RubyTwins

Our flight was canceled and we tried to get a refund but we had to wait until 72 hours before. Now they seemed to have changed their policies to vouchers. We don't want a voucher because we have teens and next year we need to focus on college tours. AND we bought the ticket through Ovago! Some people are suggesting calling the credit card companies? I am not sure what makes sense.

surfmom

RubyTwins So, what I've discovered is below. If THEY cancelled the flight, they MUST give you a refund. No vouchers if you don't want them. If they are not complying, I would start a credit card dispute/chargeback. Keep all documentation that THEY cancelled the flight, not you.

EU 261 - according to this regulation, if the airline cancels the flight, they MUST refund you the money. The airlines have asked for some leeway in this unprecedented time and were told no. (18 March 2020 ruling)
c20201830.pdf

In the case of a flight cancellation by the airlines (no matter what the cause is), Article 5 obliges the operating air carrier to offer the passengers the choice among: a) reimbursement (refund); b) re-routing at the earliest opportunity, or c) re-routing at a later date at the passenger's convenience.

DOT (US) - same rulesassengers are often entitled to a refund of the ticket price and associated fees when the airline is at fault.

• Cancelled Flight – A passenger is entitled to a refund if the airline cancelled a flight, regardless of the reason, and the passenger chooses not to be rebooked on a new flight on that airline.

https://www.transportation.gov/indiv...ection/refunds

manukes

Malaysia Airlines are unlikely to cancel the flight. I have already received updated flight time, they are running a reduced flight schedule of one flight a day from KCH -KUL. Whilst I support and thank you for your recommendation, I see no advantage to waiting to cancel at a later date when I have no intention of travelling anytime this year. As an update, their customer service centre is still not taking calls but a contact withinin the airline has given me a link to a " Online Request Form" where you can request voucher or cancellation.

Traveler_Nick

Unless you bought an expensive refundable ticket you'll likely only get the tax back if you cancel. If the government extends the lockdown the airline might not have a choice but to cancel.

The way I see it you cancel and accept the taxes back.

Wait hope they cancel and get a full refund.

manukes

Tickets are Business Class Fully Refundable

mrwunrfl

If it was refundable then you will get a full refund when you cancel but it might take days to appear as a credit in your online credit card account. Maybe that was the credit info you received that it would go to the card. But if it said it was an airline credit then that might be a bug in their website. You might have gotten a reply that assumed that it was non-refundable (which is what we assumed).

joto

What happens when the airline cancels the flight you were booked on, but books you on a flight later the same day, but is not convenient to you.

manukes

My friend recently had this happen, the flight in question was linked to another long haul flight with a different airline. She received notification of flight change which would not connect to the long haul sector. She asked for refund, only got the offer of 'credit voucher' for later use went back to CC company who paid out. Airline in question was Qantas.

manukes

Just had notification that they are overloaded with issues to sort out and ' normally aim to respond within 5 working days but under present circumstances could take up to 4 weeks"

mrwunrfl

Check your itinerary online. It may give you an option to accept the change. Don't accept it and don't cancel it unless it provides an acceptable option. Otherwise, you would need to contact the airline.

You could wait to see if your new flights are cancelled. The airlines (US anyway) are having cash flow issues now. That could get worse but it could get better when they get funds or financing from the government. Or business could pick up.

Some policies differ by airline. A change from nonstop to connecting flight is good grounds for a refund. Same for big schedule changes.

Here is an article that should give you an idea of what to expect (it is from 2018):
https://thepointsguy.com/2018/01/max...edule-changes/

mrwunrfl

If you want to change the date(s) of travel then you should go to 'manage itineraries' and select the existing one and look for a change option.

Another way is to start a new booking and go on to the payment page. Look for a payment option to use a voucher or e-ticket. You could see an option to enter your existing confirmation number. (Spirit has this option but I had already cancelled my reservation, so it didn't work)

Not all airlines have an online way to use the funds from a cancelled ticket. That is, they might not have a way to use the credit online. I think I have to call Spririt to use the credit. Same for an AA cancellation, I think.

Rocket79

I"d like to tag on here if you don't mind. I was supposed to head to Vancouver in May for a conference. Conference cancelled, all Airbnb's refunded. My Delta flight was booked in mid-Feb., before this thing blew up. I just went to My Trips to see a red message that Delta had retooled my flight, adding a stop which would land me at LAX at 12:45 p.m., although my flight LAX to Vancouver leaves at 12:15 p.m.! First of all, I have no plans to go. I don't think the border will be open nor will travel be happening.

But what kind of idiotic re-routing is this? Do they really think someone should have to deal with that? How would I get to Vancouver?

