The one and only refund thread [READ MOD NOTE BEFORE POSTING]!

Royale with Cheese

Flight with Aer Lingus in early June, ignored emails from them pleading with me to take a voucher. I let the date pass and sure the flight didn't go, had to call them two weeks later to start the refund process as they never bothered contacting me to tell me the flight was actually cancelled. I was told it was a straight refund and they gave me a case number.

I heard nothing for 7 weeks or so and called them again last Friday, was told it was in the queue but they'd prioritise it. Email on Sunday stating the refund was approved, money back on my card this morning. Worth giving them a call.

HeidiHeidi

I had Aer Lingus flights cancelled mid and end of March - applied for refund for both at the time.


I contacted them a couple of times on Twitter, got a comprehensive holding reply each time assuring me I was in the system and it would come eventually.


As the amounts were small, I decided not to hassle them about it, and sure enough the refunds arrived about three weeks ago (so four months after the refunds were applied for), unannounced, and as another poster said before, each item (flight, baggage) refunded separately which confused me to start with!


TLDR: Twitter also a good means of finding out what's happening.

CBear1993

Availed of Aer Lingus deposit scheme for US flights. Looking at US Embassy entry stipulations & DFA here, no one will be getting into US this year unless they hold a greencard or absolutely necessary.

Booked December 1st-6th Dublin JFK for me & partner.

Paid €310 in April- Balance left to pay €494 by 2nd October 2020. NOTE: It does state the deposit is non-refundable for this US Deposit scheme, however reasonable circumstances may change the ruling on this. Wouldn't no entry to the country count as an exception?

Was going to chance my arm and ask them if I could use that deposit paid elsewhere i.e. in Europe next month for instance instead.

Rang them up there and the foreign customer attendant wasn't able to understand very well, basically said I will have to pay the full amount, then submit a refund request to get my money in full back...

Think I'm unlikely to get anything unless I pay the full €800 to get €800 back! Or get speaking to the right person on the phone.

k123456

Hi All,

I booked flights to France with Ryanair
Flights were booked 22 June, when I think France was on the "green list"

I want to cancel my flights,as France is now on Irish Red list;
"In accordance with Government policy, which is based on official public health advice, the Department of Foreign Affairs continues to advise against non-essential travel overseas" to France

I have travel insurance taken out for a two year period
with Multitrip.com
the policy was taken out in 2019, well before Covid

I used an Avantcard credit card to book, so chargeback might be an option


Out from DUBLIN
Tue 15 Sep 2020


home from CARCASSONNE
Tue 29 Sep 2020

to get a refund, am I better off calling Ryanair, Multitrip or Avantcard (chargeback)
Am I entitled to one

Hollybeg

Has anyone actually got a cash refund from Aer Lingus in respect of flights to the US which were NOT cancelled?

Myself and the wife "are" due to fly to the US next month but that won't be happening with the travel ban. It's highly unlikely it will be lifted anytime soon. The tickets are non refundable unfortunatly but as far as I can see there's nothing within their T&C's that state you can't seek a "voucher" in lieu of a refund. Obviously I'd prefer cash. There's nothing from Aer Lingus yet about flights past August.

jasonb

k123456 wrote: »

Hi All,

I booked flights to France with Ryanair
Flights were booked 22 June, when I think France was on the "green list"

I want to cancel my flights,as France is now on Irish Red list;
"In accordance with Government policy, which is based on official public health advice, the Department of Foreign Affairs continues to advise against non-essential travel overseas" to France

I have travel insurance taken out for a two year period
with Multitrip.com
the policy was taken out in 2019, well before Covid

I used an Avantcard credit card to book, so chargeback might be an option


Out from DUBLIN
Tue 15 Sep 2020


home from CARCASSONNE
Tue 29 Sep 2020

to get a refund, am I better off calling Ryanair, Multitrip or Avantcard (chargeback)
Am I entitled to one

Just my thoughts on this. As far as I know, Green List/Red List makes no difference, the non-essential travel advice has been in place since the 17th March and is still in place. The only difference with Red/Green is whether you have to quarantine when you get back.

Not sure if you're entitled to a refund, but would expect you might be as you can't travel due to Covid-19 (the non-essential travel advice). Though I'm not sure if you ringing and canelling before the flights happen changes the rules or not (as opposed to waiting until RyanAir potentially cancel the flights themselves) I'd go with RyanAir first, and then if you've no luck there, chargeback. Then if needed, Multitrip. A note on Multitrip, I took cover with them in early March, before the non-essential travel advice, and I checked with them before getting the cover and was told I'd need to get the extra Travel Disruption cover to cover me for Covid-19 issues. So you might check your policy to see if you got Travel Disruption or not?

jasonb

Hollybeg wrote: »

Has anyone actually got a cash refund from Aer Lingus in respect of flights to the US which were NOT cancelled?

