A businessman has been successful in obtaining settlement against an online travel agent Go to Gate, after suing them for fraud, in relation to a potential misrepresentation scam.
Businessman Neil Scrivener was booking a business trip to America, when he came across the Go to Gate website offering flights cheaper than advertised directly by the airline. However, after paying for the advertised itinerary, an email confirmation stated that a route from Philadelphia to Los Angeles was in economy class, despite business class being advertised when booking.
Spotting the error immediately, Scrivener contacted Go to Gate and was told that business class did not operate on the flight, as well as separately being told by Go to Gate that the flight was booked as business class; with Go to Gate refusing to conduct any checks with American Airlines to resolve the issue.
When a refund was requested, which under American Airlines’ carrier conditions travel agents must do if the cancelation is made within a 24-hour period, Go to Gate refused stating the money would be lost if the flights were cancelled. They then directed Scrivener to their own complaints procedure, which included seeking a waiver of rights under EU protection schemes – before coming back to him days later denying any errors and refusing any refund – at which point he was outside the 24-hour refund period.
Scrivener wrote to Go to Gate’s legal department in February, but they ignored the correspondence. Ultimately, Scrivener sued Go to Gate in May on the grounds of misrepresentation, fraud, and failure to enact the airline carrier’s policy.
Lawyers for Go to Gate responded “almost immediately” offering to settle the matter, including paying for the upgrade cost of the flight and the entirety of Scrivener’s legal costs.
Commenting on the matter Scrivener said:
“I maintain the position that the flight in question was advertised as business class when I booked it on the website, and that some kind of switch or downgrade happened before my email confirmation arrived. I made all reasonable efforts with Go to Gate to resolve the matter, but they couldn’t get their own story straight, and the refusal to abide by the airline carrier’s policies was simply unacceptable, especially when you only have 24 hours to try and seek resolution whilst dealing with a foreign call centre who had an inability to comprehend the issues.”
“I am satisfied based on what I saw with my own eyes that there was a misrepresentation in the details of flight on the website and that Go to Gate’s subsequent responses in attempting to resolve the matter were dishonest or intentionally misleading, rather than mistaken. This of course has been denied by their lawyers, but given their readiness to settle this claim so quickly and the extremely large amounts of other customer complaints on the internet – I am sure one can draw their own inferences on what really goes on with this company and the regard to which they hold their customers; who may not have the courage to stand up for their consumer rights with vigour that I do.”
