CX Refund processing time?
 

Does anyone have any experience of how long CX takes to process refunds?

I book a refundable flight for just over $5k and had to cancel. I went through the rather elaborate refund procedure and was told it would take 7 business days. It is now the 11th business day and still no refund showing and now my CC is due. Trying to get hold of anyone at CX who can assist is proving challenging so I am tempted to just dispute the original transaction on my CC and let CX deal with Amex instead. Thoughts?

Why is it that everyone wants to dispute everything when they can't wait?

A refund takes around 7-14 business days to process. Afterwards, it then can take another 7-14 days for it to turn up on your credit card.

I guess you can do whatever you think its necessary.

It took about three weeks when I did a refund.

Is it really worth getting Amex involved?

i think by the 11th day the refund has already been processed by CX - nothing they can do for you now on CX's side.

i've done a few cancellations lately, they take about a month to show up on my credit card statement.

I'm surprised they told you 7 working days unless it was for an itinerary involoving US sectors. The FAQ on the CX website have the below timeframes. In my experience, I've been told a refund could take up to 2 months, but usually gets processed in about 2-3 weeks.

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_H...on-refund.html

I'm surprised y'all consider this acceptable practice. After all, it does not take 1 month for them to process the original payment right?

I managed to get through to someone actually helpful and hope to hear back tomorrow. But yes, if it does not get resolved more quickly I will dispute. Maybe if others did the same, they'd actually take refunds as seriously as they do the initial intake of money

Well c'mon, in this case I think OP has a legitimate gripe. If the charge doesn't get credited back in short order, it sounds like OP will have to either shell out cash to avoid interest charges/late fees on his/her card bill or...incur interest charges or late fees on his/her card bill. And before we all go accusing OP of not planning ahead to avoid this situation, I find it quite easy to imagine a situation where one might end up cancelling on such a time frame. The problem from the consumer standpoint is that CX's delay in processing the refund causes a cash-flow problem on the consumer's side.

OP, I've never been in this situation myself, but perhaps a call to Amex to explain the situation would result in some help from their end? I've found them to be quite accommodating in other respects over the years. (Including one case where they waived a massive interest charge that had racked up because I had mistakenly paid HKD120 short of my full balance one month and then got walloped with interest on the entire monthly balance of HKD20,000.)

To bring it full circle my refund posted this morning. It cannot be coincidental to my escalating with CX yesterday. I did get through to a very helpful lady in Vancouver office who said she would email the head office in Hong Kong. And the next day it shows up. Which to me just proves they could process these pretty much as quickly as they process in coming payments too.

Cathay Pacific could not raise short term interest free debt in the capital markets or from any commercial bank, so I am not sure why y'all are so willing to step in and lend them money for free. Me, not so much. I am willing to put up with some reasonable delay and 7 business days - which they quoted in writing during the cancellation process - is about the bounds of my tolerance. Thanks CrazyJ82 for the lone support ^

Haha. I'm the opposite. My mum triggered a refund from UA and I desperately *don't* want it to credit back to my CCB accounts, at least not before 1 March 2014 (939 promo )

This is why things cost what they do as companies have to factor in doing business with customers like the OP :td::td::td::td: Its not CX its the banks who are crooks in all this.

Wait I buy a refundable fare, where my credit card is debited the same day I purchase - but if I want a refund I have to way some indefinite period of time as determined by CX? And you think this is good, and the banks are crooks? What has that got to do with the price of tea in China?

In any business I'd love to have people like you as customers

AS always refund their refundable ticket through credit card in 3 business days. I don't see why things would take longer than a full week to process.

If it is refundable, then it means that I can take my money back if I cancel, then whatever process time they need should be their burden. They have taken the money already, so they could give it back first without shelling out anything from their reserve (if there is one), and process the paperwork at their leisure. That's the right way of doing business.

This has nothing to do with cost saving, this is about efficiency.

CX website returned an error when I bought two J tickets so I went back through and purchased again. Sure enough, I subsequently received two confirmations for the reservation so I canceled one immediately. CX confirmed the reservation was canceled as a duplicate and that I would not be charged. Of course, my amex gets hit 2x on the several thousand dollar charge. I have received now a confirmation of the refund being processed but no indication of when I might see that hit my account. You can put me in the camp of using a quick call to amex so that I do not need to actually pay out of pocket for the erroneous charge.

