Corona Daily 286: Getting Airline Refunds in Covid Times

Many of my friends, great planners, are still carrying air tickets for their well-planned holidays that never happened. Some have spent so much time on phone calls to the airlines, they could have travelled the world in that time. By May 2020, US airlines owed travelers $10 billion. Complaints went up by 900%, most of them about refunds. In a large customer satisfaction survey, Ryanair scored -89% and Virgin Atlantic -88%.

For those still waiting for a refund, here are some tips.

First, during the pandemic, always insist on a refund, not a voucher. If the airline goes bankrupt, the voucher may become garbage. If the airlines cancelled your flight, rather than you cancelling it, you are in a better position. You should try to recover the money in any case.

Second, never feel sorry for the airlines. You are a person; your loss is a genuine personal loss. An airline is abstract. If you feel crazily charitable, first claim the refund, then donate it to a pilot friend who has lost his job.

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The USA offers protection to all passengers scheduled to leave or arrive at a US airport. If you have such a ticket, send an email giving your reservation number to the airline’s customer service saying you will be filing a complaint with the Department of Transportation (DoT). This usually brings you to the front of the queue.

Second step is to make good your threat. File a complaint with the DoT. DoT will send you a reply with a cc marked to the airline. From that moment, the airline must acknowledge the complaint within 30 days, and answer it in 60 days. That’s the law in the USA.

Similar procedures exist in Europe. The European commission offers much better protection for passengers.

The third step is to send emails to the senior management of the airline. The airline’s website will usually give you some names. A Google search will produce many more email addresses. It will still take less time than calling the airline and getting trapped in a lengthy musical loop. Airlines’ senior management usually have assistants. Bureaucracy always rewards the aggressive complainants, and tries to corruptly pocket the money of the lazy lot.

Fourth, if you paid with a credit card, file a claim with your credit card company. Whenever you pay by credit card, you are expected to receive the product or service in exchange. When you don’t, the credit card company can reverse the entry, and then pursue the airline. Visa or Mastercard will be more effective in recovering the money, and even if they don’t, they can afford to lose it more than you can.

Fifth, take your complaint to social media. Make a case out of it, and make it viral on WhatsApp, Facebook. One passenger managed to get a refund from British Airways this way, so anything is possible.

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Most of these steps are valid for flights starting or ending in North America or Europe.

Indian Supreme Court on 1 October has issued an order making Airlines and others liable to refund the money to passengers. If your travel agent has received the money from the airline, then by the court order, he is obliged to give it to you immediately.

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Even if you hold a voucher, follow all the steps above insisting on a cash refund. You may just be lucky.

If you couldn’t travel on an Air China or Ethiopian airlines because of the lockdown, don’t waste your time. Just consider yourself lucky your flight was cancelled.

Ravi