STA Travel credit voucher not valid?!

eharrison8

Hi,

We had our flights to Vietnam cancelled due to covid19 back in March 2020. Since then, we have been disputing STA Travel’s stance on the fact that only one of the passengers on the booking was due a cash refund, the other passenger would receive a credit voucher. 

We have received the cash refund for 1 passenger but when I rang Qatar Airways (airline who we were due to travel with) to check if the credit voucher was still valid, they said they had no record of it and as such they couldn’t honour it. They said the issue was that I’d been given a “folder number” from STA rather than a voucher number. Since STA are no longer a trading company, I can’t get hold of anyone to clarify this detail. 

The flight wasn’t ATOL protected (apparently not many STA flights are) but was supported by the IATA who I’ve since contacted and they said there’s nothing they can do. 


Is there anything I can do?! I’ve lost complete hope of getting the cash back and as we’re doing planning to do the exact trip next year, I’d be happy with a valid credit voucher. I just don’t want to lose the £638!

Thanks all

jaybeetoo

How did you pay for it? Credit card, debit card, PayPal, cash?

Mrsn

Your best hope is that you paid on a credit card and to try contacting your card provider if so.

eharrison8

Originally, we paid for the flights on debit card back in December 2019. Is it worth contacting my bank for a refund or would this only work if it was a credit card?

Alan_Bowen

Debit cards can offer a chargeback scheme, its voluntary but Visa and Mastercard both operate the scheme in the UK. The problem is there is normally a time limit of 120 days, we are way beyond that in relation to the date of booking and probably the date of travel so you would have to argue that the 120 days operate from when STA failed and you could no longer use the voucher.