rosenkavalier

well summed up here...

https://onemileatatime.com/swiss-flight-refund/

olm022

And the response:
Dear Customer

We are following the airline policy currently they have no refund on any booking even on canceled flights.

For more information about their policy we advise you to contact them directly.

For any further questions or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

alexwuk

I'm not sure why people are siding with Swiss on this.

Swiss offered to sell the passenger a service, took payment for the service and is now declaring force majeure on providing the service but is also not willing to return the payment. Swiss want the passnger's money for a year but don't want to provide any service in return.

Swiss is essentially trying to force the passenger to give them an interest free loan for a year. Maybe some people really like Swiss and so are happy to lend them money in difficult times - but there is no contractual (or IMO moral) reason why every person who booked travel with Swiss should be compelled to lend them money just because Swiss is going through difficult days.

warakorn

And its clear that Swiss will raise fares so that anyone with this garbage voucher has to basically buy a new ticket again.

warakorn

And I would reply: Please follow the law!

Naturally, that won't change anything.

warakorn

From: https://onemileatatime.com/swiss-flight-refund/

The acquirer banks of Swiss, Austrian, Eurowings, Brussels Airlines, and Lufthansa will most likely be forced to terminate the airline merchant accounts after the acquirer is being hit with thousands of (service not rendered) chargeback requests.
Essentially that would mean that the Lufthansa Group airlines cannot accept any new bookings paid by credit card. That would lead to a shutdown with no real option to reopen anytime soon.

Moreover, one can assume that Lufthansa Group has also disabled the refund feature with their IATA Clearing House account. That means other airlines won't be able to receive the funds for refunds.

Furthermore Lufthansa is alienating large corporate clients with that policy. They are usually special agreements in place between Lufthansa and large multinationals. If Lufthansa violates these agreements -> then good bye Swiss, good bye Lufthansa!

The_Bouncer

Any person who meets with one iota of resistance on a refund for a flight which has been cancelled by the airline needs to file a chargeback straight away. This is not the time for playing pat-a-cake.

It is often said on this forum that airlines are not charities. Well, that knife cuts both ways. You should feel no obligation - legal or moral - to donate money to them, or to provide them with unsecured, interest-free loans.

It is not selfish to want your money back for services you have not received.

LHSEN

SWISS will run out of excuses starting Monday when they only have 1 long haul flight out of ZRH (To EWR) and 9 short haul destinations; from GVA, I think only 3 short-haul destinations. I’d say go ahead and start chargeback and write to the mentioned authority and file a complaint. My experience in the past to claim EU compensation (I know this isn’t the issue, but somewhat draw relevance in terms of experience), I’d attempted 2-3 times to claim each they came back and claimed Switzerland isn’t EU therefore not subjected to the regulation. Then, I started to say I will file a complaint to authority, and one day I really did and send them a copy of the letter I wrote, they then processed the compensation claim. Lesson learnt from me : you need to be persistent and they need to know that you have taken some legal actions against them, then they move.

rosenkavalier

I have a question regarding the LH Group: I have an OS ticket GVA-VIE vv. which was cancelled for obvious reasons, I was then rebooked on LH/LX GVA-FRA-VIE, which was also cancelled...
Should I call LH and try to get a refund? or OS? At this point, since LH flights were also cancelled, I can call them right?
Which of these LH Group airlines is the least resistant when it comes to refunds?! Which airline (and which call center) has the best agents???

Thanks for any data points/info...!

warakorn

According to one source, the refund feature on the GDS has been disabled for all Lufthansa Group airlines. So technically it's not possible for any airline or travel agency to issue cash refunds.

There are two ways to receive a cash refund -> initiate a credit card chargeback or sue them!

rosenkavalier

...oh! Thanks for the info.
Is chargeback possible with a Swiss issued AMEX? (Credit Suisse)
have never done a chargeback...

warakorn

I would try it. Reason: service not rendered and refund refused;

nrr

In #46 using an AMEX from Canada has already received his refund.

Adam Smith

Well, it hasn't shown up on my card, but Amex's dispute centre is showing the claim as closed and indicating that my account will be credited. I don't know how long it takes Amex to move from that to the credit actually showing up, but I expect it won't be too long.

warakorn

Just hope that Credit Suisse is not the acquirer for Swiss. That would complicate things, because Credit Suisse won't be too happy to handover its own capital to Swiss(air) passengers.