Help with lastminute.com Covid refund vouchers

nmcl2001

This is my first posting here so apologies in advance if this is the wrong forum.

Long story short, owing to Covid lockdowns in early 2020, a few family flights to visit other family (Italy and Canada) were cancelled by the carriers. I'd booked through lastminute.com and after 6 weeks of sitting on their helplines (no email address, really?!) they finally sent me information about refunds: cash or vouchers. In hindsight I should've gone with the cash but we opted for vouchers, hoping that things would open up again travel-wise in 2020 or early 2021. Well, that didn't happen, more or less, so the vouchers just sat there until recently when I tried to use them, only to be told they'd expired after 12 months! Now I'm fairly sure I don't recall the advisor on the phone at the time mentioning this, but when I've looked at the emailed vouchers they do have a time limit. This seems crazy to me as I'd assumed they were just like cash and better for lastminute.com because it'd mean I'd eventually come back to them for new bookings. It also seems completely wrong that there'd be no recourse: I paid for a service which they didn't deliver. Worse, they got the money back from the airlines in question.

Has anyone run into this or something like it before and got experiences to share? I've done a bit of searching and found a few things, such as something which suggests ATOL requires vouchers should be time limited to September 2022. I also read about people claiming on their credit cards, but since this was more than 120 days ago I figure that's out of the question.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

eskbanker

nmcl2001 said:

I've done a bit of searching and found a few things, such as something which suggests ATOL requires vouchers should be time limited to September 2022.

Did you receive Refund Credit Notes for ATOL-protected bookings?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/07/refund-credit-notes-for-holidays-cancelled-due-to-coronavirus-no/

nmcl2001 said:

I also read about people claiming on their credit cards, but since this was more than 120 days ago I figure that's out of the question.

If you accepted vouchers in lieu of cancelled bookings then there is no breach of contract for which you could claim anything from card companies, regardless of timescales - unfortunately you failed to read the terms associated with the vouchers, and so, like any other time-limited vouchers (such as gift vouchers from retailers), there won't be anything you can do if you let them expire.

nmcl2001

The flights were ATOL protected. Is that what you mean?

eskbanker

nmcl2001 said:

The flights were ATOL protected. Is that what you mean?

Not wholly - if you read the article I linked, it explains exactly what Refund Credit Notes are all about, and it's only if you have one of these that you have the option of redeeming it up to September 2022.  If it's just a standard voucher you were issued with then you don't have any such rights....

nmcl2001

Ah ok, got you. Thanks for the help. I'll try pursuing it with them and see where that gets me but it definitely helps to have the advice.