Yreal

No point in pleasing people that are never coming to Greece again. They have bigger fish to fry.

like I said before, it's not legal. But there's not that much you can do about it. If you sue, you win. But verry few people are gonna bother. It's a lot easier to just take a trip to Greece. If you went for a specific purpose, then just plan a holiday.

People that sue are a small minority. It's a risk/reward assessment from Aegean, nothing more nothing less. As soon as someone goes through, give them their refund. It's not pretty, but it's the way it is. Not like fr, w6 or vy are paying out...

I have to deal with people that are threatening to apeal my judgments in court all day. They rarely go through. And win maybee once a year.

irishguy28

Nothing is impossible.

They can go through their list of vouchers, and for those vouchers issued for a booking where they were responsible for cancelling a flight, and which are still unused, either:
a) immediately issue a full refund to the original form of payment (and void the voucher); or
b) change the voucher (or reissue a new voucher) such that it is refundable, in a process to be initiated online by the voucher holder
c) contact each such voucher holder, asking them to choose between the refund (whether stream a) or b)) or holding on to the voucher that they already have.

irishguy28

Why did you think not?

The Commission had 47 infringement cases open against Germany as of December 2019, the 3rd-highest total of any member state (Italy had 49 and Spain had 57); transport was indicated as a "problem sector".

Germany has consistently had well above the average number of open infringement cases.

Chr04

Just for the record, in less than a week I received vouchers for all my Aegean canceled flights.
It has been a month sinceIsince canceled 2 flights with SAS and didnt receive anything from them.

giorginho

Just for the record out of the 6 Tickets I had in early April (3x LATAM, 2x Lufthansa and 1x Air Europa) I have only received ONE (1, UNO) refund for one of the LATAM tickets (fun fact, I actually got more money back for that ticket than what I had spent, due to currency conversion rates). The rest has sent me a few emails stating that "it's an ongoing process") and lately I even got one saying that the refund claim couldn't be processed because of missing information (nothing was missing of course, they just stalled the process and made me start over again).
These are the only tickets I had that got canceled.
There are indeed a (very) few airlines that were "good" from the beginning of the pandemic and then most of them stalled and delayed (many are still delaying) refunds for as long as possible (if airline A takes an average in the pandemic of 5 months to refund and airline B 6 months, when both should have refunded within 7 days, in my eyes both are equally "bad", that goes to those who "proudly" refer to LH as one who issues refunds, when we all know what went down...).

flyertalker0039345

They do offer 10% extra if the flight has been cancelled - I have two vouchers with 10% extra.

And I fully agree that FFs are the ones who got the better side of this - after all, they fly frequently and are most likely to book new flights as soon as they can. And on top of that they really want a good relationship with Aegean so they can continue to reap the benefits.

It does get much worse for non-FFs who just wanted a nice holiday.

I have friends who booked their summer holiday flights with JU. When Serbian passport holders got re-banned, Aegean cancelled the flights, but Air Serbia continued operating them, both to ATH and to SKG. A sizable number of people here have Hungarian/Croatian passports along with their Serbian ones, so I guess those people coupled with some transfers are enough to sustain flights with an ATR.

Since the flights had not been not cancelled JU said no voucher could be issued and offered my friends an option of being rebooked on another flight with the last possible flight date being Dec 31. The call center reps were even rude and said that they should be lucky they were being offered anything as it was their fault they didn't meet the entry requirements. This coming from a government-owned national airline - blaming its own citizens.

My friends got their holiday leaves approved by their companies and they cannot travel whenever they want to, plus they wanna swim, not go for NYE to Athens. They gave up on fighting and booked a package holiday to Turkey - the charter fight is of course being operated by Air Serbia lol.

Everything taken into account, this info from Aegean seems very customer-oriented.

Often1

None of this matters. The law affords the passenger the choice. If the consumer wishes a refund, that is what he is due. If he is willing to accept a credit (even one with a premium), he is free to do that. But, to be very clear, it is the passenger, not the carrier's option.

The value of a chargeback is that it puts the burden on A3 to demonstrate that it does not owe a refund. It cannot do that, so it will eventually lose. At the same time, it's merchant acquirer will, over time, increase its chargeback holdback and that makes operations even more difficult. Thus, an even greater incentive for A3 to obey the law.

Having an argument about whether Greece or Germany or Sweden are "better" is hardly productive and belongs in OMNI if it belongs anywhere.

headingwest

That's definitely a recent development. I have had 4 vouchers issued for cancelled flights and only received the ticket value. If I had been given 10% extra, I would be a little happier!

flyertalker0039345

I found the excerpt:

• If your flight was cancelled after 30/06/2020, you can opt for a refund through our call center and only if you booked your ticket through an AEGEAN point of sale (website, call center, airport). Kindly note that due to the high volume of requests, it can take several weeks to process your refund request and get back to you. Alternatively, you may request a Credit Voucher, whose value will be increased by an additional 10% of the value of your initial ticket.

Knobbgb

Where did you find that - in the regular T&C? I'm about to call them for ANOTHER refund (yesterday they cancelled a flight I had in October) and it would be good ammunition.

As for the 10% bonus on the voucher - I was also offered that for this latest cancellation. Can anybody who's accepted one tell me - is it 10% on just the carrier part of the ticket (excluding taxes) or 10% of the whole value. I'm guessing the former. Thx.

Carpacchio

No - it's the whole value...

flyertalker0039345

Yes, 10% extra on the whole value of the ticket. And then for some reason (maybe system limitations) they round up to the next integer.
It's from the overall info point below the header menu - Current flight information - COVID-19. And then Flight schedule - What should I do if my flight is cancelled?.

eagle4121

progol

FYI - I just received notice that my October flight on Aegean was canceled. In the email and on the website, the voucher appears to be the only option. However, after several attempts to contact Aegean by phone, I finally got through and was able to request a refund. But they are very clear that the process to refund it may take 3-6 MONTHS!

Since I’m not planning a trip to or through Greece right now, and was willing to accept a voucher, anticipating that we would ask for a refund in a year from now, I went ahead and requested the refund. I figure it will come through when I’m finally booking travel again!

Carpacchio

Same here - flight also cancelled in October and only voucher option displayed.
Will check what I will do - I fear that they are close to bancruptcy, so you will either way have low chances to get something...