While BT Academy owner Brandon Timmy and his wife were living the high life in Spain, with full knowledge of the looming crisis, they returned home to South Africa, leaving the 25 students and their 3 coaches stranded in Europe.
It is clear that Timmy, who has his own travel company – BT Travel, knows the loopholes in the booking system.
This is how he could have outsmarted the airlines in order to fund him and his wife’s luxury holiday in Spain, before returning to South Africa and abandoning the students and their coaches in Europe to fend for themselves.
Refundable tickets
Some airlines offer the option of purchasing refundable tickets, which you are allowed to cancel closer to the date of your flight.
Full payment is required, which is more expensive than normal tickets, however you can get a full refund back afterwards.
It is likely that Timmy may have used this loophole that many travellers are not aware of when he booked the flights.
He would have then cancelled the tickets after the VISAs were processed and approved.
Timmy, with the knowledge that the students would be stranded in Europe, would have subsequently purchased one-way tickets which, by his own admittance, were more expensive and all they could afford, once the VISAs were approved.
The other alternative was that Timmy had help from the Spanish Embassy, however; this is highly unlikely as the visa facilitation services would still have required supporting documentation.
Why did the South African embassy not do more to assist them?
When they sought assistance from the SA embassy in Spain they found that some of the students’ visas had expired. The embassy told them they could only assist them with the visas and not the flight arrangements.
This begs the question – why would the South African embassy in Spain – who is there to assist our citizens in emergency situations, not call on government bodies to help.
One would also assume that the consulate would have stepped in to help with accommodation for the students when this happened.
Is this not why we have embassies – to help South African citizens who are stranded abroad?
Perhaps they too were busy enjoying a summer vacation in Europe.
IOL Travel
