Has anyone received a cash refund for cancelled overseas flights?

[MMDown Under]

I'm not happy with Qantas customer service either.  Why send an email to your customers telling them a refund was available and to phone this number.  Then make it so difficult and time consuming to request a refund in lieu of credit.  Why not make it easy on line, with the same advice that the refund will take 8-10 weeks?  

[ilikeanswers]

Qantas it seems has not performed that well during the pandemic. I didn't need a refund but a change of flight as my return flight had been cancelled. I got an email saying they will call us to discuss our options and that will happen near the time our cancelled flight was scheduled to leave. I tried to call them but was told the wait time would be four hours 😱. In the end I had to rebook it myself with all the fees otherwise if I had waited I would have missed the last flight home. I tried to request a reimbursement of the fees since flights cancelled due to pandemic were suppose to be sans fees but because I didn't wait for the phone call too bad so sad. I compare this with Peach Airline which was a simple online option took me minutes and they waived the fees. Very disappointed with Qantas😞. 

 

[denny girl]

I've had a few nightmares trying to get through to Qantas in the past.

Our flights to Japan were booked through Expedia and I found them more responsive and probably Qantas dealt with them better than with individual clients.The middleman was an unexpected plus.

Our flights for a tour to Japan were mid March the day after Australia raised it's warning and after having packed bags at the front door we decided to forfeit our money and not go.

I hadn't done online checkin and three hours before our local flight I rang Expedia to see if anything could be done.

The operator was very helpful and got through to Qantas fairly quickly and cancelled our flights for a fee of $400 each, the cancellation fee for the grade of ticket.

One  very happy Expedia customer as I know from earlier experiences it's just about impossible to get through to Qantas. You can be hanging on for hours. It took the agent quite a while to get things sorted

A few hours later our tour was cancelled with a credit for later so we're all good for another time, hopefully

We also had Qatar flights booked for May. They offered us a credit for later which we refused.

28 days refund time was mentioned but we've now been told it has been transferred to our account.

We'll see what happens in the next few days.

[fairywren]

We were told 28 days, and it turned out to be 37 days , but was all good in the end.

[Fredette]

On 6/13/2020 at 2:04 PM, Kiwi Kruzer said:

It’s been reported here that Air NZ is giving hassles as well .They will only give credits , except if your flight went to , or through the USA, where they have been forced to refund by the law  that applies there.

Another problem folk are finding is that if they accept the credit and use that credit to rebook same flight but at a later date ,the fare has almost tripled .

Thanks for that info - I received a part refund for a trip to the USA, but now that I know there were "different rules" for the USA, I will call them and follow that up.

[benjoon]

Cathay Pacific flights to London cancelled and we had to lose $550 each but luckily we bought annual insurance back in December. We have been able to claim that. Our Qantas flights to NZ were cancelled by Qantas and we had used points which we got them all back and the taxes. Air NZ only gave us credit and wouldn’t even allow us to get a refund. Hopefully we can use the credit later next year.

[MMDown Under]

3 hours ago, benjoon said:

Cathay Pacific flights to London cancelled and we had to lose $550 each but luckily we bought annual insurance back in December. We have been able to claim that. Our Qantas flights to NZ were cancelled by Qantas and we had used points which we got them all back and the taxes. Air NZ only gave us credit and wouldn’t even allow us to get a refund. Hopefully we can use the credit later next year.

Suggest you contact Air NZ again as airlines are giving full refunds now, following ruling from ACCC.

[Bizziecruzer]

9 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Suggest you contact Air NZ again as airlines are giving full refunds now, following ruling from ACCC.

I don't think ACCC has any jurisdiction over AirNZ.

[MMDown Under]

7 hours ago, Bizziecruzer said:

I don't think ACCC has any jurisdiction over AirNZ.

Yes, I realise that, but thought it might be a good idea to contact Air NZ again in case they have changed their policy.

[The_Big_M]

13 hours ago, Bizziecruzer said:

I don't think ACCC has any jurisdiction over AirNZ.

 

ACCC have jurisdiction over sales made in Australia, which is what the refund is likely for. Whether purchased for AirNZ or anyone else.

 

Of course, if it was a purchase in NZ that would not be covered.

[Beanb41]

We got our airfares back very early on in the piece less a 10% cancellation fee. AS these tickets were non refundable tickets we were very happy. Airline was Singapore Airlines. The cancellation fee we will claim on travel insurance if we ever get an answer from CElebrity as to when they are going to pay out. We cant complete the insurance claim until we hear from Celebrity.

 

[Porky55]

We cancelled Singapore Airlines BC flights for September and received full refund to CC within 7 days (no penalty which we did expect). Then our cancelled Princess cruise in October was a virtual “Lift n Shift” as they just moved the $$ amount over to a booking we have in May next year.
We chose to cancel this cruise, so this probably helped - about 10 days before it WAS cancelled.

[Sallyandtex]

Very very happy with Vietnam airlines who have finally refunded all of our PE seats Syd to Paris.

They were non refundable tickets.

