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Can You Request A Refund If An Airline Has Already Issued You With A Travel Voucher?


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Update: US DoT Enforcement Notice Wording Added

There are a number of questions surrounding the current crisis that I’m receiving over and over again but one question has been dominating my inbox for over a week: Can passengers who have been duped into accepting an airline voucher request that the airline converts that voucher into a refund?

Before I go any further, allow me to make a couple of things clear:

  • If you’re flying in jurisdictions covered by US or European law, an airline will owe you a refund if it cancels your flight(s). It doesn’t matter where the airline is based and it doesn’t matter if the airline claims that the cancellation was due to government regulations surrounding Covid-19 – a refund is due if the passenger was not responsible for the cancellation.
  • If you choose to cancel a trip because you don’t wish to fly and the airline didn’t cancel your flights, the airline does not owe you a refund. As long as the airline isn’t the party canceling the flights the most that the passenger is owed is whatever the airline chooses to offer (right now, most airlines are offering vouchers for future travel).

On the face of things that’s all very clear but, thanks to the way a lot of airlines have been behaving, that’s not where the story ends.

A lot of airlines have been making it deliberately difficult for passengers to request refunds when their trips have been canceled, and a worrying number have been giving passengers the impression that they’re not entitled to a refund even if they are (most airlines are doing whatever they can to preserve cash reserves right now). This has lead to a significant number of airline customers accepting vouchers for future travel when they should have been getting their money back, and because passengers are now starting to find out that they’ve been duped into accepting a voucher, a lot of them are understandably annoyed and want to take the airlines to task.

There’s good news and there’s bad news and you’ll need to know if you’re covered by US regulations or EU regulations if you’re to know if your news is good or bad.

  • The US Department of Transport rules (DoT rules) cover all flights to, from and within the United States regardless of the airline providing the transportation.
  • European legislation applies to all flights departing from the European Union (and select Eurozone countries) regardless of the airline providing the transportation, as well as to all airlines based in the European Union (and select Eurozone countries) irrespective of the routing (link).

Note: Airlines cannot select which rules to adhere to so, if two sets of rules cover the same trip, a flyer can cite the more favorable rules and the airline has to abide by those rules.

If your trip falls under the jurisdiction of the US DoT, any airline that has issued a passenger with a voucher when that passenger was entitled to a refund must inform that passenger that they’re entitled to a refund if they want it.

Here’s the exact wording from the DoT (link) (thanks to Ben):

“In recognition of the fact that the COVID-19 public health emergency has had major impacts on the airline industry, the Aviation Enforcement Office will exercise its prosecutorial discretion and provide carriers an opportunity to become compliant before taking further action. Specifically, the Aviation Enforcement Office will refrain from pursuing an enforcement action against a carrier that provided passengers vouchers for future travel in lieu of refunds for cancelled or significantly delayed flights during the COVID-19 public health emergency so long as: (1) the carrier contacts, in a timely manner, the passengers provided vouchers for flights that the carrier cancelled or significantly delayed to notify those passengers that they have the option of a refund; (2) the carrier updates its refund policies and contract of carriage provisions to make clear that it provides refunds to passengers if the carrier cancels a flight or makes a significant schedule change; and (3) the carrier reviews with its personnel, including reservationists, ticket counter agents, refund personnel, and other customer service professionals, the circumstances under which refunds should be made.”

That’s the good news.

For passengers whose canceled trips fall under EU legislation things aren’t so good. Because the EU regulators have not issued similar guidance to the US DoT (a little surprising considering just how much more consumer-friendly EU legislation is when it comes to airlines) the stark reality is this:

If you have accepted a voucher for future travel from an airline but were due a refund, you’re going to find it next to impossible to get the airline to convert that voucher into cash.

Airlines are generally very careful with the terms and conditions they append to their vouchers and if you delve down into the small print you’re almost certain to find words which say that by accepting a voucher you waive your right to any other form of recompense (I haven’t accepted any vouchers so I cannot provide example terms and conditions here) – this is why so many airlines are incredibly keen to get passengers to accept vouchers if they possibly can.

Once you’ve accepted a voucher that’s (generally) it.

A notable exception to this is Emirates who, rather amazingly, has now got one of the most generous cancellation policies I’ve ever seen after originally being one of the better known airlines that were refusing refunds.

This is not to say that it’s not worth asking an airline for a refund in exchange for a voucher that you feel you were duped into accepting (what’s the worst that can happen?) but you should be aware that you’re highly unlikely to be successful.

