed the payment. I doubt very much the call centre staff at Aer Lingus know the booking has been paid, that’s generally not something visible to call centre staff and takes weeks in real terms for anyone else to see it.

I know they aren’t a low cost airline. I’m just repeating what the auto message says.

The first three digits are 053 which is the same as the last time I flew with Aer Lingus (2018 and booked directly with them),