Fly365 - Gone!

[TheInsider]

So another online Travel Agent has gone under and this time another Australian company.

Online flight retailer Fly365 collapses leaving travellers out-of-pocket

A Melbourne couple has lost $11,500 after booking a Europe trip following a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

www.theage.com.au

...
Fly365 Pty Ltd is now in external administration, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
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A Melbourne couple had flights, worth $11,500 which were cancelled by the company but no money has been refunded.
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More than 260 aggrieved travellers have now joined a Facebook support group to discuss the collapse of the flight booking service.
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Another online flight retailer, BestJet, was put into liquidation at the end of 2018.
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Attempts were made to contact Fly365 directo The Age on Monday.
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Another victim is now working to get a refund issued through her bank ... The cost of rebooking her tickets is now an extra $300 per seat.
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Fly365 was only removed from their AFTA Travel Accreditation Scheme due to the company’s insolvency.
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"People need to ask really hard questions about why they would use a travel agency, when there's no protection for consumers and no protection for travel agencies." a source said.
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"AFTA does all that it can to monitor and review travel businesses who hold ATAS accreditation ... but on this occasion, unfortunately AFTA was not in a position to either provide advance support to the business prior to its failure or predict this outcome," an AFTA source said.
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"... while the liquidation process would run its course, a review of the travel scheme is now being undertaken, in particular how it applies to online travel agents."
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Fly365 was in operation for around four and half years. The company's website and social media pages had been taken down by Monday.
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Many of the travellers now left out of pocket were directed to Fly365 through the popular travel aggregator Skyscanner....

 

[ferntree]

The topic of pros/cons of using online booking sites to get cheaper flights comes up from time to time on this and other forums.

My view has always been that they can seem to offer bargain fares ... until something goes wrong.

To anybody thinking of booking thru a online web site, please, please read this:

Fly365: online flight booking firm goes into administration, leaving travellers out of pocket

Sydney-based company with links to collapsed firm Bestjet wipes website, leaving customers unsure how to recoup their money

www.theguardian.com

 

[moa999]

Discussed here

is fly365.com actually owned by certain airlines ?

Was looking online om skyscanner to see what sort of airfares would be looking at for a trip next year. Without naming names/routes, found one online travel agency, that seemed to be much cheaper, than anyone else, but only for 1 particular airline. It’s almost like one airline is having...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[SOPOOR]

damn, I narrowly missed it a headache!, a few weeks ago booked a flight via a different online travel agent, got shafted and got told tickets were never booked, so last minute booked fly365 and passenger flew a few days later

so scary

 

[SOPOOR]

from one of the articles,
"“ANZ said if I lodge a chargeback and the tickets are honoured the chargeback will fail and I would lose my $3600. If the tickets are honoured I wouldn’t need the chargeback. it’s like the ultimate Catch-22.”

surely this isnt correct???

 

[Pushka]

Thankyou to @TheInsider for posting this yesterday. Just checked with son and DIL who are flying to UK in September. These coughs took their cash and never ticketed the trip on Emirates. They are a young couple with a baby. Son and DIL were blissfully unaware so at least its given them time to do a chargeback and rebook.

coughs.

 

[levelnine]

It's a shame when these Australian travel agents go bust. One less website to use for Qantas' Price Promise.

 

[Pushka]

And they only booked on the 3rd February. Trading whilst insolvent. ASIC sucks.

 

[MH_fan]

Yikes! Bought some cheap J tickets on CI for the end of the year on Fly365. It looked like they hadn't gotten the airline to issue the tickets after my credit card was charged. After 2 weeks of waiting for the tickets to be issued, I got fed up with waiting and started to hassle them. Glad I did coz the tickets were issued a few days later and before Fly365 went into liquidation!

 

[Pushka]

Son has already lodged chargeback. They meet the criteria for ING refund so fingers crossed.

 

[Happy Dude]

There's a facebook group for affected customers needing support through the chargeback process too. Plenty of victims.

 

[Pushka]

There's a facebook group for affected customers needing support through the chargeback process too. Plenty of victims.