ANYWAY - should I be contacting them or should I wait this out to see if they will cancel the flight? I mean, they have to cancel, right? <sigh>

Thanks for any insight.

mrwunrfl

I am not sure I understand. Your LAX departure is 12:15 and your return from YVR arrives LAX 12:45 on the same day? That is what it sounds like you are describing but given that you had an AirBnB res you were planning an overnight. They added a stop - was your original itinerary a nonstop?

You should check the Delta website for their cancellation and refund policies. Whatever it says I would not take it as the final word. I think you are due a refund. You might be able to initiate that online. For a cancel with an airline credit, you would want to know if you could use it online or if you have to call to use it.

The airline did not "think" (I think) it was a computer program that came up with the new itinerary. Same with other automated replies.

Rocket79

Thanks - No, it was a one-stop flight: Omaha-LAX-YVR. They added in Salt Lake City before LAX, putting me into the airport (LAX) 15 minutes after my scheduled connection to YVR. I understand the situation they're in, but I'd really prefer a refund; like many others, I have no idea when I'll be traveling again, COVID or not.

whitehall

The airlines are doing everything they can to avoid refunds, including playing with you. We had a trip planned to Paris/Corsica at the end of this month: We had separate Delta flights to get the best deal, RDU to JFK and then JFK to CDG. Return on Delta CDG to JFK mid-May and then Jet Blue JFK to RDU.

It started with Jet Blue (the last leg of our tripO. They first changed the evening flight a couple hours and then switched us to a flight early in the morning (even though we were not due back to JFK until mid-afternoon). Notice of changes often came days after we saw flight cancellations online. We emailed a demand for a refund and filed a chargeback request with our credit card, based on our flight being canceled by them. Today, we got two emails, one responding to our email of a couple weeks ago, promising us a refund in 7-10 days. And, the other one sent us a notice of cancelling all four flights they apparently tried to put us on.

Delta keeps encouraging us to consider an e-credit, but, until yesterday, were still selling tickets on our flights to and from Paris. At one point the non-stop flight from JFK to CDG was changed to JFK, ATL, AMS, CDG. Our flight RDU to JFK was changed to include a trip south to ATL with a very short layover before going to JFK, but it required an early morning departure that was not convenient. The biggest problem is that (if we were to go) we arrive in ATL three hours AFTER we depart for JFK. The JFK to Paris round trip flights today have been deleted. Yet a day later, zero notice to us..

We have three more airlines for flights within France. Easyjet to Corsica, which grounded their fleet and cancelled the flight a couple weeks ago, but still with no notice to us. Volotea from Corsica, is still showing as scheduled but inevitably it will be cancelled. And, Air France back to CDG, is also still scheduled as of today.

On he positive side, airbnb refunded three non-refundable deposits. Booking.com convinced one hotel to refund a non-refundable payment. Oddly, our one refundable payment, weeks later, still has not been forthcoming. ×

Rocket79

Wow. Crazy, crazy stuff. I would be inclined to just accept the voucher and be done with it, if I could choose where and when to travel. And if they were just honest and up front about it instead of making all of these screwy changes that are literally impossible to accommodate. Yes, I've been very impressed with Airbnb. Even a loft that had a strict cancellation policy gave me a full refund.

They've just officially announced that the Tour de France is cancelled, so your other France flights will mosts likely be cancelled, too. Good luck to us all!

surfmom

whitehall What I found is that I would see on-line the flights were cancelled before I got the official email. Many times, I got the official email within 2 days of travel, but the flights had been cancelled for 2 weeks.

I should edit my post and add the dates of my refund requests... many of them are about a month old at this point. I don't want to start a bunch of credit card disputes, I'm hoping I don't have to go that far, but if we get close to the '60 day' rule, then I will.

no updates here.

Rocket79

Just curious - My departure date was May 21 - how soon before this "might" I see notification of cancellation? I mean, the borders are closed! Are they allowing flights in? It's kind of confusing. Thanks...

Macross

Rocket, our flight is May 22nd and Virgin Atlantic so they no longer fall under the EU guidelines. So not sure. They wanted to give us a voucher to use before 1st of Dec with no rate increase.

whitehall

The airlines are playing a game of chicken. They are trying everything, including stalling as much as possible, to get YOU to cancel so they don't have to refund. The general advice, if you want a refund, is to wait until the last minute. You should get some notice before the scheduled flight, simply because the airlines don't want the added hatred and inconvenience from a passenger who shows up for a cancelled flight. As I understand, you can cancel your flight at any time before its scheduled departure and still get the e-credits offered by Delta. At one point, I even thought Delta suggested, during certain covered periods, if you didn't show up and didn't cancel, you might even get an automatic e-credit, but you would need to verify that (because so many people were having trouble even cancelling flights).