Unsure how to proceed with flight refund issues (Lastminute)

aled247

Hello

I will try and write this as simply as possible but follow up questions may be needed sorry.

We wanted to visit Tashkent in Uzbekistan from London (where we live) and booked the following flights:

London - Kiev departing on 20th Feb with Ryanair and booked direct (No problems here, flight used)

Kiev - Tashkent departing on 20th Feb with Uzbekistan airways via Lastminute (No problems here, flight used)

Tashkent - Kiev departing on 27th Feb with Uzbekistan airways via Lastminute (This is the problem flight)

Kiev - London departing on 27th Feb with Ryanair booked direct (No problems here, ryanair refunded immediately)

We booked a return flight through Lastminute from Kiev to Tashkent (Uzbekistan) with Uzbekistan airways which left Kiev on 20th February and was due to fly back to Kiev on 27th February.

As we were in Tashkent, the news of the Ukraine crisis broke out (24th Feb) and as a result, being regular flyers we were certain our flight back to Kiev would be cancelled for obvious reasons, particularly as the rumours started that Kiev airport would be closed. At this point we had still not received any confirmation that my Tashkent - Kiev flight was cancelled.

On the morning of the 25th we decided with flight prices escalating fast that we would book another way to get home to London and therefore booked our own flights online from Tashkent to London, which had a short 90 minute layover in Istanbul with Turkish airlines (Not trying to claim anything for these flights at all, just adds substance to the story)

Later that afternoon on 25th I received an email from Uzbekistan airlines telling me that our flight scheduled to depart on 27th had been cancelled due to airport closure in Kiev (Was not a shock) and did not give any further information on what to do except go to their website (had nothing at all on there, and still doesn't now).

I have been in contact with lastminute and am in a back and forth with them. My first phonecall with them they stated Uzbekistan airlines marked us down as a no-show at the airport. Explained I had an email as proof of cancelled flight. Was asked to forward this email to them which I did. Received a response stating that the airline have told them that we should have arrived at Tashkent airport as planned on 27th and they would have arranged suitable alternatives.

There is NOTHING about this in the email which can be seen below. Hardly wanted to spend £100's extra to get my own way home just for the sake of it.

How do I move forward with this please, I do not want anything extra for my flights home I booked, just a refund for my Tashkent - Kiev flight?

*This is an automatically generated message. Please do not reply. Your reply will not be processed*

Dear passengers!

Your flight in the direction of TASHKENT - KIEV​​​ - TASHKENT on 27.02.2022 HY-3731/3732  was canceled due to closing of the international airport KIEV (KBP).

For additional information about flights, we recommend to you to visit our website www.uzairways.com or contact to our call-center by number +99878 140-02-00 (work hours 24/7).

This message is sent solely for the information of passengers. You don't need to answer it!

 We sincerely apologize for caused inconvenience!

Best regards, «Uzbekistan airways».​