So glad i booked these myself, as my TA has charged $704 fee for lost commissions on our Holland Am cruise, plus $50 cancel fee, plus other cancellation fees for transfers, accommodation etc.

They said we can get the $704 discount if we book another holiday worth more than $7000, but this has left me not wanting to use agent as all those "bits" i booked myself I got refunded.

[benjoon]

On 6/23/2020 at 11:32 AM, MMDown Under said:

Suggest you contact Air NZ again as airlines are giving full refunds now, following ruling from ACCC.

Nope Air NZ are sticking to credit only. They said it was done with the agreement of the ACCC. We have plenty of time to use it now as they extended the period of expiration. Hopefully we can use it to come home from our March 2022 cruise in NZ.

[portcbob]

On 6/23/2020 at 1:32 PM, MMDown Under said:

Suggest you contact Air NZ again as airlines are giving full refunds now, following ruling from ACCC.

Not air canada. Aussies only get 2 year flight credit. NO REFUNDS. 

[MMDown Under]

Has anyone asked the ACCC why Australia doesn't have the same refund rules for airlines, as the USA?

[qbay46]

I had purchased two business class tickets with Emirates for flights next month to Europe,14k. On the 27th April I rang them to see if I could get my money back and was told I could so I filled out the forms for a refund.I was getting a bit worried that nothing had come back, so this morning when I checked my emails there was an email from Emirates saying my money for the flights had been put into my credit card. What a lovely way to start the day. We still wish we where going but maybe another day when things get better.

[MMDown Under]

8 minutes ago, qbay46 said:

I had purchased two business class tickets with Emirates for flights next month to Europe,14k. On the 27th April I rang them to see if I could get my money back and was told I could so I filled out the forms for a refund.I was getting a bit worried that nothing had come back, so this morning when I checked my emails there was an email from Emirates saying my money for the flights had been put into my credit card. What a lovely way to start the day. We still wish we where going but maybe another day when things get better.

Pleased you received your refund for Emirates business class flights.  Makes you want to fly again with them, in the future.  Well done Emirates!  I asked my friend yesterday if she had received her refund for Air Canada business class flights.  She said her cancelled flights were this month, so she is hoping to receive a refund soon.  (A credit would be useless to her, as she won't be flying overseas again, nor flying with Air Canada again.)

Edited July 15, 2020 by MMDown Under

[jland]

Air Astana have been brilliant. They have kept me informed every step of the way. Yes the refund has taken two months but they have updated me as to where my refund was in the queue. I ask no more of a company, hats off to them. Nearly forgot, they send me an email early on which said they guaranteed all their refunds would eventually be paid.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, jland said:

Air Astana have been brilliant. They have kept me informed every step of the way. Yes the refund has taken two months but they have updated me as to where my refund was in the queue. I ask no more of a company, hats off to them. Nearly forgot, they send me an email early on which said they guaranteed all their refunds would eventually be paid.

I hadn't heard of that airline, but that is excellent customer service, at this difficult time.  

[aussienellie]

We received a refund today from Latam for two business class flights from Buenos Aires to Sydney  in March 2020 which we were unable to use due to Argentina closing it's borders.

Latam originally offered us flight credits which we refused and asked for a cash refund.  The whole process took five months.  So to anyone waiting for a refund from Latam, do not give up hope as you will most likely get your refund eventually

 

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, aussienellie said:

We received a refund today from Latam for two business class flights from Buenos Aires to Sydney  in March 2020 which we were unable to use due to Argentina closing it's borders.

Latam originally offered us flight credits which we refused and asked for a cash refund.  The whole process took five months.  So to anyone waiting for a refund from Latam, do not give up hope as you will most likely get your refund eventually

 

That is very good news that you eventually received a refund for your business class tickets from Latam.

[Relaxing Robbies]

We just received a refund to our credit card for the taxes/fees component of a Virgin Australia frequent flyer points booking for a September flight Melbourne to LA then LA -Seattle- Vancouver a few days later. The points used were also credited back to our account. Very happy with that, especially after the uncertainty about what would happen with Virgin. Now can I interest anyone in tickets to a LA Dodgers baseball game in September?😀

[MMDown Under]

4 hours ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

We just received a refund to our credit card for the taxes/fees component of a Virgin Australia frequent flyer points booking for a September flight Melbourne to LA then LA -Seattle- Vancouver a few days later. The points used were also credited back to our account. Very happy with that, especially after the uncertainty about what would happen with Virgin. Now can I interest anyone in tickets to a LA Dodgers baseball game in September?😀

Good news that you got a refund from Virgin.  I wonder if that was because your flights went to the US.  I read somewhere on CC that people in US got refunds because of US laws.   I got a refund for domestic flight from Qantas, but only a credit from Virgin. 

[possum52]

4 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Good news that you got a refund from Virgin.  I wonder if that was because your flights went to the US.  I read somewhere on CC that people in US got refunds because of US laws.   I got a refund for domestic flight from Qantas, but only a credit from Virgin. 

Whereas mine was the other way round Marion - refund from Virgin and credit from Qantas - both domestic flights.

 

Leigh

Edited August 12, 2020 by possum52