Myself and the wife "are" due to fly to the US next month but that won't be happening with the travel ban. It's highly unlikely it will be lifted anytime soon. The tickets are non refundable unfortunatly but as far as I can see there's nothing within their T&C's that state you can't seek a "voucher" in lieu of a refund. Obviously I'd prefer cash. There's nothing from Aer Lingus yet about flights past August.

I have read on this thread that non-refundable only applies if you cancel, not if the airline cancels, but I don't know if that's true or not. You might have to wait until Aer Lingus either cancels the flights (and then ask for the refund) or the flight goes ahead, and then you contact Aer Lingus asking for a refund saying you couldn't travel due to the non-essential travel advice...

Exclamation Marc

I got my refund today from Ryanair directly having gotten a chargeback about three weeks ago.

Was all through Revolut and they didn't reclaim the refund...yet.

Caranica

k123456 wrote: »

Hi All,

I booked flights to France with Ryanair
Flights were booked 22 June, when I think France was on the "green list"

I want to cancel my flights,as France is now on Irish Red list;
"In accordance with Government policy, which is based on official public health advice, the Department of Foreign Affairs continues to advise against non-essential travel overseas" to France

I have travel insurance taken out for a two year period
with Multitrip.com
the policy was taken out in 2019, well before Covid

I used an Avantcard credit card to book, so chargeback might be an option


Out from DUBLIN
Tue 15 Sep 2020


home from CARCASSONNE
Tue 29 Sep 2020

to get a refund, am I better off calling Ryanair, Multitrip or Avantcard (chargeback)
Am I entitled to one

France was never on a green list. As someone has already pointed out, green list doesn't mean "ok to travel to" rather "you don't have to it isolate on return from". Only one list was ever published and that was towards the end of July.

If the flights aren't cancelled you have no entitlement to a refund. One of the few consistent pieces of Government advice since March has been "avoid non essential travel overseas". That did not change in June or since.

Springfields

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

I got my refund today from Ryanair directly having gotten a chargeback about three weeks ago.

Was all through Revolut and they didn't reclaim the refund...yet.

Can I ask when were the flights for...waiting on refunds for flights in june and july.. cheers

spurious

Still waiting on the refund for the March 19th flight for the Latvian mother and child, but assured it is finally on its way.
Voucher was issued in the name of the passenger which may have complicated things.
We shall see.

Exclamation Marc

Springfields wrote: »

Can I ask when were the flights for...waiting on refunds for flights in june and july.. cheers

Sure. It was a 13th to 16th June return flight to Italy.

sibersha

Been waiting on refunds for flights due in May with both RA and Aerlingus. Contacted both via DM on twitter and have since received emails from both stating to expect refund in bank account within 5-7 working days

paddy19

jasonb wrote: »

I have read on this thread that non-refundable only applies if you cancel, not if the airline cancels, but I don't know if that's true or not. You might have to wait until Aer Lingus either cancels the flights (and then ask for the refund) or the flight goes ahead, and then you contact Aer Lingus asking for a refund saying you couldn't travel due to the non-essential travel advice...

Sadly the rule is if they fly and you don't, you loose your money.

It is up to the passenger to ensure they have the correct documents to legally enter the destination country.

Irish government advise holds zero sway for refunds from the airline it may give you some chance with travel insurance.

jasonb

Yeah, I was thinking that, but wasn't sure.

Caranica

Just got the email from Ryanair that I'll have my refund in 5-7 days. 21 days since I applied (flights in September), beats the pants off the 107 day wait for the last one!

pc7

Caranica wrote: »

Just got the email from Ryanair that I'll have my refund in 5-7 days. 21 days since I applied (flights in September), beats the pants off the 107 day wait for the last one!

Wow you lucky divil!! I’m still waiting on one I applied for 18th May!

Hollybeg

paddy19 wrote: »

Sadly the rule is if they fly and you don't, you loose your money.

It is up to the passenger to ensure they have the correct documents to legally enter the destination country.

Irish government advise holds zero sway for refunds from the airline it may give you some chance with travel insurance.

That would be fine were it not for the fact that, for example, the US have enacted a travel ban for residents who have been in the EU in the previous 14 days. If Aer Lingus decide to do that to me, I'll happily take it to the small claims court. The precident has already been set (vouchers have been offered to customers heretofore, Aer Lingus are already stating that vouchers will be provided to customers if countries are removed from the "Green list" prior to departure). I'd be very confident of winning.

SweetCaliber

Strange turn of events today.

