siw

I did not ask their reason for the £260.00 refund charge. I assumed it was due to my ticket being the cheapest non-refundable ticket available on the KE website when I made the purchse (business class cabin sub-booking class I). Originally, my ticket was LHR-ICN-NRT (I class) for £2,086.82. After a few months I changed my mind and did a destination change to MNL which cost £235.15. So I spent a total of £2,321.97 with KE for this trip. I didn't have the energy to discuss with the telephone agent. From my previous interactions with KE telephone agents I find them to be very inflexible, so that once they have said what they are going to do then no amount of recourse or explanation from me will get them to change their response - whether they are right or wrong. I am not happy at the refund charge but it is now too late to do anything about it. No doubt stronger willed people (usually I would stand my ground) could KE to give a full refund, but after dealing with cancellations and refunds from many other airlines and hotels I just feel like I'm losing no matter what consumer laws are on my side.

Thanks for all the information folks. Hope you're all successful in dealing with your own tickets.

Loren Pechtel

Update: Got my refund.

hurnik

So I chatted with KE today regarding my award ticket that I requested refund on 3/25/20

It seems that you have to request the miles to be refunded (even though the first phone rep on 3/25/20 said they would do that), so that they will show up in 24-48 hours. I still have to wait 1-2 months for the credit card to be refunded, but I'm OK with that.

AirMike

I have a Korean Air round trip ticket departing 2/24 and returning 2/26. I flew the 2/24 segment and Korean Air canceled my 2/26 return flight. I called and spoke to KAL rep in February, March, and just now. Every time, they tell me the refund is in process and I need to wait couple more weeks. Should I keep waiting? How would a credit card dispute work since I flew the first segment already? Thanks in advance!

mikesaidyes

Truly, you just have to wait. Just SO MANY people in your same situation. Did they issue you a refund number like a six digit letter/number "code?" Every country has different processing systems as well. It's why, I in Korea got a refund within 3 days, but in other countries they are waiting a LONG time.

siw

It's just a waiting game. But no email or reference code to say the refund is in progess. Been waiting for nearly 1 month; called KE for refrund on 7 April and today is 3 May. I am in the UK so do not get the 3 day refund speed as mikesaidyes had but there is no point contacting KE about the progress. Also waiting for a LH refund which I requested far before the KE refund.

The Mileage Millionaire

I love all of the excuses airlines are making about having to process so many refunds that they are behind. I cancelled a Delta ticket this past weekend and received a refund in 2 days, so all of these other airlines are full of s***.

Handcake

I had a flight with KE that I was going to do at the beginning of March. Didn't look like it was gonna happen because of Covid, so I cancelled it at the end of January. I got my refund within 3 weeks.

I had another flight with KE for the end of March. Cancelled it Feb 26. Still waiting for the refund. My guess is when it exploded world wide, KE had WAY more people calling and just couldn't deal with it. Either that, or they have cash flow problems.

I called earlier this week and they said my refund was processed on the day I called. I think that is shady and perhaps they had put it on hold until I called to ask about it. I was close to just having my CC do a chargeback on it.

Oh and KE isn't the only one taking forever. Asiana took me 2 months to get a refund for too.

mikesaidyes

This is happening at every airline. Even airlines like Delta are taking 2-3 months to issue refunds. They went from MILLIONS of passengers per day to like 100,000. That's a lot of refunds.

siw

I called KE two days ago as still not had the refund I called for on 7th April. Phone agent said it's in progress and to call back if not refunded by the 1st June.

I know they are busy but don't airlines have computerized systems for airline-to-customer money flow in the same way as purchases in the direction of customer-to-airline are instant? I know it is really about extending the hold the airlines have on the cash but in this age of instant global computerized transactions.........

angra

I believe it is exactly what you said, and that they are intentionally slow-walking refunds as a way to slow the cash-bleed.

Often1

If the carrier has promised a refund and it has not been initiated within a reasonable time period, you should initiate a chargeback with your credit card issuer. Make certain that you provide in the notes that the carrier has agreed to a refund but has not followed through. The impact of this is that, at worst, when the chargeback is forwarded to KE for a response, it is immediately seen that a refund is due and thus no effort is wasted "investigating" whether KE ought to contest the chargeback.

AirMike

Finally got the credit card refund for the canceled return flight on 5/15. It only took 12 weeks since I first called to request the refund. I did file a DOT complaint last week. Not sure if that helped to speed up the refund. The DOT website is here and you can file a consumer complaint.

https://www.transportation.gov/indiv...ection/refunds