BestJet in Administration

[Quickstatus]

Anchorage capital actually knew exactly and actually engineered an accounting trick to make to books look great and disappeared with $500mil for an initial investment of $10mil cash.

 

[moa999]

Statements that the new owner didn't have access to the accounting system, and the email sent by seemingly the former owners, makes it all very weird.

 

[oz_mark]

Statements that the new owner didn't have access to the accounting system, and the email sent by seemingly the former owners, makes it all very weird.

I all makes you wonder what he thought he was buying...

 

[Major]

I all makes you wonder what he thought he was buying...

Agree. There is a lot more to this story

 

[cvmceg]

I have a trans tasman trip booked 13th Aug, e ticket received 14th Aug. For travel March 2019.

Will call air NZ...

UPDATE: Went to 'manage booking' on airnz online. booking is there.

Seems promising, but based on reports I will still need to call to check!

Sorry to those who got caught

Update:
Called airnz and asked the friendly call centre person to check if the booking, from AirNZ perspective, looked fine. "Yes"
I followed up and asked if it had definitely been paid for. "Yep, looks fine"

I enquired about whether I was able to change the flights at all "Unfortunately not, because bestjet are the authorised agent on this they would have to request changes/cancellations etc."

I followed up and asked if there is any change/scope to this policy if the authorised agent no longer exists and are out of business. - "Let me check, I'll put you on hold"

"Support have told me that because Bestjet are no longer in business [She actually said 'banned' but I think this was just because she wasn't already aware of the situation] we can change it so that you are now the authorised manager of the booking and can make changes etc, we just need your email and phone number"

I said great and am now in charge of the booking - great result as we probably need to change times of our flights.

 

[tfly]

I Unfortunately booked with Best Jet for next week as I normally trust Sky Scanner but failed to read reviews about Best Jet until after when my Eticket wasn't issued in a timely manner.... Called Singapore Airlines today again to confirmed everything and they assured me there was nothing I needed to worry about as my booking was made before November 1st. It seems Singapore Airlines is aware of this all and I am praying Best Jet cannot cancel any more bookings.

 

[TonyHancock]

It is all rather complicated. Bestjet used a third party, CVFR, for booking with some airlines, and it is that company that appears to be canceling confirmed bookings. (The presumption is that CVFR has not been paid by Bestjet so is canceling the bookings because they are owed money by Bestjet.)

The whole scenario is further complicated by Bestjet's associated company Wynyard. All of these businesses had/have different IATA numbers. As a rule of thumb the Wynyard IATA number on your e-ticket is probably a good thing, a CVFR IATA number is probably a bad thing, and who knows about a Bestjet IATA number? When the booking was made and when the trip starts are also factors.

If your e-ticket took more than 48 hours to be issued that may be a bad thing, if it was issued immediately that is probably a good thing. Do not take this as a guarantee though and keep checking your reservation with the airline!

There is so much that is still unknown I don't presume that this is all correct but a pattern is emerging.

 

[Revenge]

Unfortunately my wife and I have been stung as well.

Here are the facts:

• On 4 December, used Bestjet to book CX premium economy tickets BNE-HKG-LHR//FRA-HKG-BNE, about $5500 worth.
• (BestJet came up about $400 cheaper than CX website. Was going to book with CX direct and request a price match from CX based on their best price guarantee, but the site was glitchy that day and didn't allow me to get past the seat selection screen, and I didn't want to wait because sale fares were about to finish. So I decided to go with BestJet.)
• BestJet says that they can take up to 72 hours to issue eTicket and to contact them if you do not receive eTicket. T&C's say that reservation is not confirmed until eticket is issued.
• Booking appears on Manage My Booking on CX website but with a note that it has not been paid for and may be cancelled if eticket payment is not received.
• On 8 December I emailed bestJet because I still hadn't received my eTicket. No response.
• On 10 December I email again. "You have taken payment almost one week ago and have not yet confirmed my reservation." No response.
• On 10 December I also called up. After 90 minutes on hold, and a queue of 58 callers finally talked to someone. He said there was a backlog due to Christmas and January bookings and that my booking is at the front of the queue, and an eticket will be sent within 24 to 48 hours.
• On 13 December, still no etickets. I tried calling again. Was on hold for over an hour and the call dropped out. Emailed again.
• Decided to take to social media and contacted BestJet on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The facebook message resulted in a response and my e tickets were finally issued. (13 December). I thought everything was now OK.
• On 24 December I head about BestJet going into administration. Called CX to find out if my booking was valid. They said they have refunded BestJet, so if I want to keep my reservation I need to pay again. They offer to hold the booking for me for a few weeks to allow me to sort out payment. They honour the original price from 4 December (though obviously the more expensive rate from CX website, not the BestJet rate). Initiated a charge back with CBA same day, hoping it goes through.
• I also checked my travel insurance policy (the free travel insurance that you get with CBA Diamond Mastercard). It excludes losses due to providers going bust!

I would be interested in hearing if if and when anyone else's credit card chargeback requests have been successful.

UPDATE:

My chargeback via CBA has come through. Thank goodness for credit cards!!

 

[Rosege]

One thing people should keep in mind with chargebacks is that you can only do a chargeback within 6 months. So you might not want to book flights with OTAs further out than that if they aren't paying for them until you fly.