Originally got the email with the voucher asking if I didn't accept it to let them know and they would issue a refund in due course.. blah blah.

Accepted the voucher as will use next year.

However today I got an email from Ryanair saying they have received my refund request and have issued a refund to my card.

Not complaining, just surprised. They must be refunding those with vouchers now also?

Caranica

pc7 wrote: »

Wow you lucky divil!! I’m still waiting on one I applied for 18th May!

I think they're treating it like they do multiple delayed flights. The original delayed people are annoyed anyway, let's not annoy the next flight and we'll deal with the original lot when things calm down. While I was waiting from early March until late June loads of people were posting here that they'd had refunds for flights in May and June. So it's definitely not a case of first come first served.

paddy19

Hollybeg wrote: »

That would be fine were it not for the fact that, for example, the US have enacted a travel ban for residents who have been in the EU in the previous 14 days. If Aer Lingus decide to do that to me, I'll happily take it to the small claims court. The precident has already been set (vouchers have been offered to customers heretofore, Aer Lingus are already stating that vouchers will be provided to customers if countries are removed from the "Green list" prior to departure). I'd be very confident of winning.

Sadly, I would not be at all confident of winning.
I would expect that Aer Lingus would fight it in the courts.
It's not a precedent, it's a new contract with different "Peace of Mind" Terms.
Passengers in the past did not get these terms and are subject to the old contract.
There is potentially a serious hunk of money involved.
This would open claims from every passenger who did not turn up for a flight based on Covid.
EU law is of no help, so it would be down to contract terms and conditions.

Sadly, the rule is, if they fly and you don't, you loose your money.

Government advise is really only of help for insurance.

"Ireland’s government has announced a Green List of countries where “normal precautions” apply for Irish citizens travelling to these locations. The list includes Italy, Greece and Hungary – perfect locations for a relaxing break in the sun. People arriving in Ireland from these locations don’t need to restrict their movements. And if you book travel to a country that’s later removed from the Green List before your departure date, we’ll give you the option to cancel your booking and exchange it for a voucher for the full value of your booking."

http://blog.aerlingus.com/book-your-green-list-getaway-with-peace-of-mind/

Hollybeg

paddy19 wrote: »

Sadly, I would not be at all confident of winning.
I would expect that Aer Lingus would fight it in the courts.
It's not a precedent, it's a new contract with different "Peace of Mind" Terms.
Passengers in the past did not get these terms and are subject to the old contract.
There is potentially a serious hunk of money involved.
This would open claims from every passenger who did not turn up for a flight based on Covid.
EU law is of no help, so it would be down to contract terms and conditions.

Sadly, the rule is, if they fly and you don't, you loose your money.

Government advise is really only of help for insurance.

"Ireland’s government has announced a Green List of countries where “normal precautions” apply for Irish citizens travelling to these locations. The list includes Italy, Greece and Hungary – perfect locations for a relaxing break in the sun. People arriving in Ireland from these locations don’t need to restrict their movements. And if you book travel to a country that’s later removed from the Green List before your departure date, we’ll give you the option to cancel your booking and exchange it for a voucher for the full value of your booking."

http://blog.aerlingus.com/book-your-green-list-getaway-with-peace-of-mind/

I purchased the tickets last year. Its not about not turning up for the flight... the issue in my case is the US Travel Ban - I quite simply will not be provided with an ESTA to travel, which is beyond my control. Certainly if the US lift the travel ban between now and then, well I'd be goosed. Anyhow, there's nothing in the T&C's about what constitutes a "travel ban" or their definition of what constitutes a "refund"... a voucher is a credit note effectively, not a "refund".

Anyhow, I'll let you know how I get on, been there before with Aer Lingus. I've nothing to loose but €25 and worst case, the case is rejected or a day out in court. It's unlikely they will want to spend another grand or two defending a case, so as I've said, I'm very confident.

paddy19

Hollybeg wrote: »

I purchased the tickets last year. Its not about not turning up for the flight... the issue in my case is the US Travel Ban - I quite simply will not be provided with an ESTA to travel, which is beyond my control. Certainly if the US lift the travel ban between now and then, well I'd be goosed. Anyhow, there's nothing in the T&C's about what constitutes a "travel ban" or their definition of what constitutes a "refund"... a voucher is a credit note effectively, not a "refund".

Anyhow, I'll let you know how I get on, been there before with Aer Lingus. I've nothing to loose but €25 and worst case, the case is rejected or a day out in court. It's unlikely they will want to spend another grand or two defending a case, so as I've said, I'm very confident.

Absolutely go for it.
As you say it's €25 and will highlight the hypocrisy of the government in issuing and revising green lists which land consumers with the cost.

