Airline voucher or refund WWYD

[dutchgirl678]

We are booked with Iceland Air to fly to Europe mid-June. I already know it is probably not going to happen. But on their website they are only listing their schedule for the upcoming week so the flights have not been officially canceled yet. Non-EU citizens are not allowed to fly to Iceland or mainland Europe until at least May 15. Given these events, would you go to their website and get a voucher for a future date? They are giving people up to 3 years to book another flight and up to 1 year after booking to travel. Or would you try to get a full refund? Right now they are making it really hard for people to get refunds, and there is no guarantee that they will give you one and they are really hard to reach. But given that they haven't canceled our flights yet, makes me thing we should just go for the voucher instead. Thoughts?

[Deleted]

There is no rush to get the voucher. Just wait to see if it is cancelled... you are guaranteed a refund by DOT regulations if your flight is cancelled. If not, and there are just restrictions on flying, you'll get a voucher to use for a future flight. So, just wait and see.

[Vespasia]

I agree with @akswartz85 . We have flights to Italy booked for July and I am just holding out and hoping they get cancelled. My sister's were just a few days ago with another airline. 

[dutchgirl678]

Would you cancel other bookings before cancelling the flights? We have cars booked in the Netherlands and Iceland. Luckily the cottage rental in Iceland can be cancelled without paying before June 13. I know I am a planner, I really don't like to just wait and see what happens. But you all are right, I should just wait it out.

[Deleted]

dutchgirl678, I know it's hard to wait (I'm a planner too!) but there is little benefit to cancelling now. I'd just hold off as long as you can.

[emilyinchile]

I'd cancel the other things now and wait until they cancel your flight to get a refund. We have no idea what airlines will make it through this, and it would suck to be stuck with a voucher for an airline that no longer exists.

[mich1]

You might have difficulty getting a refund.

We have flights to Fiji on Fiji Air that leaves tomorrow. The flights were cancelled in March. I have attempted 3x to submit a form to get our money back, and I get a message that they have received my info.....then a week later, send me the same form that I just filled out back to fill out again. After a discussion with a CSR at Fiji Air, we were willing to accept a voucher, provided we would not have to pay any difference between the flight we paid vs rescheduling, but the CSR couldn’t guarantee this.

We are going to use the flight as we could only get a credit on our resort in Fiji, but the fligh5 schedule has not yet come out for the projected date we want to travel there (6/21).

Despite the fact that airlines should refund your money, getting it is not easy.

[dutchgirl678]

mich1, they make it so hard. I've heard of people getting a refund from Iceland Air when they cancelled the flights but it took 6-9 weeks to get it and the communication is lacking because they are so busy.

[mcsangel2]

If you cancel the tickets yourself, assuming your fares were originally non refundable (which they almost always are), you will not be eligible for a monetary refund if they decide to take a hard line about it. You have to wait for the airline to cancel the flight themselves. It's true they'll still push a voucher and that you do take a risk, if you accept it, that the airline might not survive and you'll have a worthless voucher. It will be difficult to get your money back regardless. Good luck.

[notsopicky]

I'm in the same boat. We had an Alaska cruise scheduled for June 20. It's not happening. I am playing the waiting game, b/c although I'll take a credit, I'd prefer a refund. American is only doing vouchers through the end of 2021, last I checked (that may have changed, it's been a minute since I looked).

[orval]

Apr 28, 2020 21:01:22 GMT -5 notsopicky said:

I'm in the same boat. We had an Alaska cruise scheduled for June 20. It's not happening. I am playing the waiting game, b/c although I'll take a credit, I'd prefer a refund. American is only doing vouchers through the end of 2021, last I checked (that may have changed, it's been a minute since I looked).

We had a spring break trip planned to Palm Springs, CA on American.  They did not cancel our flights but changed the time by at least 3 hours(with no notification btw).  I cancelled about 3 days prior (waited/hoped for the cancellation).  I submitted a request for and checked refund due to cancellation or significant time change.  It took a while, but we did get the refunds. 
The sucky part is we used a companion certificate and did not get a new one.  I'll still take the $1400 back vs. credit since who knows when we will fly again. 

BTW, we did an Alaskan cruise last year and it was amazing!  Sorry you don't get to go!  

[notsopicky]

orval, you're killing me with that last comment--of COURSE it was amazing. LOL

They already did that to us once (changing the flight times), but it wasn't significant enough to activate a refund. Just playing the waiting game.

We're going to reschedule for next summer.

[erbear]

Apr 27, 2020 13:02:38 GMT -5 @akswartz85 said:

There is no rush to get the voucher. Just wait to see if it is cancelled... you are guaranteed a refund by DOT regulations if your flight is cancelled. If not, and there are just restrictions on flying, you'll get a voucher to use for a future flight. So, just wait and see.

This is my plan. We have a flight to Europe on June 12. We're plannng to wait for them to cancel it and get refunds vs vouchers, if possible. I'm not sure about whether to cancel hotels and AirBNBs yet.

[neonpink]

erbear, I'm sure you already have looked but as I lost a lot of money in March I wanted to say. Look at your Airbnb rules about canceling. I had rented an airbnb in Paris in mid March and ended up having to cancel. We were still at a point where the world was still running a bit normal. The fine print on my airbnb said even if I canceled a week before I would only get x amount back minus cleaning fees. My stay partially fell under the airbnb covid-19 refund but I only ended up getting $60.00 back out of $1,700.

