Refund from Norwegian

Kernowek

Hi, sorry to start a new thread but couldn't find an open existing thread for this.

In November 2020 I booked a flight from Sweden to London at a cost of £124.99 with Norwegian via GoToGate.

Two days before travel, I received a notification from GoToGate that the flight was cancelled and that a refund application would be sent on my behalf. Wasn't rebooked onto another flight (they had suddenly cancelled the entire route), so I paid for a new flight instead. I had, stupidly (do not remember why) paid for the original flight with my visa debit card instead of a credit card as I normally do.

I attempted to claim a refund though Norwegian's site however it reported "Reservation with reference number XXXXX, is not ordered through Norwegian. Please contact your travel agent for any refund claims.". As the refund was already in progress I left it there, and occasionally contacted GTG to check status, and was always told "it's in progress" or something to that effect.

In March 2022 (16 months after the original booking) I got the following from GoToGate:

We are writing in regards to the recent monetary transfer you received from us.

This is for a pending refund application with Norwegian. Norwegian has presented a financial restructuring plan to prevent them from going bankrupt, and the plan has been approved in a court of law.

Norwegian has undergone an examinership process in Ireland and a reconstruction process in Norway. Strict legal requirements were in place which impacted all aspects of their business, including customer claims. Customers with outstanding claims where the flight disruption or other expenses associated with the claim occurred before November 18, 2020, have been subject to an examinership process in Ireland and a reconstruction process in Norway.

Norwegian has advised us that customers with a refund application for tickets dated before November 18, 2020, will receive a smaller amount than they paid for their original ticket.

We understand that this is not what you expected but, unfortunately, this is out of our control.

As a travel intermediary, we have no further information at this time. Any questions related to this process must be addressed directly with Norwegian but please bear in mind that due to their legal requirements in place, a full refund of your ticket will not be possible.

The refund amount in question was £6.25, so a mere £118.74 shortfall.

Their careful wording seems to indicate that's the end of it, and I'm very aware that my own mistake of not using a credit card and not trying to pursue it more aggressively is probably a factor. But EU law was in effect in both sides at the time, and that date of 18th November is interesting and not really explained well - my flight was on 15th. 

Just posting here in case anyone has any insight, or anyone else was caught out with this?

Thank you for reading!

Caz3121

the gotogate fee for dealing with refunds from airline cancellations appears to be £30
they also talk about a service fee being non-refundable
info from Norwegian site https://www.norwegian.com/uk/about/company/reorganisation/
have you tried your travel insurance that was in place at the time of travel?

Kernowek

Hi Caz, thanks for responding.

You are correct that they have the £30 fee which I hadn't realised and would have taken exception to, except they decided to waive it in this case so that anemic amount is the full refund.

Thank you for that link, I did search for the reorg info but apparently very badly since I only hit recent press releases. It does match what their email said, though I'm still unclear as to why everyone who booked direct before got refunded, and everyone who booked in any capacity afterwards also did.

No specific travel insurance, it wasn't a holiday per se (right in the middle of pandemic), just a necessary and short notice trip.

I guess I'll try Barclays (who issued the card) though my expectations are low due to the time since the booking, the fact it's a debit card, and that there was a refund in some form.

Alan_Bowen

There are seemingly 37000 people who were told they could not have refunds due to the legal action in Ireland, most were transatlantic passengers so lost if it is any consolation, a lot more. It galls me that Norwegian basically wrote off their debts and kept going and now claim to be making a profit!

As you know debit cards usually have a deadline of 120 days to make a claim, your only hope is to suggest you have only found out in the last 120 days that you are getting pennies rather than pounds. As you have also discovered GTG is not an agency to use, based in Sweden with virtually zero customer service and charges fees on top of the fare, I am sure if they could have charged £30 they would have done and asked you to pay them the extra, their generosity clearly does exist, occasionally!