I have mega time for the SCC. It does a great job and would have been a serious player in these cases if Covid had not stymied the courts.

jasonb

Well I finally got my own issue sorted. After Air Canada had disputed my chargeback request with PTSB (first flight cancelled, flight home moved by more than 24 hours and changed to non-direct) I raised a pre-arbitration case with PTSB a week ago. Today I got a letter in the post from PTSB saying that the pre-arbitration case had been accepted and the money fully refunded to me. I checked my bank and it was there, came in this morning. A quick check with PTSB on the phone (and on Twitter to get it in writing) got confirmation that this wasn't some sort of temporary transfer of funds while waiting for Air Canada to respond, this was case closed and the money is mine.

It's taken me months to get this money back, and today I'm mostly thrilled and relived (€1,500 is a lot of money!) but also annoyed the Air Canada dragged it out so much, and made me jump through these hoops to get my own money back. But mainly I'm just glad it's all finally sorted and I have the money back. I'd also started a claim with our Travel Insurance, which I can now cancel.

So, for those of you going down the chargeback route, if it is disputed, do escalate it and start the pre-arbitraton, it might just be enough to get the airline to give in. I have to give PTSB credit, they were very helpful once I started the chargeback process.

Thanks to everyone for their help on this great thread, and best of luck to you all in your own attempts to get your money back!

Arruabarrena

Unusual situation this; was due a refund from Lastminute.com for American flights in April that were cancelled. Got my email after 3 months of waiting to say my refund was successful and the money would be in my account within 15 working days.

Sounds great right? Well, I no longer have the bank account used to pay for the flights last year. Took the opportunity during lockdown to switch provider. So the bank have said the money will just bounce-back to lastminute. However, lastminute are now completely un-contactable. They don't deal with queries via Twitter anymore and only one of their phone lines is operational but it's automated so can't actually speak to someone to explain the situation.

Anyone any ideas or will my refund be stuck in the ether for ever more?

beggars_bush

Arruabarrena wrote: »

Unusual situation this; was due a refund from Lastminute.com for American flights in April that were cancelled. Got my email after 3 months of waiting to say my refund was successful and the money would be in my account within 15 working days.

Sounds great right? Well, I no longer have the bank account used to pay for the flights last year. Took the opportunity during lockdown to switch provider. So the bank have said the money will just bounce-back to lastminute. However, lastminute are now completely un-contactable. They don't deal with queries via Twitter anymore and only one of their phone lines is operational but it's automated so can't actually speak to someone to explain the situation.

Anyone any ideas or will my refund be stuck in the ether for ever more?

I'd the same situation with 3 bookings made with a ptsb credit card
I closed all accounts before covid landed
Ladies in customer service in the bank branch and customer service phoneline were adamant that the payment would bounce back to the payee
Nope, PTSB issued me with a cheque for each amount as they had my details still on system.
Thank you ptsb

paddy19

Arruabarrena wrote: »

Unusual situation this; was due a refund from Lastminute.com for American flights in April that were cancelled. Got my email after 3 months of waiting to say my refund was successful and the money would be in my account within 15 working days.

Sounds great right? Well, I no longer have the bank account used to pay for the flights last year. Took the opportunity during lockdown to switch provider. So the bank have said the money will just bounce-back to lastminute. However, lastminute are now completely un-contactable. They don't deal with queries via Twitter anymore and only one of their phone lines is operational but it's automated so can't actually speak to someone to explain the situation.

Anyone any ideas or will my refund be stuck in the ether for ever more?

Lastminute is unlikely to have your money at this stage.
The airline has it.
If EU261 applies you can go direct to the airline.
Depending on the Airline you may be able to appeal to CAR.

Str8outtaWuhan

Fully refunded from AL just came through in CC statement. Thanks to all here for their advice.Best of luck to all still fighting the good fight. If this has thought me one thing its that the EU and their rules don't mean a sh1.t when governments don't enforce them.

Lex Luthor

Str8outtaWuhan wrote: »

Fully refunded from AL just came through in CC statement. Thanks to all here for their advice.Best of luck to all still fighting the good fight. If this has thought me one thing its that the EU and their rules don't mean a sh1.t when governments don't enforce them.

same here this morning

came through with a refund on the cc through AIB

I can only assume it was through the chargeback, took about 6 weeks in total

They said they received on the 10th July and processed on the 12th July
I posted it about 4-5 days before the 10th July for flights we had with RA on 6th Jun

This was just after I received an email from RA 2-3 days ago saying refund would be in account within 5-7 w days

keep fighting the fight everyone

spurious

Refund arrived today from Ryanair for March 19th flight for Latvian mother and child.

Hoping my own one for May 6th comes soon.