Name Correction Fees with The Travel Agent Passing Fees to Me from Another Agency

Lzrorz on 03/01/2018 - 13:25
Last edited 03/01/2018 - 15:17 by 1 other user

I dont know if this is the right place to ask

I booked a flight to Philippines through a travel agency (AGENCY A), they are a local agency that has a branch here in Melbourne and one in Manila. My travel group also booked with them for the flights. I had an issue with my ticket as they booked it with a text message that I sent that had a missing letter in the first name. I know that this has extra fees from the airline to correct. My travel agent did not ask for a passport photocopy or numbers, just a verbal and text message stating the full name and DOB. My bad luck was my phone auto-corrected my name and decided to take a single letter out in the SMS.

Later I found that my name was missing the single letter and I queried about the name amendment. They sent me a screen print of an email thread between my travel agency (AGENCY A) and another travel agency (AGENCY B). The airline I was booked with was Royal Brunei, I contacted them directly stating the issue of the incorrect name, they said they cannot change it or alter it since it is the responsibility of the travel agency who sold it. Now, all my dealings and receipts/invoices so far has been with AGENCY A, I have not heard of AGENCY B.

AGENCY A quoted me $150 name correction fee on behalf of Royal Brunei, which I was expecting but they are forcing me to pay an extra $140 fee from AGENCY B's administration fee. I have never heard of AGENCY B or dealt with them. I am now confused as to why would AGENCY A use AGENCY B to book my flight, what was the point of me dealing with a travel agency (AGENCY A) if they are going to just use another travel agent (AGENCY B). They are now ignoring me since I pressed the issue that it was AGENCY A's decision to use a third party AGENCY B to book my flight, I was under the assumption that AGENCY A was a travel agent booking directly with the airline.

Is this all just my fault and I would just have to pay all the fees or does AGENCY A have to pay the admin fee to AGENCY B since it was them who decided to outsource?

P.S AGENCY A made sure to tell me multiple times that they were not a travel broker but a full fledged travel agency with the direct flight booking software to multiple airlines directly.

UPDATE 15:16 I still cant fix it since AGENCY A is now uncontactable again, calls are being ignored, i tried AGENCY B directly and i cant do the name fix since its tied to AGENCY A's name and emails. FML

Poll Options expired

• 10
  I pay the name change and AGENCY A pays the Admin fee for AGENCY B
• 3
  I pay both name change and admin fee to AGENCY B

• 

  Yttrium on 03/01/2018 - 14:15

  +3

  Can't you spell your own name ?

  • 

    zrorz on 03/01/2018 - 15:05

    unfortunately my first name is constantly autocorrected, i just typed it here and it underscored it red. i tried on my phone and it removed the extra L.

    • 

      Nutrino on 03/01/2018 - 17:05

      +1

      Lloyd! is that you??… you from Austria?…

• 

  jsb on 03/01/2018 - 14:19

  +2

  Do you have any terms and conditions where name change charges are mentioned? It looks to me that they can simply ask $290 for name change without telling you about agency b.

  • 

    zrorz on 03/01/2018 - 15:04

    They sent me a screenshot of the emails back and forth between them and AGENCY B, they could have just simply told me pay up $290 for the correction and i would have been none the wiser but the fact that they decided to use my information without my consent to another company which i do not know about.

    With booking flights i know that my details will be used by my travel agent (AGENCY A) and the airline (royal brunei) i did not consent to anyone else to use it on my behalf.

• 

  Ryanek on 03/01/2018 - 15:08

  +2

  Bare with me… but you should pay both. We don't know the full reason Agency A used another agency to make the booking, but for all you know it was to secure you a cheaper fare. Agency B could be a B2B wholesaling system that secures better deals.

  Both Agency A and B need to charge for name changes. You may be wondering why is it so expensive? Part of it is to dissuade people from booking under wrong names on purpose. It's to avoid situations where people buy cheap tickets in bulk and effectively scalp it at a higher cost closer to the flight.

  Unfortunately you made the mistake here so there isn't much recourse. You are bound by their T&C which probably states that you incur all charges.

  • 

    zrorz on 03/01/2018 - 15:14

    The agency A was picked by my party because it was for a wedding, they wanted the agency which is run by the bride's blood family member to organize everything so everyone ends up at the same place at the same time. I should have known to use a reputable one instead of following suit. the price was not cheaper, it was actually more expensive than if i would have booked with STA/student flights/ flight centre.

    Also my details were passed on to another travel agency without my knowledge and on top of that the ticket is locked to AGENCY A's name and email.

• 

  Broke-Ken on 03/01/2018 - 15:13

  Easy, it was your mistake so pay for both fees.

  Next, never use agency A ever again.

  Why not do research online and then book directly with the airline that provides the flight and price you are happy with?

  • 

    zrorz on 03/01/2018 - 15:14

    The agency A was picked by my party because it was for a wedding, they wanted the agency which is run by the bride's blood family member to organize everything so everyone ends up at the same place at the same time. I should have known to use a reputable one instead of following suit. the price was not cheaper, it was actually more expensive than if i would have booked with STA/student flights/ flight centre.

    • 

      Quantumcat on 03/01/2018 - 15:20

      Can't the bride use her influence to get them to not charge you the name change fee?

      • 

        zrorz on 03/01/2018 - 15:22

        The agent was supposed to show up at a rehearsal a few hours ago but never showed, the bride tried calling her but it goes to voicemail.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 04/01/2018 - 10:11

      they wanted the agency which is run by the bride's blood family member to organize everything

      they wanted the person from that agency to make lots of money so they would buy a heaps better wedding present.

• 

  capslock on 03/01/2018 - 17:30

  Hope that agency A goes out of business so you can then claim a chargeback on your credit card assuming you paid by credit card. You can then start again.