Originally Posted by
FlyingFinn
...and in a twist of fate I had to cancel a non-refundable one-way AY flight today. FR plane went tech in Tampere with an 8-hour proposed delay - causing me to abort my daytrip to Germany.
I was a good boy and undid my OLCI (I read reports that airlines had refused to refund taxes'n'fees after a pax had OLCIed), and canceled my reservation at the ticket desk in TMP. Then I call the AY service center to ask for a refund for the fuel surcharge + other charges for my now-canceled ticket. Well well well, after some time spent listening to elevator music in hold I get told that in this case I get no refund, as the "administrative fee" is a whopping 50 EUR - my taxes + stuff was 58 EUR in total, out of which 10 EUR is the always non-refundable service charge.
This is borderline fraud in my book. I would've understood 10 EUR, even 20 EUR, but 50 EUR to process a frigging refund? That's just wrong.
I was not disappointed in the FR case - I paid peanuts and didn't really expect anything from them. I played the game with their rules and lost.
I was very disappointed with AY - I paid significantly more and assumed that at least I would be spared these ryanairesque scams - but looks like this didn't work. Bad one for AY... reminds me that I need to book some upcoming flights where I do have a choice between carriers...
Hopefully I can gouge out some sort of statement regarding the FR delay from them to try to get something out of my travel insurance.
SAS charged me hefty refund fees as well and I would have disputed them hadn't my travel insurance paid for it.. Let's see how it goes for you.