Passmethesickbag

In November, we made a booking for me using a corporate credit card. It became necessary to cancel within the 24-hour grace period, which I did over the phone, and was told a full refund would be forthcoming. As no refund had been posted in December, I rang again, and was told that the refund had definitely been made within 10 days.

I put this information in an e-mail to the keeper of the credit card statement, and never heard back from her, so assumed that everything was in order. Fast forward 10 months, and I receive the panicked news that the refund had never posted. Phoned BA refunds, where an Indian gentleman put me on hold and came back and apologised and said that sorry, he can't help me, and this matter must be handled by e-mail. Fair enough I thought, doing it by the phone without a paper trail has done me no good so far, so I did complete the e-mail form (complete with the ticket number of course, as the record locator will no longer be valid). Just received the response:

"Thank you for writing to us about your refund query.

As we are unable to provide the answer you need, please contact your nearest British Airways office. The telephone numbers and opening times can be found at:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ctclist

I apologise I couldn't be of immediate help to you.

Kind regards
[Indian name]
British Airways"

Very frustrating (and we are talking about nearly a grand here). Any suggestions about how to get somebody to take ownership of the problem would be appreciated. Had this been a UK card, I would simply have contacted the credit card provider and made it BA's problem. But it is a Brazilian one, and apparently, that is not an option here.

lorcancoyle

Tell them that you'll be filing a small claims court action if not resolved within 14 days. I had to do this for a bmi refund post BA takeover - refunds seems to be a remarkably chaotic operation at BA (along with many other departments...)

Passmethesickbag

Thanks, but again, there would have been lots of options if this had been a UK card, but it isn't, so we are pretty much dependent on BA coming through.

BLHD

It's still worth including the PNR in all comms. The PNR might be invalid to you, it isn't to BA. Call BA and ask to speak to Customer Relations in Newcastle.

lorcancoyle

BA is a UK company though - so that may help (others can advise on that point). My experience was that once BA legal is involved things get sorted pretty quickly as they have authorities that individuals elsewhere don't have. So my timeline was roughly:

- Start case via MCOL
- Few days later notice that BA was contesting
- Within a week an acknowledgement from BA that they did owe me the money and asking whether I'd prefer bank transfer or cheque

Passmethesickbag

Thanks, you have a point! *I* will be in the UK, and the ticket was purchased via the UK website. May I ask to which address you sent your ultimatum?

I have been trying to get through to Customer Relations over the phone, but BA's reponse to my complaint so far has been the usual: "La la la la laaaa la la laaa..... La la la la laaaa la la laaa..... La la la la laaaa la la laaa..... La la la la laaaa la la laaa..... Bleep Bleep Bleep Bleep Bleep Bleep".

lorcancoyle

Think I just sent via normal webform - summarised that I'd been trying to get refund for months with no engagement from BA so was, regrettably, having to take a court action to recover my money if not resolved with 14/28 days

Passmethesickbag

Interesting, thanks. They told me the PNR had been released to be reassigned for another booking in the intervening 10 months, and I believed them (that's certainly what AA does).

DaveNCL

Passmethesickbag if I was you I would gather all the information you have for the original flight purchased and subsequent BA contact, then pass it onto somebody else in your company to deal with.

The holder of the card statement should never of left it this long, I'm not surprised BA are slow to react on this occasion.

You seem to of completed your side of the transaction by cancelling and chasing the original refund, unless you work for a company with only a few employees there should be somebody else more qualified to deal with this.

BLHD

BA have a system that shows the previous versions of the PNR even though it may have been "recycled".

Passmethesickbag

It's complicated... it's Brazil, and it's academia...

Thanks. I did persevere with CR, and eventually got through to a smart and helpful Geordie lass who *did* ask for the PNR as well, who was able to identify the exact refund date, and who promised to find and send me the reference number associated with the refund so that it can be chased via the bank that seems to have not managed to match it up properly against the charge.