You literally cannot get anyone on the telephone and when I emailed them, I got the following response: We would like to let you know that, for cancelled flights due Covid19 the refund can be offered only according fare rules ( with penalty).

It seems that they are trying to use COVID-19 as an excuse to not provide me with a refund, but the reason of the cancelled flight doesn't matter. It says right on their website that any cancelled flight, the passenger is owed a refund.

9.1 Involuntary Refunds

9.1.1 If the Carrier cancels a flight, fails to operate a flight according to schedule, fails to stop at destination or Stopover, or cause the Passenger to miss a connecting flight on which he holds a reservation, the amount of the refund shall be:

• for wholly unused ticket, an amount equal to the fare paid plus all unused airport taxes;
• for partially used ticket, the refund of unused part of the fare plus all unused airport fees and taxes.

https://www.airmoldova.md/terms-of-carriage-en/#item10

I responded to them with this information and they responded again offering to rebook me on the next available flight or to provide a voucher. They provided the following:

8.2 Flight delays, cancellation, denied boarding

8.2.1 We strive to the best of our abilities to avoid cancellations, flight delays and denied boarding due to overbooking. If Passenger’s flight is cancelled or is subject to a delay, or if the Passenger is denied boarding on a flight for which he holds a valid reservation, the Passenger is entitled to certain rights disclosed herein. As under the Convention, the Carrier’s obligations should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.

https://www.airmoldova.md/terms-of-carriage-en/

The agent said that the flight was cancelled due to "reduction in the number of flights for epidemiological reasons is a force majeure situation that Air Moldova cannot influence".


Section 9.1.1 is pretty clearly written that a refund is owed if the flight is cancelled. But does section 8.2.1 override the section about refunds?

Anyways, since they are refusing to refund, I'm going to do a credit card chargeback. Unfortunately this went on my Barclay card and their system doesn't even allow chargebacks online.