Originally Posted by
windowontheAside
I thought it had always been this way?
No. An RFS refund beyond the cooling off period and prior to 24 hours before the flights should result in the refund of all the avios and a refund of any cash remaining after the £35 per person cancellation fee has been deducted. So for a return RFS which cost £35 + avios you would end up just getting the avios back since the RFS fee was all taken by the cancellation fee. If the amount of cash you paid is less than the cancellation fee you aren't asked to cure the difference.
For GGLs the cancellation fee is not payable so a GGL would get all the cash and avios back with no deductions.
As
nufnuf77 noted, the OP's refunds sounds like a mistake.