 

[The Flying Brick]

We got stung. Return to LAX in July next year. Booked at the end of Nov. Called VA - Cancelled. Got the eticket back in Nov but apparently this means nothing, since as a previous comment indicated, VA actually doesn't receive the money from the intermediary until the flight occurs. I think this is IATA or CVFR. They act as a sort of Escrow or something...
Just called QBE, who we organised travel insurance through, and of course... they don't cover when the travel company goes belly up! Only if the company you work for goes into insolvency.
We did a direct money transfer to pay for the ticket, so have submitted a trace and refund request to the bank to see if the transaction can be reversed, but this may take up to 6 weeks to get an indication of being successful or not...

Sorry to hear that you got stung too.

I’m interested to hea of your response from QBE though as they are one of the few Travel Insurace providers who do provide cover for financial default of Travel Agents in some (but not all) of their insurance at Section I in their policy document fo up to $10k.

My annual multi trip policy includes this cover although I’ve fortunately never had to try and use it but as I read it all their policies other than the ‘bare essentials polcy’ Include this cover.

It could be worth looking this up and pursuing QBE as the policy wording is quite clear and should be honoured.

 

[Carrots]

Sorry to hear that you got stung too.

I’m interested to hea of your response from QBE though as they are one of the few Travel Insurace providers who do provide cover for financial default of Travel Agents in some (but not all) of their insurance at Section I in their policy document fo up to $10k.

My annual multi trip policy includes this cover although I’ve fortunately never had to try and use it but as I read it all their policies other than the ‘bare essentials polcy’ Include this cover.

It could be worth looking this up and pursuing QBE as the policy wording is quite clear and should be honoured.

From memory Bestjet wasn't on the approved list of agents that QBE will honour a Financial Default claim for (must admit been a while since I looked at it).

One of the better covers going around is the QBE Corporate Travel cover. If you have an ABN, this policy is hands down the way to go IMO. $25k of cover for insolvency and no limited list of agents.

 

[theblank]

I just had a look at my favourite travel insurance cover of the moment - ALLIANZ via ANZ Premium Cards.
https://www.anz.com.au/content/dam/anzcomau/documents/pdf/premium-cards-insurances.pdf

It seems there is NO cover for the cancelled flights. The cover they have is:

If you have to cancel any pre-paid travel arrangements due to any unforeseen or unforeseeable circumstances outside of your control

The event outside of your control is the Bestjest insolvency, so you are covered for any losses due to the required cancelling of any travel arrangements subsquent to the cancelled flight but not the flight itself. Thats how I read it.

 

[Carrots]

I just had a look at my favourite travel insurance cover of the moment - ALLIANZ via ANZ Premium Cards.
https://www.anz.com.au/content/dam/anzcomau/documents/pdf/premium-cards-insurances.pdf

It seems there is NO cover for the cancelled flights. The cover they have is:

If you have to cancel any pre-paid travel arrangements due to any unforeseen or unforeseeable circumstances outside of your control

The event outside of your control is the Bestjest insolvency, so you are covered for any losses due to the required cancelling of any travel arrangements subsquent to the cancelled flight but not the flight itself. Thats how I read it.

I hate to be a party pooper.

General Exclusions, Page 36 - 25. the financial default of any person, company or organisation involved in your travel arrangements.

 

[theblank]

I hate to be a party pooper.
General Exclusions, Page 36 - 25. the financial default of any person, company or organisation involved in your travel arrangements.

Thanks for that! I did read through for the exclusions, but I must have got bored by the time i got to the end.

My wife has a different scenario than any other I have observed here. She booked a flight in May for travel in September.
Finds out that a Chinese Airline (one of them) had cancelled their service into BNE, so was offered to fly out of Sydney instead, But the missus didnt want that option so Bestjet said they will refund it "when they get the money back from the airline" Of course she hasnt got her money back, she has a couple of emails saying 'waiting for the refund from the airline' and then they stopped responding (of course now she knows why)

Anyway I got her to ring AMEX and ask for a refund due to non provision of service and like many others have experienced, AMEX said "is it Bestjet" and they have commenced with the chargeback process.

Yes I know its outside the usual timeframe of 6 months, we will see what happens.

 

[The Flying Brick]

From memory Bestjet wasn't on the approved list of agents that QBE will honour a Financial Default claim for (must admit been a while since I looked at it).

One of the better covers going around is the QBE Corporate Travel cover. If you have an ABN, this policy is hands down the way to go IMO. $25k of cover for insolvency and no limited list of agents.

Actually, there are two paragraphs in that section of the QBE policy.

One deals with default by travel agents and travel providers, while the 2nd para deals with approved wholesalers ( not retailers) for which a list is provided.

If it was me I would have a written claim lodged today.

 

[Spongbob]

My last QBE policy at Section 4 (14) stated the policy covers: “The insolvency or financial default of scheduled service airlines, hotel and resort operators, car and campervan hire companies, cruise lines, railways operators and theme park operators excluding travel agents. Cover is limited to $10,000.”

So I assume the BestJet situation would not have been covered.

 

[The Flying Brick]

Here’s the relevant section from my current QBE policy.

Includes Travel Agents default.

 

[theblank]

Bestjet is not a registered travel agent, so the insurer may not pay up.

 

[Revenge]

Bestjet is not a registered travel agent, so the insurer may not pay up.

I don't think there is such a thing as a registered travel agent. Travel agents don't need registration or licencing to operate. According to the AFTA website, "the Australian Government's Travel Industry Transition Plan 2012 calls for a voluntary industry-led accreditation scheme." It is true that they were not ATAS accredited by AFTA but the clause above just says travel agent, not narrowing that down to accreditated travel agents.

 

[drron]

And as noted in the Luxury Escapes thread if an ATAS accredited TA goes under AFTA immediately ejects them from ATAS accreditation