Cancellation: airport taxes?

[allanb]

I have to cancel a trip for which the air travel was booked through Expedia.fr.  The air fares are non-refundable (or, as they put it, "the cancellation fee is 100%").  I knew this when I booked.  But a large part of the cost consists of airport taxes, and my question is whether these should be refunded to me (since the airline presumably doesn't pay them if we don't travel).

I can't find this information anywhere on the Expedia site.  It mentions some things that can be refunded and some that can't, but I can't find any reference to airport taxes.

Does anyone know the answer?  I would guess it must be the same for all agencies.

In case you wondered, I do have cancellation insurance, but there's a percentage deductible, so the question does have a financial effect.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

I got my taxes refunded by Airfrance when I missed my flight.

I emailed the help desk and they got back to me the next day and the refund arrived in the account a few days after that

 

[andyh4]

Whenever I have cancelled with Lufthansa, there has been a cancellation fee - and like you my "ticket price" was non refundable, so the refund was the taxes less the fee.  I never ended up rich but I did end up less poor.

 

Have you not checked the T&Cs with expedia?

[allanb]

[quote user="andyh4"]Have you not checked the T&Cs with expedia?[/quote]That was the first thing I did.  I couldn't find any mention of airport taxes being refunded, but there is a statement to the effect that any refund question must be taken up with the airline itself.  The planned trip involved three airlines, and the first one I looked at (which was Delta, I think) said that if you have booked through a travel agency, any refund question must be taken up with the agency.

That began to sound like a catch-22 problem, so that's why I posted the question.

But I spoke to a nice lady at Expedia today who said that it didn't matter what the website said, they would refund the taxes.  So my question's answered.  She also said that cancellation didn't need to be made by LRAR (although the website says this is mandatory) - she could do it on the basis of my phone call.

As a further example of what a mess the Expedia website is, the French site expedia.fr refers you to a "Refund Team" with an address in Leicester, UK.  It doesn't give a phone number, but I found one through a directory service.  When I called, a gentleman in Leicester, or possibly Bangalore, patiently explained to me that France is not in England, and gave me a French number to call.  Which is how I found the nice lady.

[NickP]

We had to cancell a trip with RyanAir, they said no refund but you get the airport tax back, we applied for it and 18 months later are still waiting. So we lost some money, they have lost 2 customers. [:P]

[Pickles]

[quote user="NickP"]We had to cancell a trip with RyanAir, they said no refund but you get the airport tax back, we applied for it and 18 months later are still waiting. So we lost some money, they have lost 2 customers. [:P][/quote]

The problem with Ryanair's refund is that they charge an admin fee, which usually swallows up the refund ...

Regards

Pickles