Airlines Must Pay Refunds

[PSR]

7 hours ago, strickerj said:

Their email said only refundable fares would be refunded, and non-refundable fares would get the two-year credit. I imagine you'll have to call and push since I haven't seen any official response from them on this DOT guideline.

 

6 hours ago, The Beaver said:

@PSR and @strickerj

 

I am in the same situation like you but with a European carrier that cancelled on me too. I have been asking questions on another Travel Forum  and this is what someone on there has advised us ( yes we are many in the same boat - from business people, road warriors and casual travellers) to do:

 

If you don't get the satisfaction you want, just file a small claims. Airline small claims are easy, and you can file in any municipality in the United Stated, because the U.S. is a signatory to the Montreal Convention - which states "Any Airline operating in any country that is signatory to this agreement may sue in any court that has legal jurisdiction within that country". (paraphrasing).

 

 

 

Thanks for your comments/ideas.

[realnurse2]

Air Canada is not offering refunds yet but there is a class action suit being launched.  I will probably be dead and buried before that is settled.

[d9704011]

1 minute ago, realnurse2 said:

Air Canada is not offering refunds yet but there is a class action suit being launched.  I will probably be dead and buried before that is settled.

Perhaps something has changed since late March.  We had tickets to Zurich for early June and tickets to Milan in late September.  I was able to cancel them on the Air Canada website by paying a $150 per ticket cancellation fee and the remainder was refunded to my Visa within one week.

[realnurse2]

I'm too cheap and too stubborn to pay a cancellation fee when other airlines are giving a full refund. I may eat my words closer to final payment time!

[d9704011]

13 minutes ago, realnurse2 said:

I'm too cheap and too stubborn to pay a cancellation fee when other airlines are giving a full refund. I may eat my words closer to final payment time!

Fair enough, you’re delightfully honest too!  Good luck with the noble struggle.

[PSR]

3 hours ago, d9704011 said:

Perhaps something has changed since late March.  We had tickets to Zurich for early June and tickets to Milan in late September.  I was able to cancel them on the Air Canada website by paying a $150 per ticket cancellation fee and the remainder was refunded to my Visa within one week.

 

But those were tickets you cancelled, right? Our flights were cancelled by Air Canada, so I don't think we could use that technique, although it does sound a lot better than waiting forever for a partial refund of some fees and a possibly unusable future flight credit.

 

Also wish we could've done that for an earlier flight we had to cancel in mid-March before AC started cancelling flights; still waiting for our refundable fees on that one....

[strickerj]

Yep, I'm definitely not paying a cancellation fee when the airline canceled. That'd be a pretty bad precedent, IMHO.

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, PSR said:

 

But those were tickets you cancelled, right? Our flights were cancelled by Air Canada, so I don't think we could use that technique, although it does sound a lot better than waiting forever for a partial refund of some fees and a possibly unusable future flight credit.

 

Also wish we could've done that for an earlier flight we had to cancel in mid-March before AC started cancelling flights; still waiting for our refundable fees on that one....

Yes, that is correct.  I may not have well understood the circumstances of realnurse2’s situation.  For sure I would have preferred to get all my money back but I did end up with about 93% of it without having to think about airline credits, vouchers or timelines.

[Cap-n Andy]

American Airlines refunded my non-refundable USA domestic airfare. They canceled a flight.

[FlorenceItaly]

28 minutes ago, Cap-n Andy said:

American Airlines refunded my non-refundable USA domestic airfare. They canceled a flight.

This was also my experience.  Now I am waiting for United to do the same thing.  It is in review status.