Transavia Voucher/Refund
 

Hi, has anyone had any luck getting a refund rather than a voucher from Transavia for a Covid-19 canx?

Was your flight cancelled?

If it was cancelled then yes you can get a refund.

If it still operated and you cancelled then the most you will get is a voucher,

UKtravelbear yes they cancelled due to Covid-19, I rejected their offer of a voucher and completed the online refund section and received a reply stating that the offer of a voucher was the only option available. It wasn't a copy and paste email, rather one written by a real person as I had two bookings and the replies were written by different office staff.

Route was DUB-ORY-DUB

Transavia is an EU airline (untilatly ownd by the AF-KLM group) and your flights were within the EU so EU261 applies and the EU have made it clear that it still applies (in response partially due to a Dutch Governmenr attempt to dissaply the refund if cancelled by the airline provisions provisions).

So they are wrong to only offer a voucher.

Thank you I'll push them harder!

G

Pushing will have minimal chances of working. Transavia is one of many airlines that only issues vouchers instead of refunding. Moreover, the German Government said a few days ago that they'll pass a travel-wide law that will regulate the matter (only vouchers to be issued for all "Covid-cancelled" bookings such as hotels, cruises, airlines, etc.) and so far nobody in Brussels has uttered a single word in that matter. Good luck, though. I enjoy seeing optimists these days :).

Other than the EU Commissioner in charge of transportation... :o

https://news.yahoo.com/stricken-airl...030000659.html

If the carrier has cancelled your flight, you have requested a refund and been denied that refund, simply initiate a chargeback with your credit card issuer (bank). Make certain that you supply a copy of the original e-ticket receipt showing the e-ticket number, flights, and payment, as well as a copy of your cancellation request and the carrier's denial.

Getting in to legal arguments with front line personnel is not worth either your time or effort.

Transavia is a subsidiary of KLM and based in the Netherlands so German law simply won't apply in the OPs case.

The EU261 regulation is perfectly clear - that when the airline cancels the flight (as in this case) they have to refund if that is what the passenger wants. A company cannnot just change that.

They can offer to add extra value (AY = 10% for example and I think LH is also offering a bonus) but they cannot force the passenge to accept a voucher if they want a refund.

The situation is different when the passenger cancels becauae of Covid-19 but the flight still operates where a voucher is actually better than most normal cancellation poliies of only getting government taxes and airport fees back. I took a BA voucher / credit note for a flight I cancelled and so have £250 to spend later rather than the less than £50 I would have got back if I just cancelled. Another flight has been cancelled and a call got me a refund with no mention of a voucher whatsoever.

My concern with taking a voucher from Transavia would be that if they don't survive this then it's worthless.

Perhaps it will survive, but it won't operate the routes or frequencies you want. If it does, you can always purchase a new ticket at the time. In the meantime, the cash will be in your accounts and you may do with it as you please. If the carrier were offering a 20%+ premium for a voucher, it might be worth considering.

I have rejected their offer of a voucher via their online forms and am currently waiting to hear back.

Fully expect them to insist on voucher in which case I intend to initiate credit card charge back.

Adding insult to injury in my case is that I had a booking BRU-HER-BRU in July 2020 and Transavia informed that they will not resume this route until Marc h 2021. So a voucher is even less attractive to me. I am also skeptical about Transavia's chance of surviving. There is a fair chance that their voucher will be worthless in 2-3 months from now when they'll go belly up.

As commented in the easyJet thread, if everyone insists on cash refunds the airlines could well go under which will be detrimental to all of us on here. If you will use a voucher, and especially if a premium is offered for accepting one, it may turn out beneficial for everyone in the longer term.

What is £100 GBP or 100 Euro now if you're going to pay extra for flights for the rest of your life if competition is removed from the playing field?

Both the French and Dutch governments have indicated that, as a measure to support airlines undergoing severe cashflow problems at the moment, they are instructing their national enforcement bodies not to enforce the requirements of EU261/2004 as regards cash refunds when a flight is cancelled. They are allowing a refundable voucher to be issued in place of the requirement to refund the money immediately.

This is in recognition that this is in violation of EC261/2004, but the governments find this preferable than having hundreds of thousands of Euros refunded immediately to passengers, at a time when the airlines have no new cash from new bookings coming in, given that this means that the point where taxpayer money has to be used to bail the airlines out is deferred.

The fact that governments are coming out in favour of such exemptions means that you will really not get anywhere simply appealing to the airlines. You would, instead, have to bring them to court. (In the OP's case, where the flight departs from DUB, an Irish court may come to a quicker/better decision for him/her, should Ireland issue guidance that vouchers cannot be issued where the passenger demands a cash refund - but no such guidance has yet been issued; however, from following discussions regarding Aer Lingus who are issuing vouchers with 10% extra and a 5-year expiry date, if anything, the vouchers issued in Ireland are actually less attractive than what Transavia is offering; the EI vouchers are not refundable)

By the time the court would have come to a ruling, you would already have been able to cash in your voucher.

Transavia's vouchers are refundable after a year: https://www.transavia.com/en-NL/update-coronavirus/This is identical to the system used by AF and KL.

I know this is far from ideal; however, the best you can do now is just to accept the voucher, and to wait.

The chances that AF/KL and/or HV/TO are allowed to fail is unrealistic at this stage.

Well, why don't the airlines then issue a voucher that guarantees that you won't have to pay a fare difference for a new flight. That would be an interesting starter.