Changing covid cancellation credit voucher for refund

sluisdejesus

Hi I'm hoping someone can advise...

We booked flights to Brisbane in Jan 2020 to fly in July 2020 to attend a sports competition. Thanks to COVID, these flights were cancelled and so was the competition. 

In June 2020 we were offered a voucher which we accepted as we thought the competition would have run in July 2021 but unfortunately the organisers decided not to run it due to the continuing travel disruptions.

We have now decided that we could really do with the cash but the agent insists that the can only refund £565 of the original £1200 we had already paid or nothing at all...

What are our next steps from here?

eskbanker

Once you've accepted a voucher then there won't generally be any obligation for the issuer to buy it back for cash, regardless of the circumstances leading up to its issue.  Having said that, it's not clear why you'd be offered anything at all - on what basis are they suggesting this (as opposed to nothing)?

Thrugelmir

Which airline? 

sluisdejesus

@eskbanker Honestly I'm not sure what the logic is...

I was going off the advice here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/02/coronavirus-travel-help-and-your-rights/#:~:text=With cancelled package holidays, you,under the Package Travel Regulations. that says because of Covid we should be entitled to change voucher to a refund (I'm happy to be corrected if I've read it wrong of course)

@Thrugelmir the flights were booked though The Travel Centre - flying through China Airlines.

eskbanker

sluisdejesus said:

@eskbanker Honestly I'm not sure what the logic is...

I was going off the advice here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/02/coronavirus-travel-help-and-your-rights/#:~:text=With cancelled package holidays, you,under the Package Travel Regulations. that says because of Covid we should be entitled to change voucher to a refund (I'm happy to be corrected if I've read it wrong of course)

That article refers to the protection available under the temporary refund credit note scheme, as opposed to generic 'vouchers' - check whether what you have falls within the scope of that scheme by cross-referring the paperwork against the rules defined at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/10/government-to-protect-refund-credit-notes-for-cancelled-holidays/

mattyprice4004

No chance, you've accepted a voucher so you'll be stuck with that I'm afraid 

[Deleted User]

Can you sell the voucher?