Aegean Airlines / New Greek law to avoid refunds for cancellation

S6449

Has anyone managed to get a refund from Aegean Airlines for a flight cancelled due to CoronaVirus?
I've been trying for a month now to claim the refund I know I'm entitled to under EU261/2004, instead of the voucher offered.  Their latest excuse is that the Greek government passed a new law on April 13th which allows them to do this - I've been told by a friend of a friend who works in a Travel Agents in Greece that this is fact, a new law applying to all travel companies allows credit vouchers to used in place of refunds.
I have started the ChargeBack process through my bank and Mastercard to attempt to get the cash back, but neither of them seem to know whether the new Greek law can override the existing EU regulation, so it's unclear what the outcome will be.  I'm told the airline has 45 days to respond to the chargeback, which takes me close to the deadline of 2 months from the planned flight date to claim a credit voucher if I need to cut my potential losses and take that as a "better than nothing solution" .
Any information or suggestion would be appreciated.
Incidentally the trip involved Easyjet as well, and I already have a refund from them - no problem when I got to speak to a person rather than a recording !!
Thanks in advance.
S

bagand96

It would appear the Greek Government have passed some regulation enabling travel companies to issue vouchers. https://news.gtp.gr/2020/04/14/covid-19-greece-covers-canceled-bookings-vouchers-instead-refunds/

The article says it is an 18 month credit voucher, which then becomes a cash refund if unused.  It doesn't mention if there's any government protection behind the vouchers to protect you if the airline goes bankrupt in that 18 months.

It's a changing situation.  Many European Governments are being quite vocal about wanting to help their travel industries weather the storm.  The Dutch Government have instructed their aviation regulator not to take action against airlines who are not meeting refund deadlines.  

EC261 has not been suspended though, and I'm not sure the Greek ruling will overrule it.  However Aegean will hide behind their domestic Government's ruling.  Try the chargeback, if it fails then try Section 75 is if was a credit card.  You could also try European Small Claims Court.  There'll likely be a number of cases in the coming months and years and test rulings and this situation is exactly where it will get messy.  Alternative is to take the voucher as a last resort and hope Aegean are still around in 18 months.

Life__Goes__On

Was it a debit card / debit  you used?

Thrugelmir

EU regulations become meaningless once National interest takes precedence. Nor is there anyone around to enforce them anyway. 

Life__Goes__On

Thrugelmir said:

EU regulations become meaningless once National interest takes precedence. Nor is there anyone around to enforce them anyway. 

That's what so good about S75,  the contract is under English law.

S6449

Many thanks for the replies.  
The card I used is a Mastercard debit card so S75 isn't appropriate, and the booking was directly with Aegean Airlines, so I'm not sure that English law covers it anyway.
The deadlines of 45 days and 2 months that I mentioned take me into early June, so yes, in this changing situation, a lot can happen before then.
I hoped that someone might know whether the Greek law can allow the airline to refuse a charge-back request, but so far it looks like I'll have to wait and see, as bagand96 suggested, and yes, depending on the outcome of that I may have to take the voucher and hope they survive the next 18 months !!  At least the current terms for the voucher under the new Greek law are a big improvement on the original voucher offer, but I don;t know whether they are protected against failure of the airline - I have asked them this question twice in the last 10 days and they don't seem to want to reply to my emails !!
I'll post updates if and when I have any.
S