Advice Req'd - Ticket Name Change

Hi

Some advice please

In Jan of this year, via Flying Club number, I booked a large number of tickets between LGW/MCO which were a mixture of P/E and Econ.
These were in respect of a wedding being held on Orlando in Dec of 2008

At the time, I explained the tickets were for a wedding and that I may need to change pax at a later stage. Was told this was fine and the changes were allowed on these tickets at a cost of 50

Today I have called Flying Club as 2 persons cannot now attend but I have found another 2 to replace them . To my surpise, I have been told that 'changes' are allowed but this excludes names. I do not wish to cancel, just change the names for 2 of my wedding party. Despite being put through to the supervisor, I was essentially told 'tough luck. we don't allow name changes at all. you'll have to cancel with no refund and book again....'

Could someone give some advice please as I am adamant that I explained what I wanted when booking the tickets but now find I cannot undertake the change I want


Is there someone I can write to to complain / escalate etc...
Regards

[Nottingham Nick]

Sorry, I think you are out of luck.

Changing names on discounted tickets is a no-no.

If VS were to allow name changes on tickets, people would just buy them up in the sales and auction them on EBay.

What fare code are the tickets?

If you have a look here, it will explain what changes are allowed, and how much the changes cost. I don't think you will find name changes mentioned anywhere.


Nick

[Darren Wheeler]

Unfortunatley you were mis-informed at the start. Name changes are not permitted under any circumstances. The reason is to stop tickets being bought cheaply 11 months early, then sold closer at a huge profit, usually by agents.

You can try for a refund at the Crawley address but I wouldn't expect one.

[Darren Wheeler]

oh, and if you do cancel them, you'll only get a refund on the taxes, fees and charges, minus a handling fee.

Do you have the agent's name and his/her extension number? If you are certain that you've been mis-informed, write a nice letter to cutomer relations, and explain your situation, they may allow you to get more money back if it's their mistake.

But you need to be very lucky to get more money back than just the fuel surchange and airport tax.

This is the natural problem with telephoning for confirmation of rules: it's easy to be misinformed, but very hard to prove. If you'd been told this in a letter, it would be very hard if not impossible for VS to avoid honouring it. Without proof thought, you're in a very difficult position.

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by adjonline
This is the natural problem with telephoning for confirmation of rules: it's easy to be misinformed, but very hard to prove.

This is not a comment pertinent to this situation / thread, but when speaking on the phone, it is also very easy to misinterpret or misunderstand what you are being told.

Nick