Reasonable time for refunds from Airlines

woollers

Hi everyone,
We had our flights cancelled for a trip with Lufthansa on April 7th. I finally managed to get through to their call centre on the 27th March to ask for the refund of the flights. The agreed to this. It's almost a month later and I've still no refund. I called last night to their call centre and apart from being quite rude, they said I could be waiting '2 billing cycles' aka months because of the demand.

What is a reasonable period for a refund? Is this unreasonable?

mr_stripey

woollers said:

Hi everyone,
We had our flights cancelled for a trip with Lufthansa on April 7th. I finally managed to get through to their call centre on the 27th March to ask for the refund of the flights. The agreed to this. It's almost a month later and I've still no refund. I called last night to their call centre and apart from being quite rude, they said I could be waiting '2 billing cycles' aka months because of the demand.

What is a reasonable period for a refund? Is this unreasonable?

I suppose it depends on how much they want to give you a refund. It seems many are dragging their feet or trying to get customers to accept vouchers instead. Some have said they won't process refunds until after the coronavirus crisis is over.

On the other hand, BA refunded my flights without fuss and the money was in the bank the next day (although it was a bit of an ordeal trying to actually speak to someone in the first place)

I would presure that if Lufthansa wanted to refund you they could do so fairly easily. But they're probably stalling hoping for a change in regulations meaning they don't have to give you a refund and can compel you to take vouchers instead

(this is just my take - i'm not an expert)

Pollycat

mr_stripey said:

woollers said:

Hi everyone,
We had our flights cancelled for a trip with Lufthansa on April 7th. I finally managed to get through to their call centre on the 27th March to ask for the refund of the flights. The agreed to this. It's almost a month later and I've still no refund. I called last night to their call centre and apart from being quite rude, they said I could be waiting '2 billing cycles' aka months because of the demand.

What is a reasonable period for a refund? Is this unreasonable?

I suppose it depends on how much they want to give you a refund. It seems many are dragging their feet or trying to get customers to accept vouchers instead. Some have said they won't process refunds until after the coronavirus crisis is over.

On the other hand, BA refunded my flights without fuss and the money was in the bank the next day (although it was a bit of an ordeal trying to actually speak to someone in the first place)

I would presure that if Lufthansa wanted to refund you they could do so fairly easily. But they're probably stalling hoping for a change in regulations meaning they don't have to give you a refund and can compel you to take vouchers instead

(this is just my take - i'm not an expert)

Or they may be telling the truth about 'the demand' for refunds.

Caz3121

I called Lufthansa last week and was advised that as my ticket fare rules were non-refundable the refund would take some time as they were processing them manually. I expect they will have reduced staff / people working at home and thousands of passenger cancellations to deal with. They could not give me a timescale but advised it would likely be more than a month. 
Some airlines are stating 6-8 weeks+ for refunds.
I would think reasonable during a global pandemic is different to reasonable at any other time (where they would only be dealing with refunds for refundable tickets)

lrothera

I agreed a refund with BA on 20th March for a flight that was supposed to happen on 22nd March (before being cancelled). They were fine about giving me the refund but still no sign of it. I contacted them a week ago and they said it was “queued” and I would just have to wait. I also have a refund due from EasyJet, their info says not to contact them about it unless the refund has not appeared in 90 days! Ho Hum.