stephem

We have J class tickets for April 13 LON-LIS and then April 19 LIS-SFO and of course they are cancelled now. I was thinking of cancelling and taking the cash off the table back in early March when I could see the direction of travel for infection in Europe but was greedy as these have a $250 refund fee. The tickets were averaged out to about $650 each (2 adults, 3 kids) so that was roughly 40% loss. Now I am guessing I will get a TAP voucher which the government knows will be torn up in bankruptcy. I booked with AMEX so I may have some recourse, but I booked last summer so way too late in the game to contest with them as I think that is limited to three cycles. In retrospect I should have taken the $400 per ticket as now I also have hundreds of thousands of miles back in various accounts due to several cancelled trips and then we got the exBUD fare so arent really in need of any TP fares for the foreseeable future anyway.

36902BRF

I cannot speak to Amex but when I looked at Visa's and MC's rules there was mention of a 120 days from when the service or product was expected to be delivered. So I believe the window you are talking about can potentially be counting from the time you were to take your flights vs just when you did the charge. Not saying by any means a chargeback is guaranteed but I believe it is worth trying. Personally I would avoid taking the voucher because that might complicate your chargeback.

penelope

I received an email from TAP this morning telling me my LHR-LIS on Saturday 28/3 is cancelled and directing me to the website. The link only gave an option for a voucher - no refund option. After an hour on hold I finally got through to a rep who reiterated that it is now TAPs policy only to issues vouchers, not refunds, even when they cancel the flight. I called my credit card company and they were very helpful in issuing a chargeback. My question is, will this likely stick under the current complicated circumstances? A voucher would be better than nothing and I wonder if I don't initiate the voucher process before the departure time of the flight on Saturday I lose that option?

Soccerjoshj07

I just submit a chargeback as it is over their allotted time to respond to the refund request (and I'm not hopeful of getting a cash refund for that anyways).

Will update here upon the resolution of the claim.

36902BRF

I am about three days behind you. I'll probably give them two weeks to finish "reviewing" my refund request but yeah I expect to have to do a chargeback as well.

mjrobson

I booked via Amex Plat Travel AMS-LIS-YYZ in J Apr 2nd. My flight was cancelled a few days ago.

I called Amex and they said you have 2 options:

1) TAP is offering a voucher
2) Cancel based on the original rules - 200EUR

Talking to Amex Plat Insurance, they said I could submit a claim for the 200EUR because the plat card has a waiver for trip cancellation when your country (canada) issues a do not travel advisory.

Still seems shady that I have to cancel a flight which the airline has cancelled in order to get a refund.

Matt

rather_be_on_a_griffin

My trip BOS-LIS-NTE was cancelled. I called TAP and they refused a refund because of the current situation. I explained politely that since they had cancelled they had to give a refund as an EU airline. Very unpleasant rep started with “I’m not a lawyer” and ended with “You can complain but it won’t do any good”.

I raised a DOT complaint. Two days later TAP emailed to say they were making a refund and giving me the references. A day later it hit my PayPal account. They didn’t refund the seat reservations. I guess I could phone and get a voucher but since I got most of it back in cash and am unlikely to ever book TAP again I think I’ll settle.

gr2020

I submitted a cancel/refund request on 3/2, and on 3/5 the status changed to "Your refund has been made. Please contact your bank or credit card issuer to confirm date of payment."

Their site says credit card refunds will be made within 7 days (per https://www.flytap.com/en-us/support...&accordionid=7). I've tried emailing them (no answer), DM on Twitter (no answer), and calling them (either busy signal or perma-hold).

It's now 3/26, and they've had 21 days to refund it back to my card, and have not yet done so. Called Amex, chatted with the CSR, and she suggested it was probably time to open a dispute for the charge - so that's what I did. I really don't like to dispute charges, as I know it involves additional fees for the vendor, but in this case I didn't feel like there was anything else I could do.

36902BRF

Thanks for tip I'll file my DOT complaint tomorrow.

CoweyB

My flight in May has now been cancelled, as they won't offer a cash refund just a voucher I also have asked for a chargeback with Amex for cost of flight and seat reservations.

Let's see what happens...

Bart_ek

My 1st May flight LIS-GRU got cancelled . I checked it online 2 days ago as I did not get any notification, at least not yet (ticket purchased via OTA mytrip.com ). I wanted to get the refund so what I did (call center not possible to reach) I used their online help/contact menu, selected booking cancellation , typed in my booking ref. /ticket no. (bote: there is only 1 field for the ticket number , and my reservation was for 3 pax/my family and I listed all the tickets in the message box ) and wrote to them to return me the money to my MC credit card and given them 14 days to do so before I initiate chargeback via my CC. Now, my question - since I did not get any copy of my request to my email (it was the TAP's web form) and I'm not sure if they would ever read it and reply at all, how to prove I've filed my complaint/request to TAP?
Do you have any email address to TAP so that I can repeat my request/claim and have it as evidence for my CC that I'd done it before the chargeback?

Do you think TAP is going to reply to my web request (or any next email if sb gives me an right email address) or just ignore? if yes, when can I expect the answer? in 1, 2 weeks or in 4 weeks time or later? Shell I wait till after 1st May (my departure date of the cancelled flight) before doing the chargeback ?
BTW, should I demand the chargeback from the airline or from the OTA ?
If the airline decides to return me the money, are they going to return it to me (my CC) directly or to OTA? and later I'd need to fight with OTA to give it back to me? and knowing the lack of responsiveness of mytrip.com it looks like a lengthy fight ...
what are your recommendations for my case ?
many many thanks for your advice
stay healthy in these difficult times !

36902BRF

If you booked via the OTA you need to work with the OTA (mytrip.com) to cancel. OTA's can make things more complex because they are another layer in the process. In general you should not be using OTAs to book airline tickets unless you are getting a fare cheaper than buying directly from the airline. The airline doesn't have control over your ticket until 24-48 hours before.

Soccerjoshj07

I just got a response from 1/2 of my DoT complains I made yesterday-

Bart_ek

then maybe more wise it to wait till 1-2 days before my departure and then write/contact the airline? anybody knows an email address to TAP (for evidance purposes) to write to ?

36902BRF

The OTA has to refund you not TAP. If you wanted to change your flight then trying to work with TAP especially right before the flight might work. However you want a refund so you need to go to your OTA and I'd do it now.