EPTMaybe this blogpost will be interesting for you guys. I also seek for some idea support or at lest "like/retweet support" as this really help to solve the matter in customer's favour sometimes.
WTF?
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I have purchased the tickets from Moscow (Russia) to Cancun (Mexico) at 21st of May via Budgetair.ru (Flugladen.de affiliate).
The price-recommended flight was Moscow - London by Aeroflot with following London - NY - Cancun by AA (two stops in total). Flight at 1st of June.
Please note neither cancelation information nor visa information was provided from Flugladen.de or AA prior to purchase.
Right after the purchase I received an e-mail stating that I have to obtain visa waiver for a flight via USA. Moscow embassy advised, that only EU citizens are eligible for visa waivers. Russians should only apply for general visa. Yet it remained impossible to obtain visa during such a short time.
When I asked for cancellation Flugladen.de advised that
1st: all tickets are non-refundable (it was stated in the rules of the website),
2nd: they are in no way responsible for visa issues (visa waiver statement was only “informative” and should have been checked up prior to ticket purchasing)
3rd: cancellation issue will only be handled upon visa denial letter to be provided.
However for me it is questionable
1st - the rules state that tickets may be non-refundable with no information for these particular tickets
2nd - being a long-term player on the market Flugladen.de should have the information regarding visas, otherwise they would not mention visa waiver either
3rd - Flugladen.de knew that neither visa issuance process nor visa denial letter is possible to obtain in a week prior to departure. Moreover my visa was not denied in fact. The time was just not enough to obtain it (not to mention US holiday at 27th of May).
This resulted me a net loss of US$3500 for tickets, and gross loss of US$4,500 (tax included) as I have to pay the loss from tax-exempted profit*.
*I asked Flugladen.de for supportive documents required for Russian accounting system to register the expense as loss in terms of accounting. Got ignored for a week. Thus I had to pay from taxed profit.
The price-recommended flight was Moscow - London by Aeroflot with following London - NY - Cancun by AA (two stops in total). Flight at 1st of June.
Please note neither cancelation information nor visa information was provided from Flugladen.de or AA prior to purchase.
Right after the purchase I received an e-mail stating that I have to obtain visa waiver for a flight via USA. Moscow embassy advised, that only EU citizens are eligible for visa waivers. Russians should only apply for general visa. Yet it remained impossible to obtain visa during such a short time.
When I asked for cancellation Flugladen.de advised that
1st: all tickets are non-refundable (it was stated in the rules of the website),
2nd: they are in no way responsible for visa issues (visa waiver statement was only “informative” and should have been checked up prior to ticket purchasing)
3rd: cancellation issue will only be handled upon visa denial letter to be provided.
However for me it is questionable
1st - the rules state that tickets may be non-refundable with no information for these particular tickets
2nd - being a long-term player on the market Flugladen.de should have the information regarding visas, otherwise they would not mention visa waiver either
3rd - Flugladen.de knew that neither visa issuance process nor visa denial letter is possible to obtain in a week prior to departure. Moreover my visa was not denied in fact. The time was just not enough to obtain it (not to mention US holiday at 27th of May).
This resulted me a net loss of US$3500 for tickets, and gross loss of US$4,500 (tax included) as I have to pay the loss from tax-exempted profit*.
*I asked Flugladen.de for supportive documents required for Russian accounting system to register the expense as loss in terms of accounting. Got ignored for a week. Thus I had to pay from taxed profit.
I will be thankful for your retweets/likes.
https://twitter.com/Rus_Brain
https://www.facebook.com/Flugladen.de#
Posted at Flugladen.de and AA.
Flugladen.de keeps ignoring. Looks like this is their normal business practise. Utmost good faith?
AA started with just "sorries" and no particular help, but with my question should I treat them as witness or litigant got disturbed and requested additional info. Promised to try to help afterwards.
