KLM

cathighet

I’m wondering if you can offer any advice. 

We had booked flights with KLM from Inverness (Scotland) to New York going via Amsterdam - leaving 1st July 2020 and returning 6th/7th July. 

All the flights have been cancelled due to the current covid situation. KLM have said we can either rearrange flights or get a travel voucher. I phoned to ask if we could please have a refund but they said we are not entitled to this as our initial booking was non refundable. 

Where do we stand with this? We’d rather get our money back as the flights were expensive and would really be out of pocket if the company was to go bust. 

Thanks

Life__Goes__On

cathighet said:

I’m wondering if you can offer any advice. 

We had booked flights with KLM from Inverness (Scotland) to New York going via Amsterdam - leaving 1st July 2020 and returning 6th/7th July. 

All the flights have been cancelled due to the current covid situation. KLM have said we can either rearrange flights or get a travel voucher. I phoned to ask if we could please have a refund but they said we are not entitled to this as our initial booking was non refundable. 

Where do we stand with this? We’d rather get our money back as the flights were expensive and would really be out of pocket if the company was to go bust. 

Thanks

Total rubbish,  it's non-refundable  if you cancel not the  airline.
You are entitled to a full cash refund within 7 days if you booked direct.

oldernonethewiser

KLM have changed their policy - which didn't comply with regulations anyway - to offer refunds

https://news.klm.com/klm-updates-voucher-policy/

I am still chasing them and refusing vouchers every time they try and offer them

Birdman2015

oldernonethewiser said:

KLM have changed their policy - which didn't comply with regulations anyway - to offer refunds

https://news.klm.com/klm-updates-voucher-policy/

I am still chasing them and refusing vouchers every time they try and offer them

Link was dead, this seems to be working. Only applies to flights cancelled after 14th May which doesn't help me.
https://news.klm.com/covid-19--adaptation-of-air-france-and-klms-commercial-policy/

Bollo1980

I am in the same boat, I am mean't to being going to Barcelona (8 of us) and they are only offerering a voucher as well.  I told them that they were breaking EU rules and they just kept reading off the same script.  I have started legal action against KLM as they are an absolute joke.  Only offering cash refunds to bookings after 14th May.  Who in the right mind would have booked a holiday/flights at this time anyway?

oldernonethewiser

I have just received the "we are not going to respond further" email from KLM

Arrogant and lying bar stewards  

Filled in dispute form with my CC provider so we shall see what happens.

techno12

I don't mind a voucher too much but it's been 6 weeks since they cancelled my flights to Japan and I've heard nothing since the initial pair of emails confirming the voucher request.

Slightly annoying to hear that they now offer cash/15% extra mind you.

Has anyone received their voucher yet?

Streaky_Bacon

This is the guidance from the EU on May 13th, subsequently addressed by the Dutch government, that has triggered KLM's change of heart. It again clarifies that passengers are entitled to a cash refund and makes no suggestion that this is only forward looking.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_854

Under EU rules, travellers have the right to choose between vouchers or cash reimbursement for cancelled transport tickets (plane, train, bus/coach, and ferries) or package travel. While reaffirming this right, the Commission's recommendation aims to ensure that vouchers become a viable and more attractive alternative to reimbursement for cancelled trips in the context of the current pandemic, which has also put heavy financial strains on travel operators. The voluntary vouchers should be protected against insolvency of the issuer, with a minimum validity period of 12 months, and be refundable after at most one year, if not redeemed.