Fair Go: Is this NZ's unluckiest traveller?

Sue Le Seelleur loves to travel. Each new place she visits, she buys a cup or shot glass to remember the trip.

There’s her tiny mug from Harrods in the UK, a shot glass from Hard Rock Café, and the one from the castles in Edinburgh. She displays them all proudly in her curio cabinet at her Tauranga home.

But recently, Le Seelleur has had terrible travel luck.

It began in 2021 when the Tauranga Hospital staffer planned to visit her son and grandchildren in Australia. She bought Air New Zealand flights for herself and her daughter via Expedia.

"We thought they were a good deal, and I've used them before with other flights," she told Fair Go.

Six weeks before she was due to fly, Expedia emailed Le Seelleur to say her flights had been cancelled by the national carrier.

"The email said I could get a refund. I waited a while before I followed up because I knew it was a busy time with Covid refunds. When I got in touch with Expedia a couple of months later, they just kept telling me they’d get onto it."

Expedia staff told her they were waiting for a "waiver code" from Air New Zealand to release the funds. But Air New Zealand told Le Seelleur there wasn’t a waiver code, and refunds had to be paid out through Expedia.

She persisted for weeks, which turned into months, which turned into nearly three years.

Then a few weeks ago, Le Seelleur was told by Expedia customer service over the phone that they no longer had any record of her trip.

"They said they’d lost all my details – no emails, no itinerary numbers, no nothing."

Fair Go reached out to Expedia, who explained they follow "the policies of its airline partners, which generally means any refund decisions and payments are managed by them".

Air New Zealand said "when customers book through a third party or travel agent, all changes, refund requests, or queries should be directed through and handled" by them.

It became a game of refund ping pong and Le Seelleur was fed up.

Despite this, she was determined to have a holiday, so she decided on a trip to Vanuatu with her partner.

"We were watching Travel Guides, and they went to Vanuatu. It looked really pretty and we wanted to visit turtle sanctuary. We did save [for the trip]. It wasn't Lotto winnings or anything. It was working hard."

This time, Le Seelleur decided to play it extra safe and booked her trip through a travel agent. She bought flights and insurance through Helloworld Travel in February this year.

Consumer NZ's head of research and advocacy, Gemma Rasmussen, said travel agents are especially useful for complex travel with multiple legs, and for their insights into the travel industry.

"It’s a self-regulated industry. There's no particular accreditation or guarantees tied to travel agents, so what you're really paying for is their level of expertise," she explained.

Rasmussen added that customers should expect to be told about the best holiday packages and countries to travel to, but also any high-risk elements of their trip.

But Le Seelleur said she had no idea that the airline she booked flights with through Helloworld was in financial peril.

"We paid about $1600 for flights with Air Vanuatu but three months later the airline went bust."

Rasmussen said Air Vanuatu's financial issues had been well-documented in the media.

"We think that the travel agent, if they were doing their due diligence, should have informed the customer about these issues. Then the customer could’ve made a judgement call as to whether they wanted to book or not."

Fair Go asked Helloworld Travel why they hadn’t warned Le Seelleur.

The travel company said while it "does monitor suppliers' fiscal and operational performance and will inform customers where a risk is observed" and a customer's money "would never be passed on to a supplier that was an imminent risk ... rarely, but unfortunately, some suppliers get into financial trouble before it has become apparent to us".

"When these rare occasions occur, an agent will do everything possible to recoup customers' funds and, in many cases, an agent will solve situations that cannot be resolved directly by customers."

Rasmussen said it’s not the responsibility of the travel agent to reimburse the flight as they are only an intermediary between the customer and the airline.

Le Seelleur had hoped her comprehensive travel insure with Allianz Partners would cover the loss but the policy excluded losses due to bankruptcy or liquidation of companies.

Allianz Partners told Fair Go excluding insolvency of large travel providers "helps keep premiums affordable, ensuring that more travellers can access essential coverage for a wide range of other potential issues".

Unfortunately, Rasmussen said she didn't think there was much hope for Le Seelleur to get her money back from Air Vanuatu.

"Companies going into liquidation, particularly airlines, is quite rare," Rasmussen explained. "What happens in that instance is that you end up being at the very back of the queue in terms of being able to get your money back because there are many creditors that are in line before you."

Air Vanuatu did not respond to Fair Go's emails, but their website said the airline "won’t honour paid tickets" and "are unable to provide refunds".

Between her failed trips through Expedia and Helloworld, Le Seelleur was about $2800 out of pocket.

But just a few days ago she got some good news.

"Expedia rang me last night which was a nice surprise. They have now given me back my refund in full and to add to it, they have given me $500 credit," she said.

Expedia told Fair Go that "in this case, the customer experience has not been what we hoped, and we sincerely apologise to Ms Le Seelleur".

They said a refund would be paid to her within seven working days.

It’s a win for Le Seelleur, who can collect a few more mugs and shot glasses soon.

The latest update from Air Vanuatu said customers will be unsecured creditors of the company at this early stage but it is not known how much money (if any) will be available to meet such claims. However, customers seeking refunds are encouraged to consider the following options:

Credit card purchases: If you purchased your ticket with a credit or debit card that offers financial protection, you may be eligible for a refund through your bank.

Unsecured creditors: Guests who have paid for tickets prior to the appointment of the liquidators will be unsecured creditors of the company. Provide copies of evidence of your purchase to support your claim at Creditors.AirVanuatu@au.ey.com. Following receipt of this evidence, a unique Creditor Portal code will be provided to log into the Portal to details of your claim.

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