Originally Posted by
freddo
I had recently tried to cancel an award booking made in January 2020 for December 2020 for KUL to Europe. At that time, the booking fee by segment was still in place.
Our government has prohibited travel outside the country. Similarly EU does not allow travel from here, according to Timatic and embassy.
They agree to refund the miles and taxes and also waive cancellation fees but will not refund the booking fees...any thoughts or would that be 200$ down the drain?
Thanks!
From the airlines point of view, they have certain packets of contracted work which have been fulfilled, and others that have not or cannot be fulfilled.
So you have had a refund for the points and taxes for the flight that you cannot fly due to entry restrictions; although this is not the airlines fault they recognise it as an involuntary change and have released you from the contract.
For the booking fee to process your original booking, the airline did what you asked them to do and you had the flights booked. The airline did their job, contract was fulfilled. The fact that the travel was subsequently cancelled due to mutual agreement does not impact upon the time and effort to book the tickets requested.
Whilst I can agree with you that it would be nice if they were to also refund the booking fee, you can also appreciate why they are not offering to do so. There are plenty of examples of service fees across the airline industry that are not refundable in the event of cancellation, so this is not an isolated example.