As a datapoint follow up to my post regarding a refund for a June trip I cancelled this past Wednesday 5/13, the refund appeared on my AMEX this morning Friday 5/15.
As many have said, when an agent “manually” processes the refunds it is this quick. If they “run it through the form” it gets backed up for weeks on end (had that issue a little over a month ago).
It sounds like when people are now calling in to request the refunds the majority of the agents are manually processing them... assuming it’s a relatively standard (easy) refund. If there’s complications it might require someone in refunds to address it (hence the backup). I am wondering if more agents are now trained/comfortable doing the manual processing? Or if the latest DOT notice caused DL to direct the agents to process manually when able?