Easyjet Travel Vouchers exchange for cash

Boobvan2017

In 2019/2020 we had two flights cancelled, we took a voucher for the first and then used this plus more cash to book the second. Following the second cancellation we took a voucher again but now that looks like the wrong decision, the voucher expires in June 2021 and due to restrictions unlikely that we will be able to use. Can we request a cash refund or is there a way to get some sort of value back ? Surely Easyjet can not hold onto our money in their bank when it should be in ours ?

eskbanker

You effectively spent your money buying the vouchers, so it's unrealistic to characterise this as them holding onto your money - as with most other vouchers, it's a one-way process without the option to sell them back for cash so your best bet will be to make a booking.  Assuming they don't extend the validity (presumably a possibility), is June 2021 when you need to have spent the voucher or do you need to have travelled by then?

Boobvan2017

In standard circumstances I would agree with you but with the unprecedented times we find ourselves I was hoping there is a way around getting a refund for the voucher. The voucher expires in June so I presume if I use it prior to this point the travel date could be later in the year ?

eskbanker

Clearly these are unprecedented times, but that cuts both ways, and businesses are suffering badly too, with many having folded and more to come - the travel industry has obviously experienced a massive impact from the pandemic and so is generally resistant to giving money back to customers and will naturally favour deferring bookings over refunding them wherever possible.  I don't know whether your voucher is 'redeem by June (for later travel)' or 'travel by June' but it should be clear from the document itself?

Boobvan2017

Does anyone know of a loophole that allows a refund as what you would expect with any standard purchase and consumer rights ?

DCFC79

How is it unlikely you would be able to use the voucher. Nothing is certain until I'd say May.

DanielsRNCEL

In a similar situation to yourself, I had a holiday booked for August 2020. My voucher is you have to BOOK by August 2021 for any flights that are currently available for sale. Approx March 2022. So you should have enough time. 

eskbanker

Boobvan2017 said:

Does anyone know of a loophole that allows a refund as what you would expect with any standard purchase and consumer rights ?

As highlighted earlier, easyJet's stance is consistent with most other issuers of vouchers - have you ever tried converting, say, an iTunes voucher to cash?  Amazon?  M&S?  Groupon?  etc?  There's no consumer rights legislation that I'm aware of that requires companies to buy these back.

Having said that, if you booked more EJ flights and they were cancelled, they're technically obliged to refund you in cash if you don't wish to accept more vouchers (although will probably try to insist on refunding to original payment method), so if you chose carefully, you might be able to work it to your advantage....

Boobvan2017

As you note, my main issue is this was the second flight I had cancelled and I was never offered the option of a refund. Because we took a voucher from the first cancellation we used this plus cash to book the second but they insisted that because the second was booked with a voucher that this was the only option of a refund. In my opinion this is against our consumer rights. At the time it didn’t seem it would be too big an issue but with current circumstances we don’t feel comfortable booking or going abroad and obviously this timeline is very much unknown 

eskbanker

I think you'd have had a strong case for claiming a cash refund when the second booking was cancelled, but the time to make that case was back then, so, having accepted a voucher, that tends to be irreversible.