Trying to get refund for travel cancellation due to COVID-19

smiffy68

Looking for advice. We are Brits living in USA. Our trip to UK  was cancelled due to COVID. We booked flights with Air Canada and they cancelled the flights. They have offered us flight credits which will be very difficult to use, due to family constraints. Unfortunately, This was kind of a last family holiday together. I have filed a complaint through the US Department of Transportation to seek a refund and am waiting to hear back. Although I’m not expecting much. It’s bittersweet as we paid $5.5k for 5 return flights. The other issue I have is that we paid $1600 (50% of total) for the deposit on a large house in the Lake District, UK  to rent whilst there. The owner is refusing to refund us any money at all. However, she did offer a credit but again, I doubt that we will be able to use it. We booked through VRBO and they said that any refunds/credits are given at the owner’s discretion and that they couldn’t help at all. I am considering filing a claim through the small claims court in the UK to try and get my money back for the house rental. I wanted to know if anyone has gone down either route (filing complaint with the US DOT and/or small claims court in the UK). If so, what was the outcome?. If not, I’d appreciate any advice anyone might have in trying to claw back my money (as of now, I stand to lose around $7k) 😳. Thanks in advance 👍

Browntoa

Small claims court system in the UK has all but collapsed , waiting list a month ago was a minimum of 37 weeks and rising. 

You need to prove either the terms are unfair or that the rental company suffered no loss . Probably quite hard to do

sheramber

It depends on the date  of your holiday. If your holiday was due to start after 4July then holiday accommodation is open and available and the owner is not under any obligation to refund. Giving you a credit is a goodwill gesture.  Do you have travel  insurance?

unforeseen

This could be a sticking point for an MCOL claim (in bold) 

What you need to make an online claim
To make a claim online, you need to have:
• a valid credit or debit card to pay the court fees 
• an address in the United Kingdom 
• an email address
• regular access to a computer and the internet 

And of course there is also the possibility of having to attend court. How would you manage? I doubt if you could claim your air fare as valid expenses.