Originally Posted by
hoipolloi
I have material to use for a dispute if the airline refuses or is too slow to refund.
You have answered your question yourself. Why would airline or any other OTA want to invite trouble, when they can get away with it (there isn't a law forcing them to do so)? From an airline's perspective, an average joe has has zero knowledge about FR, so why give them the opportunity to be enlightened and inviting trouble