Reasonableness sanity check - refund of fuel surcharges on Virgin Australia
First off, I have to say that in the situation described below (and the original booking), the people at Virgin America are honestly the nicest airline folks I have dealt with in a long, long time. But I feel like the airline is not really being fair about something, and before I press it, I'd appreciate a sanity check. Facts:
1. Booked 5x business class award tickets to Australia on January 21, 3 p.m. Assessed total "taxes" of $2,171. Comprised of actual "taxes" of $160 and fuel surcharges of $2,011.
2. January 22, 7:15 a.m. - media reporting that Virgin Australia no longer assessing fuel surcharges. Call Virgin Australia, advised to call Virgin America as only they can refund fuel surcharges where they collected them (fair enough). Virgin Australia says they will be refunding fuel surcharges to Virgin America, for future travel, as they are not permitted to retain them, and they suggest I call Virgin America and get my money back.
3. So, within 24 hours window for free re-booking, call back to try to get my money back. Basically told no way. exchange emails on February 8, basically told no way, and February 26, basically told no way. (Yes, I am persistent - because it's $2000 bucks and Virgin Australia says they already gave it back to Virgin America.)
4. March 22, press reporting Virgin AMERICA will no longer assess fuel surcharges on Virgin Australia.
5. Try again by phone. Now, they say they can "refund" me back the fuel surcharges, but only by reissuing the tickets. They want $500 ($100 per pax) to do so. I ask for a waiver on these facts. Waiver request makes it up to management - rejected.
6. So they refunded me the money, but less $500. I feel like them taking the $500 on these facts is really quite unfair. Maybe I should be happy with my essentially $1400 refund and let the rest go. But it still feels wrong.
Comments?