This is why I always use a travel agent on all refundable tickets. Refund in 24- 48 hours because they offset what they owe with what they are owed (on the passenger's behalf).

In HKG, travel agents only refund you when they get the cash from the airline :(

I've had refunds for taxes / fees to be upwards of a month or longer. But it does eventually show up. CX probably just wants to hold onto your cash longer so they have more money to play with. Oh wells, not much I can do about that.

But I think this is bad business for an airline. All of the US airlines process the refunds relatively quickly.

My TA has enough business from CX that the credit card processor nets out the amount owed with the few refunds for the few people who pay for refundable fares. It works great and the fee makes this even more worth it.

No waiting for the cash when you can just not send them the cash.

My work travel agent is Swire Travel (ie affiliated with CX) and they still give us the caveat of having to wait a few months for a refund. I guess they are just assisting CX in their money market activities ...

Exactly. This is nothing but cheap cash management for CX. Fortunately it seems if you can get through to the right people and threaten chargeback then you can get your money back on time.

Refund 6-8 weeks?
 

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any experience with CX refunds? Had to cancel a J booking and was told it will take 6-8 weeks. Does it really take that long or do they just want to let you onow the maximum time it may take?
Generally it takes upto a week or so with other carriers so wonder what the story is with CX.
Thanks in advance

Flier74

Just to update this, the refund was credited on my card yesterday, 7 days after cancelling the booking. And I was not US bound or threatened that I will dispute the charge with my CC company, so thats good news. Guess they are using the 6-8 weeks clause to cover all eventualities

It took about 10 business days starting with the day the request was made for me to get my refund.

My problem is that I requested a refund for my old ticket and purchased a new ticket for the exact same flights/date (price dropped by $2K) immediately after, yet they somehow refunded me for the cheaper tickets I had just purchased:confused:. This was all done over the phone with an agent. So now I have to wait for them to contact the accounting office to sort out the additional $850 I'm owed :mad:.

I've been assured by the CX reservation desk that my current ticket is valid (I have the new ticket numbers, etc), but I'm a little nervous I will show up at the CX check-in desk in two months and have them tell me either A. I don't have a reservation or B. I need to pay for the reservation.

I've a trip on CX Y fare cancelled back in November 2014 and I'm still waiting for my refund.

Does it involve USA?

If so, for credit card refunds, airline has seven business days (assuming it was refundable and/or qualified for involuntary refund).

14 CFR 374 made DOT responsible for enforcing 12 CFR 226 (REGULATION Z), specifically 12 CFR 226.12 (e).

We had flights booked home to NZ from CDG but then purchased cheaper flights from LHR in CX's latest sale. So we cancelled the original bookings on-line last Saturday, then as instructed spoke with CX on Monday to arrange the refund. CX advised it could take up to 8 weeks to get the refund, which was annoying as we'd already paid for the original tickets months ago.

But we were surprised and delighted to see the credit appear in our account today - 7 days after cancellation (or 5 days after arranging the refund). Means we don't have to temporarily fund a 2nd set of tickets while waiting for the 1st to be refunded as both the refund and the new charge will appear in the same billing period.

just to bring an old topic up with more data point.

Bought 4 tickets for family on KA.com website. Cancelled/asked for refund on May 28th 2015.

July 7th - 1 of the 4 tickets got refunded to my CX amex card...
Aug 2nd - as of today still waiting for 3 tickets to hit my AMEX card.

as a comparison, my travel insurance paid out the claim within 4 days of submitting documents. What's really strange is refund being processed simultaneously for 4 tickets under same booking reference, 1 ticket back but 3 others waiting.... Called CX/AMEX both few times, CX blames AMEX, AMEX blames CX... musical chair so i keep waiting.

Morale of the story: If you have a choice, try to ask for cancelled tickets as CREDIT towards your next flight instead of REFUND which can take a millennium. I'm not even sure if that's possible but i'm very hesitant to book a flight now if there's chance of getting cancelled.