[erbear]

May 21, 2020 8:48:14 GMT -5 neonpink said:

erbear , I'm sure you already have looked but as I lost a lot of money in March I wanted to say. Look at your Airbnb rules about canceling. I had rented an airbnb in Paris in mid March and ended up having to cancel. We were still at a point where the world was still running a bit normal. The fine print on my airbnb said even if I canceled a week before I would only get x amount back minus cleaning fees. My stay partially fell under the airbnb covid-19 refund but I only ended up getting $60.00 back out of $1,700.

We're trying to push the whole trip back a year so hoping that this will make them more willing to work. AirBNB's policy on this is clear - they have to refund my money if the trip is canceled due to COVID - but I'd rather not have to fight them.

[dutchgirl678]

Iceland Air has released their schedule until the end of May. They say they are opening up some flights starting June 15. We are supposed to leave June 13. We received an email encouraging us to get a voucher and they are now saying people scheduled to fly before September 30 are eligible for a voucher. So I will wait a little bit longer until they actually cancel our flight to ask for a refund.

We have canceled our car rentals and our cottage booking in Iceland. The booking in the Netherlands won't refund us but will give us a voucher valid until September 2021. I hope we will be able to go next summer. But it says on their website if we don't use it by then we will be able to get a refund next year. I am ok with that.

[dutchgirl678]

Update: Iceland Air emailed us today with a notice that our flights on June 13 had been canceled. While they tried to get people to apply for a voucher, they did offer a form to ask for a refund, so I did that. All it required was the last name and booking code. We'll see when we actually get it, I have heard it can take 6 - 9 weeks.

[notsopicky]

Update: American Airlines, originally scheduled to fly on June 17, returning June 30.

Because the change in flight times were more than an hour (both outbound and returning), I was able to cancel the flights for a full refund. That's over $2K--for which I did not want a voucher (who knows when we would even be able to use them, given the uncertainty re: coronavirus). I was mad surprised about that--I thought the flight time change had to be 3+ hours.

I am glad that it's done, although I was told that the refund can take up to 8 (EIGHT!) weeks to process. I'll be totally satisfied once the money is credited to my CC--we still haven't received our refund for the cruise OR the on-board add-ons/excursions yet. The cruise line said that could take 60-90 days POST sail date(!)--UGH! I was on the phone with Travelocity for 2 HOURS--that was nuts!

[georgeglass]

notsopicky, we just canceled something with United Vacations. They're quoting NINETY days for refund.

I am anxiously awaiting airbnb updates- we have two reservations in Scotland for late July/start of August which we are clearly not going to be able to use.

[notsopicky]

Jun 12, 2020 13:35:09 GMT -5 georgeglass said:

notsopicky , we just canceled something with United Vacations. They're quoting NINETY days for refund.

I am anxiously awaiting airbnb updates- we have two reservations in Scotland for late July/start of August which we are clearly not going to be able to use.

They quoted me 60 and I about fell out of my chair, so 90--Jesus Christ. We still haven't received our cruise refund yet either--we were set to sail a week from tomorrow, and they are saying 60-90 days POST-sail date. I just hope we get our $$$. 

[notsopicky]

Update to the update: My refund for the flights hit my CC today. I was shocked--it only took 7 days, not 60!! All monies paid re: airfare are now refunded in full. Now I'm just waiting on the cruise line to hit me back--let's goooooo, Princess.

[dutchgirl678]

notsopicky, nice! We are still waiting for our Icelandair refund. We were supposed to fly out 3 days ago. Today I got an email that we are in their system but they haven't gotten to us yet due to the high volume of requests. At least that is something. I hope your cruise gets refunded soon as well.

[notsopicky]

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE! Cruise fare is now refunded! Only 2 days post sail date, rather than 60-90. Now if the on-board purchases (excursions, spa, specialty dining, internet) could get refunded too, that'd be great. I did call my agent, and she said that all refunds have been processed by the cruise line, so it's my credit card I'm waiting on. Let's goooooooooo, CC--I want this thing over with.

[notsopicky]

Update to the update to the update (JFC, after this, I'm out, lol): CC just credited back ALL on-board purchases, AND are issuing me a check for the refunds (we 0-balance out the card every month).

Drama saga over. I am sad that I am not in Alaska RIGHT THIS MINUTE, but we hope to go next summer.

[dutchgirl678]

It's been 8 weeks since we canceled our trip (and Iceland Air officially canceled our flights). We still don't have our refund. We just got an email from the car rental company in Iceland that they went bankrupt and will send us an official document we can send to our credit card company to get our money back. Hopefully that will go smoothly. The car rental was only $450, so it is not as big a deal as the flights.

[dutchgirl678]

I sent an email to the Icelandic Transport Authority on August 18 and they made me fill in a form they would forward to Iceland Air. A few days later they sent a response saying we would hear back within two weeks. And yesterday, magically, we got a response from Iceland Air that they are refunding us the money and it will show up within 7 business days as a credit on our card. Finally!

I also filled a chargeback claim on our cc for the car rental because they never sent us that document.

[dutchgirl678]

We got the refund! In another 3-5 days our cc will deposit the amount in our checking.