jaybert

I am in a credit card dispute with Norwegian on a flight on 4/18/2020 DY7025 BCN-JFK. They are saying I voluntarily canceled, but I believe I canceled the flight and selected the refund option (which should have only been available after) after the flight was canceled by Norwegian for coronavirus. Unfortunately, my cancellation email doesn’t say what sort of refund option I selected, just that it was canceled. I have the timestamp from when the cancellation email was sent and would like to match up that up to when the flight was canceled and confirm if I did it after the flight was cancelled by Norwegian.

edit: I found a news article stating Norwegian would be cancelling all flights in April between bcn -> jfk dated 2 days before my cancellation, though something more definitive on when the flight was officially canceled in the systems may be helpful.

-Jason

marconess

If *you* cancelled the flights via the website, unless it stated on the webpage your flight was cancelled, Norwegian will see that as a voluntary cancel - even if they cancel the flights after that.
In my experience with Norweign you'll get an email saying your flight has been cancelled, with buttons to rebook or refund. Do you have any notification from them that your particular flight was cancelled before you went onto the website?

Even though some airlines have said "we arent flying til X", they will cancel them in stages to stop a flood of requests to customer service.

ebay33

Thanks, this was helpful. I was wondering if Norwegian would notify me via email when my flights are cancelled. Showing as cancelled when I search for the upcoming flights, but my booking is still showing as a valid booking, so I will just wait for that email.

LondonElite

I'm confused. Did you cancel the flight before Norwegian did? If you are in a credit card dispute, there will be a chargeback to your card, during which time the card issuer will ask Norwegian for its side of the story. If you cancelled voluntarily then you will only be due a refund as per the fare rules, which is likely to be not very much.

jaybert

my recollection is a bit unclear now / they have my doubting myself, but I recall I saw the flight was canceled when I checked my flight and then submitted for the refund option. That’s why I was hoping to see if I could figure out when it was officially canceled. I am aware that if I canceled it when the flight was still scheduled that would be on me.

It’s possible that I was checking the cancellation options when it wasn’t canceled, and a cash refund was presented to me and I chose that option even though I didn’t qualify for it, but it’d be weird/tricky of Norwegian to present that as an option if it wasn’t actually one and allow you to cancel the ticket with it.

The thing I’m 99% positive of was that in the cancellation options I was given the choice of a full refund. I wouldn’t have canceled a ticket if that wasn’t the option presented to me since it seemed pretty obvious this flight wasn’t going to happen and I just needed to wait it out until it was cancelled.

jaybert

I am 99% sure that when I submitted the cancellation I was able to chose the option of a refund vs rebooking. I don’t know if they somehow offer this as an option even if you aren’t actually entitled to one. My cancellation email from Norwegian is pretty basic / doesn’t tell me any useful information other than the time I cancelled.

irishguy28

It's always best to wait until you have irrefutable confirmation, direct from the airline; I was in my KLM account 2 days ago when i noticed that an upcoming July trip was showing as "Cancelled" on the App - but not on the website, at least depending on which browser I was using!. I was able to download the "cancellation certificates" showing that the airline had cancelled, and initiated my refund attempt. At this time, they were still selling seats on all flights originally scheduled on both legs of my route for the basic starting price of 99 Euro, despite already knowing that some of these flights had been cancelled.

It just takes time for things to filter through the system; you should wait for the process to "complete".

In the course of that day, I began to receive push notifications about the cancellations, and separate emails about the cancellation of both flights. By that evening, I found via the manage booking facility that I had been automatically rebooked, onto the only flight operating on that route on each of the relevant dates. The price, meanwhile, had skyrocketed from the 99 Euro point to about 300 Euro in the space of those few hours.

I know instinct is to act fast to get money back, but it's best to wait until you have independent confirmation from the airline of the cancellation. Given the vast difference in possible outcomes when the airline are the ones to cancel as opposed to when you voluntarily cancel, I would advise you ALWAYS to wait until they have informed you in a durable and irrefutable way (by email, for example; website pop-ups or push messages don't last!), rather than reacting to the first inkling of the cancellation before you have "officially" been notified.

jaybert

yea...this feels like a $2200 lesson. I submitted the news article and chase just came back and said the charge was valid. I guess I can take the Norwegian credit but I don’t really plan on flying with them anytime soon, nor do I even know if they’ll be around in a year.

marconess

Unfortunatly an expensive lesson I think. But Norwegian do have some great fares so hopefully you'll be able to use the voucher for some great trips in the future.

For anyone also reading, from their website:

COVID-19 updates

ebay33

Just to update - I received the email today that my flights in August and September were cancelled. The email really pushed the cashpoints conversion rather than the cash refund, but I scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the email and there is a link to getting a cash refund. You can only find this link if you click on the word "here" at the bottom of that email. The cashpoints conversion is a huge red button at the top of the email. Ignore that button. Once you get to the cash refund screen, once again you are prompted to convert to cashpoints with another big red button. Ignore that button again, and you can enter your information and click on a small button at the bottom of the screen to request a cash refund. When you request a cash refund, you'll be required to enter a comment in the box. Even though I didn't have any comment, I just added a basic comment that I was requesting a refund so I could complete the process. I was provided with a refund claim reference code and a confirmation email after initiating the refund request. Very happy to receive this cancellation email in June rather than August or later. As crazy as it is, I booked these flights in November 2019, so I don't mind waiting now for a few more months to get the refund processed.

bones5883

ebay33 -
I also have a norwegian flight in September that I hope gets cancelled by the airline in order to receive a cash refund.
Hearing your September flight was cancelled gives me confidence mine is going to be as well.

Appreciate the info on finding the link in the email to the cash refund instead of cashpoints.
Hoping my cancellation comes soon before later in the summer.

Can i ask what flight you had booked? I am booked for NYC to Rome in September

MiddKid

I have a Gatwick to Bergen, Norway trip booked on July 4. Our entire trip surrounding this leg has been fully refunded. This leg is the last remaining piece of our previously booked trip.

A few weeks ago all the news about the bailout plan was that Norwegian basically wouldn't fly most routes again until next year at the earliest. At some point a few weeks ago I even put in our trip and the Norwegian site didn't have any flights available for purchase for June, July, or August. I called and asked for my refund since my flight was apparently cancelled. They told me it was still on. Sometime over the last two weeks, this route is suddenly available again on their website for every day of July beginning July 1.

So I'm confused...is Norwegian still basically planning on a skeleton schedule until next year or are they truly adding flights back on July 1? I'm fine playing chicken with my cancellation up until the last minute, but didn't know if there was news I was missing about them re-ramping up operations.

ebay33

Denver to London (Gatwick) RT

MiddKid

And just like that, Norwegian just cancelled our flights. We’ll see if we get the refund now!

ebay33

I received my refund on 6/19. Very fast and easy process once the flights were cancelled by Norwegian.