Multiple person airline ticket chargeback on same card.

Marble_Eye

My wife and her friend had planned a trip to Japan this year, but what with the Covid-19 situation their Air France flights have been cancelled and all Air France have offered is a voucher valid for twelve months after which they will refund the fares. As it will be impossible for either my wife or her friend to make use of the offered voucher within the twelve month timescale they have asked for a cash refund. Air France are not willing to entertain a refund at this time and insist upon issuing them with a voucher, which effectively means Air France hanging on to the money for twelve months even though they know full well that the voucher cannot be used. To circumvent this my wife’s friend has decided to do a chargeback on the credit card that she used to purchase both hers and my wife’s tickets. The problem is that the credit card company say that they will only issue a chargeback solely against the cardholder’s tickets and not the total cost of the transaction. Is this correct or are the credit card company trying to pull a fast one?

[Deleted User]

The card company would gain no benefit from pulling one of any speed on a chargeback.

Are you sure she didn't raise it as a section 75 claim?  That would exclude your wife's ticket.

Marble_Eye

Deleted_User said:

The card company would gain no benefit from pulling one of any speed on a chargeback.

Are you sure she didn't raise it as a section 75 claim?  That would exclude your wife's ticket.

Thanks for that, sorry for being a bit dim but just to get it right, you're saying that a Chargeback should cover the entire transaction but Section 75 only covers the cardholders ticket? 

[Deleted User]

Yes.

The chargeback can be disputed by the retailer however, whereas the section 75 claim is paid directly by the card company.

born_again

ZX81 is right. Chargeback has no bearing on who's name is on the tickets. So long as it is paid for by the card holder.

Marble_Eye

Thanks for all your input guys, very reassuring.

Just to update you with the good news that the credit card company (Amex) have now refunded the full amount of the transaction, so both my wife and her friend are well happy. Hopefully Air France will not contest the matter, but I can't really see that they have any grounds to do so, but you never know.