Blue Sea Holidays travel agent will not refund us

Our travel agent, Blue Sea Holidays, is waiting for our refund and refuses to pay us. When our flight home from our holiday in Egypt was cancelled, easyJet could not offer an alternative within the week so we opted for a refund and arranged our own transport. I informed Blue Sea when we returned and was told that since the holiday had been booked on my credit card, the refund would be issued directly to me by the airline. It did not arrive and easyJet told me the £593.46 had been paid over a month earlier to Blue Sea's own credit card which had been used to pay for the booking. I emailed Blue Sea Holidays asking why the money hadn't been transferred but received no response. I wrote a complaint but did not receive a response either.

After a third email, the call center manager contacted me and made it clear to me that Blue Sea Holidays does not refund the money and insisted that I claim through my insurer. Our insurer is unwilling to pay as easyJet has already reimbursed the cost of the flights. I am seriously out of pocket.JC, Liverpool

I have read your correspondence with Blue Sea Holidays and am flabbergasted. The company repeatedly evades acknowledgment of the easyJet payment and repeatedly refers you to your insurer when you ask for it to be released. Disturbingly, he writes that this is his usual procedure when cancellation refunds are due. Only if your insurer refuses and you send the agent their letter of refusal will they "review the situation". Most insurers will refuse because it is the airline's responsibility to respond to cancellations.

The kinder interpretation is that the airline is incompetent. Its "usual procedure" suggests, however, that it sends customers like you down a rabbit hole in hopes of keeping the airline's refund to itself. EasyJet confirms that the refund was sent to Blue Sea on May 25. Blue Sea did not respond to my requests for comment, but following my contact they suddenly blocked the money - 10 weeks after being paid. It is good to know that it is the responsibility of the airline to ensure that a passenger is reimbursed or compensated.

According to Coby Benson, of the aviation attorney Bott & Co, the ball remains in the airline's court if it pays the agent, who then fails to pass it on, although getting an airline to acknowledge this and pay a second time outside a courtroom, is another matter. Another option would have been a small claim against Blue Sea.

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