Travellers stranded in Europe after WA agency accused of cancelling bookings
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Version 0 of 1. A travel agent has allegedly duped more than 50 customers out of $175,000 worth of flights and left nine people stranded in Europe without a return flight. Consumer protection officers warned customers of Western Australia-based Sky Air Services on Thursday after receiving complaints from 10 disappointed travellers who said flights and accommodation booked by the agency had been cancelled. Stranded passengers included a teenage boy travelling in Greece with a water polo team from Perth. In some cases passengers had arrived at the airport only to be told they hadn’t booked a seat on the plane. The family-owned Fremantle agency responded to concerns raised on its Facebook page by swearing at its clients, replying to one complaint with, “you’re a fucking pain in the ass hard maintenance anyways! good riddance and bon voyage!!” In another exchange, which was saved in a screenshot by the ABC, the travel agent’s official Facebook page replied to a one star review that said it offered an “inflated price” by saying, “Inflated price? You mean 20 dollar commission?” before adding, “we can take your 20 dollars and wipe our butts with it”. It has since deleted its Facebook page, taken its website offline, and has not responded to attempts to contact it. A South Melbourne travel agent, which is also called Sky Air Services, took to its Facebook page to say it is “in no way affiliated with the Fremantle agency of the same name”. Ann Driscoll, the WA commissioner for consumer protection, said in most cases the travel agent had accepted full payment from customers but had either not paid for the flights, or had paid for flights and later sought a refund. By Thursday afternoon, the number of customers complaining about the travel agency had ballooned to 51. They are owed an estimated $175,000. Of those, eight people were in Croatia or Serbia without a valid return flight. In Athens, a teenager from Melville water polo club in Europe on a training camp with 13 other boys, has been wired $2,000 to allow him to catch a flight home. The club’s president, David Leavy, told Guardian Australia the boy booked his travel after the rest of the group, and had been told that his flight home was refunded some weeks ago. The 10-member girls team made it home to Perth on Sunday, after a last-minute itinerary change by the travel agent forced them to take an 18-hour stopover in Dubai before making a second stop in Denpasar, to the concern of parents watching news coverage of the volcanic ash cloud. Leavy said they had used Air Sky Services for a number of years without complaint. “It’s not a nice feeling when you rock up to an airport counter expecting to go on holidays and realise that the airline doesn’t know who you are,” Leavy said. Sonja Hlevnjak is another of those out of pocket. She told Guardian Australia that she had used Sky Air Services for years, but became concerned about her booking after hearing on the Croatian grapevine in Perth that other flights had fallen through. Hlevnjak and her husband booked and paid for flights for their August trip to Croatia in September last year, but when she called the airline this week they said the tickets had never been paid for. “We are fortunately in a financial position where we I have been able to book two new tickets, for myself and my husband, but I have lost $4,900,” she said. Driscoll urged anyone who has travel booked through Air Sky Services to confirm their bookings and contact Consumer Protection WA. |