Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Gulf Air have Stolen My Money

I hope you can help me as I seem to be getting nowhere with Gulf Air.

I booked a one-way ticket from London to Johannesburg (with a stopover in Bahrain) on March 14 2007 for £1515.90. A few days later I phoned the Gulf Air Central Reservations line and cancelled the ticket. They took a refund charge of £150 and said the ticket would be refunded within 3 weeks. It is now nearly 5 weeks and I am still waiting. I phone them every 4 days and they keep saying that an email was sent to the London office to action the refund but they would send a reminder. Every four days we go through this dance. I ask them for the number of the London office and they say they don't have it and only communicate via email. I asked for the email address and they say not possible.

I know they are probably going to say that due to route cancellations they are inundated with refunds but my refund request was well before the route cancellation announcement.

I am at the end of my tether, please help. I am paying interest on a transaction that should of been refunded a long time ago.

What should I do and am I entitled to compensation?

Call your credit card company immediatly and tell them. Have them deal witrh Gulf Air and explain that you should not be held liable for the interest. There is no reason you should have to wait 5 weeks. I would ask for the 150 back too. :td:

Also, what "kind" (e.g. amex, visa) of credit card did you use?

Assuming you paid with a credit card, I'd ring up the CC issuer and ask them to dispute the charge. They will ask you a series of questions about when you cancelled the ticket, if you have any cancellation number, etc.

Typically when I received either a disputed credit or an airline-actioned credit for a refunded ticket the finance charges are also returned to me effective to the date of the return. IE, if I purchased the ticket on May 1 and cancelled on June 1, and received the refund on July 1, I'd receive the finance charges for June 1-July 1 back along with the charge. I also receive back ALL of the foreign currency transaction fees (if applicable).

You may find different issuers treat finance charges differently.

Wow, very quick responses. I used a Visa card

Wow, very quick responses. I used a Visa card

Call them up immedietly.

I had the same problem with travelocity and a refund for flights which the airline had cancelled. When I referred to dispute to amex they immediately credited my account and then took up the matter with travelocity afterwards.

Quick Update:

I got a call from Gulf Air saying that the charge was refunded yesterday.

Anyway, I phoned the card company and they said if the charge isn't there by Friday they will do their thing.

Quick Update:

I got a call from Gulf Air saying that the charge was refunded yesterday.

Anyway, I phoned the card company and they said if the charge isn't there by Friday they will do their thing.


Oh good news, I thought the money had been stolen?:p ;) :D

CJ:cool:

Oh good news, I thought the money had been stolen?:p ;) :D

CJ:cool:

Appeared on my statement today. Just glad the money's back now.

To me they had stolen my money. Keeping hold of someone's money for 5/6 weeks is unacceptable even when they say 'you'll get it eventually'.

When I called them yesterday they said I would have to wait another two weeks for it to go to head office. I told them head office had sent it to them to refund and now they're sending it back.

I then told them that as a journalist, this was now the last straw and was going to publish the story this weekend, was then put on hold and when she came back said it was done 'yesterday'. ;)

Congrats on getting back your money. Hope they also issued an apology to you.

I once had to have an AC ticket refunded...took them close to 3 months!! LH, LX and NH have all been fairly efficient 2-3 weeks. Best was AF...processed the refund on the spot!!

This is what I don't understand, why does it take so long for an airline to refund a ticket.

Surely in the era of e-ticketing it is much easier and quicker to cancel a ticket. I mean if normal retailers can refund a transaction on the spot (appearing back on your card a few days later) why can it take months from airlines?

I would have thought it was mearly hitting the refund option and back it goes but alas in this regard airlines appear to be decades behind other industries.