I’m aware that some people are challenging airlines like British Airways on the grounds that they were led to a page that only offered a voucher by a button that indicated a refund was possible…

a screenshot of a email…and they may eventually have some success…but it will be a very long a drawn-out process that is in no way guaranteed to end with a positive outcome. It may even require a petition in small claims court.

Bottom Line

If you’re covered by US regulations and have been issued with a voucher for a cancellation that you did not instigate you should contact your airline for a refund. If the airline refuses a refund, you should file a complaint with the DoT.

If your trip is only covered by European regulations and you’re suddenly finding out that you were due a full refund from an airline that duped you into accepting a voucher you’re not on your own and you have my sympathy…but I can’t really offer you any more than that.

Barring an unprecedented and incredibly unlikely u-turn buy one or more of the offending airlines, passengers who have accepted vouchers for future travel are almost certainly stuck with those vouchers and will not be able to get a refund from the airlines – cash is the most important thing to airlines right now and they’re not going to give any of it up if they can possibly avoid it.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. You need to update this to include what the DOT said last month (google DOT enforcement notice refund to find it, not sure if I can post a link here)

    “Specifically, the Aviation Enforcement Office will refrain from pursuing an enforcement action against a carrier that provided passengers vouchers for future travel in lieu of refunds for cancelled or significantly delayed flights during the COVID-19 public health emergency so long as: (1) the carrier contacts, in a timely manner, the passengers provided vouchers for flights that the carrier cancelled or significantly delayed to notify those passengers that they have the option of a refund”

    In essence, if the carrier previously canceled a flight and insisted a voucher was the only recourse, that should get swapped to a refund fairly easily. If a carrier refuses, especially if the voucher has been unused so far, file a DOT complaint and a refund should come fairly quickly.

  2. I was able to convert voucher to refund from Spirit
    They change my inbound flight from direct to one with connection due to the cancellation of the direct flight. I the. canceled it online and got the voucher automatically.
    It never hurt to ask.

  3. I had a BA flight from UK to Seattle that BA cancelled. I got tricked by the press here for a refund button and unwittingly filled in a travel voucher form before I realised my mistake. I’ve gone round and round with them on twitter. And they are refusing a refund. I’d greatly appreciate advice on my next steps!

  4. I need advice which regulations apply in my case european or usa dot?
    Our fly /with wife and son/ wos from apr.17 toronto-london-budapest and return may.13 budapest-philadelphia-toronto with british airlines wos cancelled.
    We purchased, booked through by travel agent.
    Before apr.17 the agent called me and informed us the cancelation and she said the airlines give us voucher for the 3 ticket for 12 month expires!
    Of course I requested a refund but she /agent/ said not passable, and this is the best she can do for us.
    May.22 I wos able to speak with a british airlines costumer relations agents in usa /canadian should call BA usa/ but he refused to help me because I purchased through travel agent /he can see from booking number/, so I should contact the travel agent and he hang on.
    Any advice? Feels like being played ugly!
    Airlines want to keeping our money + they crying for bailout! Ridiculous! Seems like they can hide behind politicians, specially in canada.

  5. Hi, I could use advice if possible,
    Qatar airways started offering vouchera early on even for flights 2 months out that were not canceled at the time.
    So I went ahead and got a voucher even though my flight was 2 months out, now 5 days before the flight I can see that flight is actually canceled do I have a chance in getting a refund even though I voluntary took voucher 2 months earlier? Thanks

  6. Hello
    I’d had flights booked with British Airways to fly from the U.K. to Alicante on the 15/08/20 Which were cancelled by British Airways, and was duped into getting a voucher. Can I change this to get a full refund?
    Thanks

  7. I was duped by BA into clicking the refund button (after trying to call for days on end and kept being told they were too busy to talk to me) £2600.00 for some work flights.
    I then needed to book some more flights didn’t really want to use BA again but as I had the vouchers and was refused a refund thought i would book, only to be told I couldn’t use the vouchers as the flight was less than 4 days away and the that the names didn’t match the original booking – it is for work so the original people who were going had changed, so then had to pay again for flights i have technically already paid for!
    I call BA and finally got through to be told the voucher had been accepted so no refund (i have pointed out that no where on their website does it state this and no terms or conditions to read or tick to say you agree)
    Emails back and forth say no refund – even though I had to re book and pay for flights that I had already paid for – this was UK to Corfu so I am guessing I can’t get a refund, but unfair if i had vouchers that i wasn’t allowed to use!

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