Ask an expert: ‘Airline cancelled my booking, can I make it pay for more expensive flights?’

I booked flights worth £500 on my credit card and the flights have been cancelled. I can claim this back under the Section 75 protection. But the cost of booking a comparable replacement flight has gone up to £700 – will my card company give me the difference?

MB, via telephone

Flight cancellations are a frustrating experience, but the fact you booked on a credit card means you have armed yourself with Section 75 protection.

This law means that when you spend between £100 and £30,000 on goods or services using your credit card, you can claim the cost back from the card company if the merchant, in this case the airline, fails to deliver. Even if you only partially paid for the flights on your card, the credit card provider would still have to refund the full cost of the cancelled booking.

Section 75 only applies when you book directly with the airline, and not via a booking website.

Sadly, as in your case, this means you can still end up out of pocket. If alternative flights are more expensive, your card company will not give you the difference.

Martyn James, of consumer complaints service Resolver, said: “You can only claim for what you’ve paid, not the increase in costs to rebook the flight. So £500 is the maximum claim in this instance.”

Mr James said a better way of claiming a refund would be to contact the airline directly. Although you don’t state your destination, if your journey departed from a European Union country then you would be covered by the EU’s flight compensation rules.

This would also apply if your journey ended at an EU airport, so long as it was with an EU-registered airline.

“Under the Flight Compensation Regulation 261/2004, if your flight is cancelled your airline must refund your cancelled flight fee (what you’ve paid for the flight) or provide an alternative flight to get you to your destination,” he said.

“If it doesn’t come up with a flight for you in a day or two, you can usually book your own and ask them to cover the full flight costs – in this case the £700.

“Understandably, the card provider will want to see you’ve tried to get the money back from the airline before making a Section 75 claim.”