• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Complaints Soar As Customers Fight Airlines For Refunds From Pandemic Cancellations

M

MULTIZ321

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
33,132
Reaction score
9,495
Location
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL
Resorts Owned
BLUEWATER BY SPINNAKER HHI
ROYAL HOLIDAY CLUB RHC (POINTS)
Well, I'm just shocked.
 
We had 4 trips cancelled...some paid with $ others frequent flyer miles. I contacted the airlines with locator #, confirmation #....explaining I did not know when we would travel again, and asked for a refund or to have miles deposited back into my account. Money was refunded and miles are back in my account. It was more hesitation on my part than the airlines not following thru. Alas, we have 2 trips planned and I went back to the airlines that treated us so well! We will forever be loyal flyers to those airlines!!!!!
 
I cancelled 3 flights scheduled for earlier this year with American airlines. They were all booked with miles. I had no problems with the American airlines agent when I cancelled by telephone each time. The miles were back in my account in a few days and what little taxes and fees that were paid on the flights were back on the credit card I had used.
 
Just got an email from Chase Ultimate Rewards that they are giving refund rather than Holding a voucher for Air Canada cancelled flight. Good news for me.
 
I've got ~$4000 in Delta credit for flights I cancelled.
I woulda liked a refund, but it's fine with us 'cuz
... We expect to use it all for a Euro-trip in 2022.
.
 
We have vouchers for Hawaiian for last July’s canceled trip with my dad. They expire May next year. I was thinking we’d go next spring, but he’s now saying he’d rather take us on a Columbia River cruise, which I’m happy to substitute, but I sure wish I could get the cash back from Hawaiian!
 
Our complaints to InterJet Airlines about our cancelled flight on March 22, 2020 fell on deaf ears. They cancelled the first segment (Chetumal to Mexico City) of our flight to Toronto less than 4 hours before the scheduled departure time. They said it was due to Covid but the previous 2 days as well as the following 3 days of the same flights were not cancelled. We were told we would get a refund and were given a number to call when we got home (which we did) but we were told there would be no refunds because we took the flight from MEX to YYZ. We had to buy tickets from a competitor airline to get to Mexico City in time to get on the second leg of our trip. I even emailed Profeco to complain, but by the time they investigated InterJet was in serious financial trouble and they told us not to expect any compensation. The monetary value wasn't huge but it was the principal, we paid them to take us from Chetumal to Toronto and they didnt. We wont use them again if they resume normal operations.


~Diane
 
pierrepierre said:
We had 4 trips cancelled...some paid with $ others frequent flyer miles. I contacted the airlines with locator #, confirmation #....explaining I did not know when we would travel again, and asked for a refund or to have miles deposited back into my account. Money was refunded and miles are back in my account. It was more hesitation on my part than the airlines not following thru. Alas, we have 2 trips planned and I went back to the airlines that treated us so well! We will forever be loyal flyers to those airlines!!!!!
Click to expand...

So which airlines were the ones that treated you well?
 
My mom had a flight scheduled near the end of March 2020 to Denver to visit my sister via Frontier Airlines and some third-party website (maybe cheaptickets.com). After the news started freaking her out too much to travel, she called the third party and they said they would give her a refund due to the pandemic. Two months passed by and she never got a refund on her credit card. She called back and they said they would not be issuing a refund because her flight was outside of their free cancellation window (even though it was). She called Citi to dispute the charge. The third party responded to the dispute and defended themselves to the point that Citi didn't side with her. Off and on for the last year, she would call this third party and about a month ago she finally got ahold of someone who would issue her a refund. They mailed her a check, but that check ended up bouncing two weeks later! She called them one last time and they reissued her a new check.

After this experience, I think she'll finally take my advice to not use third party booking agents and just deal directly with the airline.
 
moonstone said:
Our complaints to InterJet Airlines about our cancelled flight on March 22, 2020 fell on deaf ears. They cancelled the first segment (Chetumal to Mexico City) of our flight to Toronto less than 4 hours before the scheduled departure time. They said it was due to Covid but the previous 2 days as well as the following 3 days of the same flights were not cancelled. We were told we would get a refund and were given a number to call when we got home (which we did) but we were told there would be no refunds because we took the flight from MEX to YYZ. We had to buy tickets from a competitor airline to get to Mexico City in time to get on the second leg of our trip. I even emailed Profeco to complain, but by the time they investigated InterJet was in serious financial trouble and they told us not to expect any compensation. The monetary value wasn't huge but it was the principal, we paid them to take us from Chetumal to Toronto and they didnt. We wont use them again if they resume normal operations.


~Diane
Click to expand...
We had interjet bookings from cancun to Toronto for Mar 20, 2021. Since interjet ceased operations in Dec 2020, we were able to get a refund through our credit card.
 
With all of my cancelled flight on Delta, they went out of their way to ensure I got my money back or they re-booked me on another flight,
 
byeloe said:
We had interjet bookings from cancun to Toronto for Mar 20, 2021. Since interjet ceased operations in Dec 2020, we were able to get a refund through our credit card.
Click to expand...
We tried that route, but since we had booked the flight so far (10?, maybe more, months) in advance Mastercard said sorry. :cry:
At least the replacement tickets with Volaris Air were not expensive.

~Diane
 
It appears that refunds were given with tickets booked directly with the airlines, which I think is fair. Going around in circles to get the cheapest ticket possible, one must read the small print! Yes, I have looked at those carriers - noting the layers of hoops to jump thru......just was not worth the hassle. And for me, it all is determined by the "hassle VS value" scale. Dad always said - "You get what your pay for in life"!
 
moonstone said:
We tried that route, but since we had booked the flight so far (10?, maybe more, months) in advance Mastercard said sorry. :cry:
At least the replacement tickets with Volaris Air were not expensive.

~Diane
Click to expand...
That's interesting because we had booked 12 months in advance. We had tried to get a refund from our credit card, when Interjet had stopped flights to Canada(back in sep or Oct), but CC said we had to wait until the company failed to provide the service.
 
pierrepierre said:
It appears that refunds were given with tickets booked directly with the airlines, which I think is fair. Going around in circles to get the cheapest ticket possible, one must read the small print! Yes, I have looked at those carriers - noting the layers of hoops to jump thru......just was not worth the hassle. And for me, it all is determined by the "hassle VS value" scale. Dad always said - "You get what your pay for in life"!
Click to expand...
The Interjet route from Toronto to Cancun was excellent back when it first started. Much more leg room and free drinks for less than half the price of other carriers. They did cut out the free alcohol over the 3ish years that we flew with them. Sadly they were not able to sustain a viable model

The prices were great for the high demand times of New year's and March break in Ontario.
Fortunately I won't need to fly at those times anymore
 
Southwest did right by me - refunded my points the way they always do, and extended the travel funds till September 2022 for the flights we'd booked in cash. I think we could have taken a true refund on a few of them, but most were paid for with older travel funds so the extension was very much appreciated. I'm all out of funds now, and running a bit low on points, having booked a heavy spring and summer of travel. With other airlines offering free changes, we did look elsewhere, but between the companion pass and their very generous change policies as of late, they kept 100% of our flights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top