shug119

Same with me, Claimed on the 29 January, got the 6 day e-mail. nothing since. No reply to my e-mails.

shug119

I have just phoned my bank ( barclaycard ) I claimed on the 29th January , no word since , apart from the 6 day confirmation e-mail.
Very poor service, rambled on about the Home office advice or something. I asked about claiming under section 75 for a refund, he just rambled on and says to wait and see.

shug119

I claimed on January 29th, no refund for me yet.
Has it been paid ?

cyberchic

I already emailed my travel agent and they told me Air China has not updated them on anything and if I want to cancel I will receive no refund... I fly around mid march... I replied with a screenshot and a link to the free refund post from Air China on their website.

The previous email they sent me was like "Oh you are not going in to China you are just transiting so it will not affect you." they won't be saying that if I get the virus now would they.

nacho

Try writing to Air China, once you have confirmation from Air China and the travel agent can't refuse your request.

hur88

Is this one of those rare instances where booking with an OTA is better than dealing directly with the airline?

chimpanzee911

Nope. I claimed on Jan 28 and have not seen anything. The other posters probably booked on OTA and got their refunds through this channel.

Ha Thu

Hi,

Vietnam has banned all flights from mainland China until 1st May.

Travel agent hasn’t cancelled any of my flights but of course I won’t be allowed to enter VN!

Do you think credit card provider will accept this as a reason for a charge back?

Thanks

plunet

I would suggest some patience is needed for refunds.

I cannot imagine that AirChina (or other Chinese airlines) staffing are back to full strength yet, a good proportion of their employees are probably stuck in their family hometowns from Chinese New Year in parts of the country with travel restrictions imposed upon them. Moving around in China is quite troublesome and restrictions are constantly changing and vary from area to area.

Even in "normal" circumstances most airlines would typically state it would be between a week and a month to sort a refund. Refunds if not fully automated are almost always handled by a back office team within the airline that is not customer facing. Some members of the forum have reported that refunds have arrived so AirChina are processing them, so I suggest it would be useful to cut them a bit of slack, and avoid calling the airline and clogging up the call centre when other passengers need help and assistance. I am also waiting a refund from a Chinese airline so I can submit an insurance claim for the net amount of my costs to curtail a trip to China but I am not chasing them for updates yet.

It's not the fault the AirChina and other Chinese airlines are in this situation which is quite unprecedented, and I don't think anyone can reasonably expect customer service levels to be perfect based upon the disruption being inflicted upon their businesses at the moment.

LapLap

Just to add a data point to @plunet ‘s worthy post.
At the end of every year the Air China flights I purchase for Spring in September/October are adjusted as part of seasonal schedule changes. During this time, when Air China are fully staffed and ready to deal with clients and agencies as flights are reconfirmed and updated/cancelled, between speaking to an agent and seeing the booking definitively changed as a PNR (Passenger Name Record), the time frame is typically 5 to 7 days.
That is the pace I’d expect in an optimum situation.

I have flights in early April that were adjusted this way in November. Took about a week between finding out about the schedule changes and seeing my trip itinerary updated to reflect the phone call I had with an Air China agent.

Am waiting for more information before I contact CA about rescheduling/cancelling. I don’t see my own circumstances as being particularly urgent or critical so am happy to hang back for now. The customer facing and data wrangling staff at Air China have all my sympathy and I’d like to do all I can to support them. Trying to keep customers happy whilst keeping mgt and officials appeased must be really challenging, seems to me an impossible juggling act to get right. I hope they can put (most of) this behind them soon.

Ana Rita Filipe

Hello everyone!
We have a flight ARL - PEK and PEK - MNL on 3rd of April. I know that all flights PEK-MNL from 5th Feb till 31st March were cancelled.
We booked our flights in the Air China APP and know we decide to cancel our flights and try to get the free refund... but, I need a little help because of the request on the AirChina Official WebSite.
Could you please help to understand what does it mean the topic "Online Refund Reference Number(Please check it on your itinerary email) " ?, and how can I find it on my itinerary email.

Thank you for your help and have a nice weekend everyone

LapLap

have a look at the very first confirmation email sent to you by Air China.

You should have an attached PDF that looks like this:

nacho

Yes, since they are not allowed into Vietnam. My suggestion is that you call your card issuer and explain the issue and ask them if it's enough to file a charge back. Also if you have travel insurance, check that too.

nacho

Are you serious? If I had book the tickets directly with Air China then I can get a refund NOW, Air China is not giving authorizations to OTA to issue refunds.

Just because you don't get the $ right away doesn't mean that you are not getting your $ - if they don't pay you in 30 days you can use that confirmation to file a charge back.

Ana Rita Filipe

Thank you for yor help

actually i booked my flights in the AirChina App (and I didn't receive any e-mail with the tickets) and after two weeks they made some updates on the App and after that I couldn't log in, so I called to the european number and one of the agens sent me the tickets, and in this PDF there is no "Online Refund Number" :\.

So , I think I need to call them and wait

Thanks again for the help!