Originally Posted by
craigthemif
Sad news. Hoping for a swift recovery.
To be honest, you probably won't get your Avios back for the flights canceled within 24 hours. All the phone agents do is send the cancellations off to their back office to be processed, where they might be rather more strict about the T&Cs.
As for insurance, I would probably use the standard price for buying 85,000 Avios directly from IB+. You could also try for the regular price of Business Class tickets if paying cash, using the argument of going to Spain at some point in the future under the same conditions as your missed flight. Neither might be accepted by your insurance company but I'd start there.
After sending a letter to the CEO, after continually hounding the agent through FB about their rules and how my cancelation was not on a whim that it was a medical emergency and debating with several agents during my calls, after receiving their standard reply in Spanish to why they couldn't accommodate my requests ( refunding avios and taxes) the unexpected happened today.
Two out of the 3 flights that I submitted claims for have been refunded.
I received from their administration office a refund statement for each of our flights from MIA to MAD and then within minutes my 85k Avios were returned.
It has been a long 2 weeks of back and forth with them.
The first flight that was quickly refunded was from MAD to LPA and I thought it was a fluke since my husband's wasn't . So I still am waiting for that one to be taken care of.. I am still chatting with the agent via FB.
Oh Happy Day!