Intermediaries and airlines

The simplest definition of a travel intermediary is a “third-party agent that participates in the sale and/or booking of travel and tourism-related products and services”.

This means that the intermediary has agreements in place with airlines and the money you have paid will ultimately be passed to the airline operating the flight, also known as the service provider. This will be outlined in the terms and conditions, that you will most likely have accepted when you made the flight booking.

When the money is returned, it will likely follow the same path. Therefore, you may find that any refund could be processed first to the intermediary, before it comes to you. If this is the case, you should ask the airline to confirm this as writing as you can use this for evidence when you inform the intermediary and ask for the money to be returned to you.

If something goes wrong with the flight itself, then your rights in law will lie with the airline due to operate the disrupted flight.

First complaints should be directed to the airline who was due to operate the flight. The intermediary can be contacted too, but your rights will be with the service provider.

Should there be any doubt as to who is due to operate the flight, this should be outlines in your booking confirmation.

Please note

Booking intermediaries are rarely responsible for flight disruptions.

For example, if you have booked with an intermediary and have found your name has been spelt incorrectly. You may need to prove that you supplied the correct information when you made the booking, which can often be difficult.

The best thing to do would be to contact both the airline and the intermediary to see if you can find out who is at fault. For example, if the airline says the information was passed to them incorrectly by the intermediary, then you have evidence to use when contacting the intermediary.