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I have bought a Turkish Airlines plane ticket through online travel agency https://www.smartfares.com. The ticket included checked baggage ($20) but at the check-in I discovered that the airline "does not see" any baggage in the reservation. Therefore I had to pay more than $130 for my baggage at the counter (which treated as "overweight").

The agency support line confirmed that I paid for the baggage but claimed it was the airline fault to not include the baggage option so they will just refund "unused" $20:

We regret TK failed to action the add on for your fights to this Istanbul airport. We hope you are safe where you are now. Thank you for letting us know, we have reported the issue. We have refunded you for the failed add on.

After that they did actually refund $20 but it is definitely not what I want (as I paid excess $130 for "overweight").

Is there any good chance I can get a refund of remaining $110 from the agency? From my understanding, it should not make any difference for me if agency or airline (TK) "failed to include the baggage". As I paid money to the agency I expect them to deliver me and my baggage to the final destination. I should not be financially responsible for any communication problems between the agency and their contractors (in this case Turkish Airlines).

In your opinion, what should be the communication with agency (or airline) from my side to maximize the chance of getting the money back?

dimnnv
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This sounds like a "small court" case, but I doubt it'll be worth your time. I'm sure some ToS you clicked agreement to will prevent you from even that, forcing some kind of arbitration, and you'd waste much more money than you're trying to recover just trying to figure out how to pursue that route.

In more general terms, you bought a ticket from a reseller ("travel agency") who has bought a bunch of seats and is operating on an extremely slim margin. Whether or not they ever intended to pass your baggage reservation to the airline, paying you any more than refunding your $20 will probably eliminate all their profits. It is unlikely that you'd be able to get them to compensate you, and since they did refund you the charge - I'm not sure you'd have a case against them in court.

You can file a complaint with a regulator for that industry in the country where they're registered. If enough complaints are filed the regulator may be able to do something about them. It's likely though that they're actually operating in some third country with lax regulations and weak enforcement. Their "contacts" page lists no physical offices or any addresses whatsoever.

oh whatever
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