andymcdonnell

At the end of March I booked an avios ticket in J DUB-BOS rtn & paid €566 in taxes for 2 people. A couple of days later I changed it to an open jaw DUB-ORD BOS-DUB & was told it was an additional €414 in taxes which I thought was odd but paid, this time with a different card.

On 13th April I cancelled the booking & initially the agent said the refund would be €414 minus service fee. I explained this was wrong & after some back & forth he said I was right, it was €980 minus service fee & it should be back within 7 days.

On 18th I got back €332 on to the card that the €414 was charged to but nothing onto the other card. I rang BA & spoke to 2 completely unhelpful agents who told me the refund had all been put onto that card & I needed to contact my bank. Eventually I got in to someone who told me that the refunds team had incorrectly tried to put the full refund onto one card and for security reasons it had failed as the refund was higher than the charged amount. She told me she had escalated it and would ring me within 48hrs. She never did.

On 22nd I complained via the website, got a reference and a reply a few days later saying it had been sent to the refund dept. On 28th I again contacted BA & got a similar response.

It’s now 3 weeks after I cancelled and despite numerous calls and emails I still haven’t got my refund. Any ideas how to proceed?

FlyingSquirrel_

After 8 weeks you can escalate to the CEDR. Do not rely on BA giving you that money back because they won't, unless you go to the CEDR.

Krisz

I would call the bank and explain that what has happened so far and you would like to dispute the transaction. I'm not sure if you have used UK credit cards or debit cards or cards abroad so rules and polices might differ, however your bank can sort this out relatively quickly especially you should have a cancellation email, etc. Other than that you can go to CEDR and ask their help. It's a straightforward case, clearly BA IT just can't process refunds automatically and someone also made a mistake not knowing the refund rules, etc. BA should able to sort it out themselves but I guess the usual issue, staff not properly trained.

Scandinavian traveler

Or dispute the amount on your credit card. I did the same with a booking on SAS during COVID where SAS hadn't refunded me for a month and the money was back on my Amex within a day or so.

LSunbury

I am still waiting on a part refund on a cancellation on 10March. Several phone calls and many emails later I was told on 23April that the refund had been 'approved'. Still nothing actually refunded..

My last call the other day they repeated that it had been approved on 23Apr and they were waiting for some-one to 'press the button'

I believe it's probably plain incompetence but am beginning to wonder if my regular weekly chasing has resulted in the button being deliberately not pressed?.

Dave Noble

I would agree with the simple approach of disputing the charge with the card company. Very straightforward and quick.

KeaneJohn

The thing is the full charge is not being disputed and that could cause complications with BA if they think you did that to get out of the fees.

Why not send a private message to BA Refund Helper. (Don’t know how to quote them so they see this) pretty sure they will trouble shoot and resolve within a couple of days.

Scandinavian traveler

The OP is disputing the full amount of the first charge as the fees were deducted in the refund already received, so should be no issue to dispute the entire amount.

guv1976

Since this was a trip involving travel to, from, or within the U.S., a complaint to the U.S. DOT would get the attention of someone at BA who would both understand the problem, and be able to correct it. Link to DOT Air Consumer complaint form here:

https://secure.dot.gov/air-travel-complaint

Dave Noble

I would only spend time with DOT in unlikely event that the card company was to claim it was an invalid dispute - a disputed charge is very simple and very quick

The OP will be in position to dispute the difference between the amount received and the amount due

I would save refund helper as a backup option

Schultzois

I had not a refund situation but a reimbursement situation and it did indeed take BA a long time to sort it (maybe 8-12 weeks) but they did in the end. There was also radio silence on their part during the process (because we know how good BA is at proactive communication about such things…) but I have some confidence they will make good in the end. Had a similar issue for something smaller with KLM a couple years back, and although not on a satisfactory timeframe, they made right for the out of pocket.

All that being said, I’d certainly open a dispute with the bank card that was not refunded, specifying the OP cancelled the trip according to the carrier’s ticket policy. That bank will probably ask for some documentation, which in this case could include that the charges were split across two cards, and the cancellation fee was already deducted from the second card, so a full refund back to the first card is appropriate. I don’t bank in the UK, only the US, but once you open a dispute it’s up to BA to answer the dispute. If they don’t within, I think, 30 or so days (maybe it’s more) then the bank will automatically settle in their client’s favor and revert the charge. There may be a caveat that if further evidence is provided by BA (not likely in this case) they could change their decision about it.

But in broad terms, in the US and most civilised countries, if you document what happened, which it seems the OP can do, then the bank sticks to their side and the onus is on BA to prove why the dispute is invalid. I don’t think DOT really gets involved in such matters since it’s between the airline, the OP and the OP’s bank. The OP’s bank has a certain duty to their client here, and should probably be able to sort things out unless BA somehow claims that no refund was due or that the flight was actually used.

An afterthought here, but is it possible the second charge (on the second card) duplicated some cash fare component that had already been paid in the first transaction? If so then the bank card dispute can be “I was charged twice for the same purchase” in which case BA would still have to prove why both charges were not only valid but not refundable under fare rules.