mileageking

Concierge was working on file before I received AC cancellation email. Credit on AC's website (from wherever it was pulling info) was not capturing inbound Z class I had already flown. Credit for future 24 months would have been 2k

Adam Smith

Very strange. I was in this same situation a couple days ago (half-flown international booking, return cancelled) and the refund and credit amount were both correct.

I wonder whether it's a display glitch. Lots of little errors. When I cancelled that booking (refund ~$1800), the refund e-mail said I was getting $0 back.

EdmFlyBoi

Modelling would suggest we will not get to peak cases for 50 days with an Ro less than 1 around the same amount of time. It seems we won’t be flying for months with likely very limited international flights into the summer.

JTXC

I think here that AC should pre-emptively warn passengers by e-mail. For Y pax, the downgrade is service is minor, but it cause upset for J pax. Has anyone flown long-haul in the last few days and can report what service was offered?

dkc192

Update: one of the LH legs on my US-EU-US itinerary next month showed up as cancelled on AC.com (one of the AC overwater flights is cancelled too but the PNR doesn't currently reflect that). AC.com kept erroring out when trying to cancel my flight, so I called in to ask for a refund. The agent had to go to a ticketing desk, who said no, pointing to the new policy, which was confirmed by a supervisor. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor; she could only offer me a callback within a certain time window. Toward the end she sounded genuinely upset that she couldn't help, and I felt bad for her potential situation and for not being as empathetic as I could have (my tone throughout the call was polite but somewhat curt). We'll see if I do get a call back from a supervisor and how that goes.

Bottom line is, even non-AC cancellations are ineligible for refunds under this draconian new policy. If I don't hear back from a supervisor today or the supervisor can't get a refund issued, then I will be filing a chargeback. Refusing a refund is illegal under EC 261, particularly the EU provided specific guidance on this exact issue in light of Covid-19 events earlier this week.

economyplusfan

Sometimes the credit card company refunds the charge in these situations. Anyone tried that?

Adam Smith

1. Do you know when the flight was cancelled? If it was prior to March 19th, the new policy is irrelevant, and you should point that out to them.

2. Did you cite EU261 to AC? Airlines often don't want to provide these benefits proactively, but often change their tune quickly as soon as you say the right words.

It will likely be quicker and easier to resolve this with AC than trying a chargeback.

What is your rationale for a chargeback? You don't like AC's new terms and conditions? I expect you're going to have a hard time getting your credit card issuer to just give you a refund, unless it's covered under the card's trip cancellation insurance. Remember this isn't a one-off, there are going to be tens of thousands of people affected by this, so credit card issuers are likely to be looking very closely at their own policies as well. Last thing they want to do is start handing out a bunch of cash to people like you and then not be able to recover it from the airlines.

economyplusfan

“People like you”?

Adam Smith

People who think that a chargeback is an appropriate remedy when it may not be. No idea what else you think I could have meant by that, considering I have no idea who you are.

economyplusfan

In that case, more accurately, "People like me" are FT members trying to help other FT members when they appear to have a legal right to a chargeback and the airline is not honoring that legal right. That's what this forum is supposed to be about.

knotseh

Route suspensions page was finally updated (as of March 19th)
The temporary cut trans-border flights are all listed now
https://www.aircanada.com/us/en/aco/...na-travel.html

annehamnitz

Lots of Caribbean cancellations (as expected) though some flights still for sale on AC site. (eg BGI to YUL on March 26)

Adam Smith

What is the basis for a chargeback? If a flight was cancelled before March 19th, AC's own policies will dictate that a refund is available, and if they're refusing to provide one, that should be pointed out to them and will likely get the right result, as I pointed out to someone else in the same post that you quoted. If a flight is cancelled on or after March 19th, the 24-month credit applies. As I've pointed out upthread several times, it's unclear whether or not this new policy violates AC's tariff, which is the detailed contract that governs a ticket purchase from AC.

Chargebacks exist to protect against things like fraud or unauthorized charges, or goods/services not being received.

A card issuer is generally going to ask what the reason is for the chargeback and what steps you've taken to resolve it with the merchant. In this case, it's not clear that there's a valid reason for a chargeback, as I've explained above.

People on FT can be keen to throw around the idea of chargebacks, and sometimes they're totally legitimate, but I've also seen them suggested at times when they're tantamount to fraud.

Here, we essentially have a commercial dispute. You're going to say your flight is cancelled and you should get a refund. AC is going to say that your purchase is governed by the tariff and the credit is in compliance with the tariff, therefore you're not entitled to a refund. A card issuer may well turn you away and tell you to sort it out with AC, or they may investigate the issue and deny the chargeback after receiving support from AC for the charge.

Now, it's also possible that AC knows the 24-month credit actually does violate the tariff and is going to try to get away with it because they expect most people will just go along with it. But they may provide a refund if pushed. As an analogy, a friend of mine used to manage a Blockbuster and told me that the late fees they charged were illegal, and that they knew it, so all store managers had instructions to waive the late fees if anyone ever pushed back. But most people just paid. AC may be employing a similar strategy here, and escalating the issue may generate a more positive result.

I never said you or anyone else shouldn't pursue a chargeback - it's a free country, do whatever you want - and I never said a chargeback definitely wouldn't be successful. I simply expressed my skepticism for this approach, and I stand by what I said.

There's also no need for your snark. Go read the dozens of posts I've made in this thread alone, sharing information with people and offering suggestions based on my own experiences dealing with this.

supatight80

Hmm. I guess I must have been wrong all these years flying.

I always thought people buy airline tickets for the service of being flown from point A to B at a specific date and time...

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BR777

Dear all Air Canada experts,

I booked a "non-refundable" business class ticket directly on the Air Canada website on September 2019. Please note that this ticket is originally non-refundable. I had an itinerary from SFO to HKG on 4/12 and then I was scheduled to fly back on 4/16. On March 5, Air Canada sent me an email indicating that "One or more flights in your itinerary cannot be operated as planned". Please see screenshot below.

This itinerary won't work out for me as my boss wanted me to go back to work on 4/17 (I know, this is a very silly reason, but I was only given that many holidays). I also figured right now, it may not be a good reason to travel due to the spreading of COVID-19, so I decided to cancel my itinerary as soon as I got this itinerary change email on March 5. So I logged onto my reservation and hit the "Cancel Booking" button. I was quite surprised see on the cancellation page that I could get my full refund back if I were to cancel and choose to credit back to my original payment (my credit card) because I booked a non-refundable ticket to start with. I apologize that I forgot to take the screenshot of the cancellation page.

As soon as I cancelled my itinerary, I received an email from Air Canada indicating that I'll be notified by email once my refund has been processed. However, since I'm based in the US, I believe that we have a regulation with our Department of Travel that if an airline owes a refund, the refund should be processed within 7 business days (source: https://www.transportation.gov/indiv...ection/refunds).



I've been trying to reach out to Air Canada after I waited for seven business days since 3/5, but I've been getting no responses from them. I couldn't even get on hold with them via phone due to high volume of calls. I've sent them an email to the customer relation team and their refund team but I haven't gotten any responses back from them. I fully understand that to resolve this kind of issue, the airline is the first one I should be dealing with. I know that the above cancellation email said that I should wait at least three weeks to wait for my refund to be deposited into my credit card. I just want the experts here to give me some advises on what I should do if I still don't get my refund back after I wait for three weeks? Should I file a complaint with DOT, or just call my credit card company to dispute the transaction? I really don't want to go with either routes, but it seems like I'll be running out of options now as I just can't get on hold with Air Canada agents.