capedreamer

Thanks. I might give this a go. Unfortunately, they're just making things difficult by requiring any request for "reassertion" to be made in writing via snail mail (from Germany to the US) or fax (umm what?). I don't have a lot of confidence it will result in a different outcome because I've pre-emptively submitted Swiss's CoC with the relevant passages highlighted. The issue is I don't think anyone bothered to read it.

warakorn

Barclay is trying to fob you off. It could be that no one has really took a thorough look at the LX documents. Nonetheless, a bank is not keen to becoming liable in the end. So if you are firm, they have to reconsider.

All in all, what is more important. Learn from the past. Never ever entrust an airline with a large amount of cash for future travel (esp. if there is a long time between ticketing and the flight)!
Maybe there are other more things in life to spend money on (instead of flying in C to South America).

TEDisgone

I was giving this situation just over two months before going down the chargeback route because I knew that would be complicated as I purchased the ticket through my bank's travel portal. Well I just received an email from my bank and I was excited until I read the first paragraph with "Update about your flight credit"...

​​​​​​This is despite three chats and two phone calls with actual humans specifically saying I was applying for a refund and at least two agents acknowledging that I was owed a full refund but that Swiss wasn't emailing them back.

I could certainly use the credit to take advantage of the current flash sale on at the moment from BUD (for next year, of course) but I'm so angry at how they've treated us during this situation that I just want my money back and to never fly with LX (or LH) again. I realize they won't miss me but with at least two long haul flights per year in J and maybe four short haul flights also in J, that's a chunk of CHF that will be going towards another airline now.

I'll contact them yet again in a few weeks.

capedreamer

100%. Will be a long time before I try to take advantage of a cheap-ish premium fare that requires booking via an OTA again. Also never using a cheap-ish credit card again. I know Swiss is the ultimate problem here, but having Expedia and Barclays in the mix have not helped.

Nick Art

It appears to me there is not much you could still do except to wait. It's obvious that LX is playing rather dumb with the whole refund story, but why get fed up about something that you can't change? It's not worth ones time and nerves imo and eventually if you have submitted the request you'll get your payment. Sooner or later...

moebod

Another story here. Waited for 1 month for refund. Didnt come, made a chargeback. Swiss didnt reply so Amex recredited the money. 2 weeks later swiss contested it and said, they offered a change of date so ticket is still valid. amex accepted it. now i had to contest this, explain it again. Unreal Swiss wasting so much fighting legit refunds, that they will anyway refund in 3 month. Unreal. Very nasty

capedreamer

This sounds vaguely familiar with my experience. What I don't understand is if one part of Swiss agrees that a refund is due but just a matter of timing, why is another part of Swiss actively fighting all the merchant disputes? Is this a cash flow management tactic? Sigh...

warakorn

I do not think that will happen all by itself.

Tafflyer

Agreed.

My chargeback was made permanent on my account by Amex last week, 5 weeks after requesting it and receiving a temporary credit. Presumably this has now been debited from Swiss and is awaiting their response. I cannot wait for them to refuse it as I will then be immediately hitting them with a lawsuit for the refund, interest from 7 days after they cancelled plus legal fees. If this is the only way to make them pay then so be it. Absolutely immoral if not illegal behaviour.

airoli

Of course. Precisely that.As part of the loan package supported by Swiss government guarantees, LX has to agree to pay back unflown tickets by the end of September. Note: This does not apply if you have accepted a "FlightVoucher" - which is one reason why they are pushing that so much.

Happy

The Left Hand does not know the Right Hand is doing.

I already received the UR pts 100% refunded as posted upthread - that was after a couple follow up that UR told me LX never responded to the emails route that LX forced Travel Agencies to request refund by LH disabling all auto-refund functions in the GDS system. Somehow, UR eventually refunded all the points used.

Yet I also received the similar email about the flight credits, and UR said it would contact us again once they received more info on the restriction of the flight credit...

I strongly believe it is just a BLANKET information LX sent out to travel agencies on canceled flights as to how LX would "compensate" those - i.e. flight credits only, no refund - regardless in some cases refunds may have been already issued.

Furthermore, I honestly do not know whether UR / Expedia actually received $ refunds on our bookings when UR sent an email to inform 100% points were returned to the account. As long as they dont take back the points, I consider the LX flight credit email is non-issue.

Adam Smith

capedreamer TEDisgone , I suggest you push back harder on the fact that LX reps verbally told you on the phone that you were entitled to a refund. If your banks are being difficult, in addition to whatever else you're doing, I suggest you point out to your bank that on X date, an LX rep verbally indicated that you were owed a refund, and request they pull the tape of the call to confirm. It certainly should be harder for them to defend the stance that no refund is owed if they've already verbally promised you one.

TEDisgone

Except in my case it was the travel portal (Expedia) agents that agreed I was due a full refund - they couldn't reach LX nor could they get LX to return any emails! If I decide to push for a resolution now, I do have PDFs of the Swiss website (before they removed it - thanks, wayback machine!) that clearly states that full refunds are due . The games they are playing are simply outrageous.

Smiley90

Do you mind elaborating/linking to something going more into this?

airoli

In German: 20 Minuten and AeroTelegraph.