A word of warning to those booking a flight with Aurigny and then needing to change it. Naturally you would expect to pay the balance if your revised date is more expensive, however if it’s cheaper it would be reasonable to expect a partial refund? Not so, Aurigny’s policy appears to be to apply the original fare paid despite their being a substantial difference, in my particular case £90.
Trying to appeal this to the airline as grossly unfair is proving impossible, Aurigny has outsourced their call centre to somewhere in the far east and it appears there is nobody one can talk to locally to complain. Guernsey’s friendly airline? I don’t think so.
A spokesperson from Aurigny responds:
We understand that it can be disappointing when a new fare is lower, but no refund is offered. Our fare change policy is designed with fairness in mind for all customers. While it may seem reasonable to expect a refund when moving to a cheaper flight, the reality of airline operations is more complex. Once a seat is booked, it is held exclusively for that customer and removed from sale. If the seat is later released, there is often a limited or no opportunity to offer it to another customer. Furthermore, like other airlines, this policy is consistent across the industry to ensure we can manage limited seat availability, discouraging movement between flights on less flexible ticket types, so as not to disadvantage others.
Unfortunately, the ticket type purchased in this instance was not a Flexi Fare. We do offer other fare types that allow more flexibility when travel plans may change, but standard fares come with restrictions. These rules are explained at the point of purchase, allowing customers to choose the option that best suits their needs.
Our call centre has been outsourced to a specialist provider that services leading airlines around the world – call wait times have significantly decreased as a result, to just 50 seconds, on average, in August. However, we are continuing to work closely with them to improve service levels further.
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