Fraserman

I was told by a Citibank staff if the merchant does not refund the money (eg TG) to Citibank, they won’t refund to me neither... 😫

warakorn

May I make a guess? This was told you on the phone - and Citibank has fobbed you off with that kind of excuse.
When it comes to chargebacks it does not matter whether the merchant pays back the money or not. The money flow is purely between the acquirer bank and the card issueing bank (Citibank). There are set chargeback rules that both the acquirer and the issuer have to follow.

Fraserman

ok, but how can the acquirer bank to be forced / who can force them to pay back the money?

I checked the status of my dispute, I disputed End of May. No outcome yet. I was told it takes up to 90 days. Let’s see...

warakorn

Well, but you know that Thai Airways and the acquirer bank are two different entities. The latter is bound by contractual obligations to follow the chargeback guidelines.
If Citibank gave you written statements that they won't refund you if TG won't pay, you have a good case against Citi.

Dan1113

Thai rejected the chargeback saying they will give it within 180 days. My bank has now responded saying 180 days isn't good enough. So a new 45 day period has begun and ends in about a month's time...

Fraserman

I see.

I started my dispute End of May, probably they will tell me the same, but no news so far from TG...

warakorn

You were told some BS.
The so-called "insurance" is just a hold-back from the acquirer bank. If the hold-back is zero (because the airline and the acquirer share the same bed with each other), then there is also no "insurance" available for a bankcruptcy.

enelym1978

Wow..... so I booked a Bangkok-Chiang Mai ticket in March for a flight in April..... Of course the flight was canceled and I started the refund process in June.
Well I just received the travel voucher, valid until Dec 31, 2022.
Better late than never I guess. I wasn't really counting on receiving this anyways, it was a small amount THB 1330 so I considered it as lost. Note that there is an option to refuse the voucher and ask for a refund as per initial payment but I won't bother.... not worth my time and effort for THB 1330. We should hopefully be able to fly again by Dec 31, 2022

Richard1148

Did you request a refund when you cancelled but they sent you a voucher, or did you specifically asked for a travel voucher? I had requested a refund, but at this point, I would be willing to take a voucher if it went through 2022.

enelym1978

I asked for a reimbursement. Now, it's a small amount so i'm not going to do more on it... Especially because the ticket was a non--refundable fare. So I'm good with a voucher. And if TG disappears before end of 2022.... so be it.

Richard1148

Thanks. I hope that I will receive the same offer.

Fraserman

Thanks to Warakorn’s suggestions, I stand firm defending my rights and Citibank Thailand refunded all my 12 TG tickets (8 to Europe, 4 domestic) in October, which I started to claim in May (flights supposed to be in April & June) & 4 LH tickets.

Very big thanks to him for the great suggestions he made here on FT!!!

Without his suggestions, I would not have known about the possibility of chargeback and how the system works. If you don’t know how the charge back system works, then it is difficult to argue with the banks.

But I think at the End it also depends how supportive the issuing Credit Card bank / the person you follow up with is and how much efforts / time a customer is willing to put into it.

One time a customer service officer did not want to take my claim, another time the officer was not familiar about the procedure. In those cases, I did not waste my time and I asked to speak to the supervisor. I followed up our conversation later in writing by email.

Several calls and emails afterwards are also necessary to make sure the cases are followed up in the time period informed before. Of course it always took longer but you have to push them again and again until the result is satisfactory. Don’t wait until they come back to you!

Fraserman

I asked for a refund for my domestic flight tickets, my credit card issuing bank refunded me the money already but they still send me automatically also a ticket voucher by email.

i think their system automatically generates those vouchers.

pandalama

The voucher is also a mess. Once used, the voucher number changes.
Booking is also very manual. Gotta call or write a form.

maerim

FYI I applied for a refund for 2 No one way tickets in mid November 2020 and received the refund in full last week. (Tickets were not purchased in Thailand).