Thanks, just found it and pinged him the link.

 

[ozfflyer]

from one of the articles,
"“ANZ said if I lodge a chargeback and the tickets are honoured the chargeback will fail and I would lose my $3600. If the tickets are honoured I wouldn’t need the chargeback. it’s like the ultimate Catch-22.”

surely this isnt correct???

?
you can't get your money back & valid tickets

 

[Denali]

Co worker just found out about this - I found out he booked with them so got to break the news. (it came up because we were discussing SQ cancellations)

Asked him how much does he think he saved with booking with them originally and he said about $300. As a older couple I rather pay a bit more and deal with the airline direct.

Co worker lodging credit card chargeback.

 

[Pushka]

Co worker just found out about this - I found out he booked with them so got to break the news. (it came up because we were discussing SQ cancellations)

Asked him how much does he think he saved with booking with them originally and he said about $300. As a older couple I rather pay a bit more and deal with the airline direct.

Co worker lodging credit card chargeback.

I’m betting so many will only find out when they go to check in. The company issued all the invoices, the itinerary etc. Apparently on Friday where tickets had actually been issued, Fly cancelled them all, and retained the funds! The day of liquidation. What an act of incredible coughry! Why these people escape conviction and prison beggars belief.

Tell your coworker the FB mentioned by Happy Dude is extremely good and there is a poster there who works in the settlement section of a Bank, and who is advising people on how to handle this. And I think maybe one of the liquidators is posting too but not sure about that.

 

[SOPOOR]

how do chargebacks work in these sort of situations and similiar ones, are they only successful if the bank can somehow claw back some money?
they usually have little or zero $$$ left so do the banks just pay out of their insurance budget?

 

[ozfflyer]

how do chargebacks work in these sort of situations and similiar ones, are they only successful if the bank can somehow claw back some money?
they usually have little or zero $$$ left so do the banks just pay out of their insurance budget?

have been told that many banks, set up trust like accounts for airlines & hold funds until flights are actually flown, so the airline can't use the cash, until flight is flown. Wonder if this happens with online travel agencies too ? Can't see bank missing out. They can probably access any & all of fly 365s bank accounts.

 

[Pushka]

how do chargebacks work in these sort of situations and similiar ones, are they only successful if the bank can somehow claw back some money?
they usually have little or zero $$$ left so do the banks just pay out of their insurance budget?

When payments are made by credit cards, the merchant bank retains a percentage of every payment in case of refund. CBA is apparently the merchants card provider and they are being rather difficult to deal with. It is the claimants bank who has to deal with them. ANZ customers however have already received refunds. Westpac is refusing some stating they have to wait until the day of the flight. It seems it’s a case of HUACA or threaten escalation if the banks are fiddling with people’s claims. ING were ok to deal with so far.

 

[SOPOOR]

have been told that many banks, set up trust like accounts for airlines & hold funds until flights are actually flown, so the airline can't use the cash, until flight is flown. Wonder if this happens with online travel agencies too ? Can't see bank missing out. They can probably access any & all of fly 365s bank accounts.

When payments are made by credit cards, the merchant bank retains a percentage of every payment in case of refund. CBA is apparently the merchants card provider and they are being rather difficult to deal with. It is the claimants bank who has to deal with them. ANZ customers however have already received refunds. Westpac is refusing some stating they have to wait until the day of the flight. It seems it’s a case of HUACA or threaten escalation if the banks are fiddling with people’s claims. ING were ok to deal with so far.

thats all very interesting, lets hope customers get their money back,

ive done a few chargebacks in my life and generally been successful, 90% of the times, but im always nervous that my claim will be denied due to fine print

 

[Pushka]

thats all very interesting, lets hope customers get their money back,

ive done a few chargebacks in my life and generally been successful, 90% of the times, but im always nervous that my claim will be denied due to fine print

Absolutely true and I suspect many will have to fight through the first BS refusal that any bank may offer. I’m going to have a chat with the son and DIL and make sure they fight any refusal to the max. Until it’s in your bank it’s not there!