STA travel credit note

sssanghera

hello, booked flights to Japan on 23/01/20. The flights were due outbound on 11/08/20 and were with British Airways booked through STA travel. At the end of May BA cancelled the oubound flight and on enquiring with BA i was told i could cancel the whole package of flights through STA and get a credit note that could be used for BA flights valid until April 2022. I contacted STA who confirmed this and on 08/06/20 confirmed by email that the credit sat with BA but should be be rebooked when needed through STA.
Since the news of STA's collapse on 22/08 i have been enquiring with BA as to the validity of my credit and was finally told yesterday that STA actually asked for the money to be refunded to them without my knowledge on 31/07/20, that's nearly two months after they confirmed that i had credit held with BA as i had requested.
The flights cost almost £6000 and also i have some accommodation that was booked and non-refundable.
I have had virgin travel insurance in place throughout all of this and even though Japan announced in February that it was not allowing visitors from the UK Virgin have said that none of my costs are covered. All bookings have been paid by debit card.
Obviously very stressed by all of this and wondered if anyone was in a similar situation or had any suggestions?

mattyprice4004

The credit note will have been with STA, not BA themselves - so you'd need to have rebooked any replacement flights with STA and they'd then pay BA again. A little bit shady that this wasn't the case! 

I'd contact your debit card provider and ask them to dispute the transaction - if you explain the circumstances, they may be willing to try a chargeback for you - apart from that all you can do is lodge a claim with the administrators for the amount owed, but they're usually paid at pence in the pound if there's anything left. 

Alan_Bowen

You should be covered by the bond they had with ABTA, they were holding money due to you at the time of failure. If you had an ATOL Certificate, if the accommodation was booked at the same time, then the claim is against the CAA ATOL scheme.