Originally Posted by JR67

One thing I have been thinking about all this wrath at not getting refunded for flights:

For the airline, a refund means giving back money they had already earmarked to keep operations going, including keeping as many personnel as possible employed.

For the personal traveler, a refund means getting back money they had already calculated on not having. Additionally, the fact that the trip never occurred probably means that the individual has MORE money than would have been the case otherwise, because other trip-related costs never happened.

So an immediate refund will negatively impact the travel provider, but should be seen as a windfall to the individual, since this money was already budgeted as an expenditure.

Doesn't change the fact that the money should be refunded eventually, but this way of thinking about it makes me much less sympathetic to those that scream that SAS is perpetrating fraud on the general public.