Are VS currently paying out on agreed refunds ?
 

I have 3 VS Miles bookings, 2 of which were cancelled by VS and one of which I cancelled myself. I requested the refunds on Whatsapp chat, which worked well and I have an on-screen record confirming that I will get the refunds due (less £30 on one of the bookings)

The miles have been refunded OK, but no sign of the substantial cash elements. The cancellations were on 19 March, so effectively 3 weeks ago. I appreciate that VS is in financial trouble, so am trying to work out whether they are deliberately withholding all payments, even if agreed to be due, and whether it will do any good to chase (and if so, how best to do it).

At this point in time, I doubt if anyone at any airline is processing refunds; perhaps for the very top tier loyalty members. Most employees are swamped dealing with urgent changes, cancellations and problems. Most departments are under-staffed as people stay isolated at home. Unless the job can be automatically done by a computer, as the case with redepositing your miles, it will take months to get everything sorted out. Is it fair? No. Is it reality? Yes.

I cannot speak to VS (I have a flight but haven't cancelled it yet with them) but I have received close to a dozen refunds in the last month for tickets for me and my extended family and several were manual cancellations and the range of time of refunds was two days (this was a manual refund) to six weeks (all but one was within two weeks). These were across a pretty broad array of airlines (US, Euro, Asian). Those currently outstanding are between one and three weeks since cancellation.

I cancelled a flight (SFO-LHR in Upper) a couple of weeks ago. By the time they returned my text, it was past the flight takeoff, even though I requested the cancellation way before the 24 hour cutoff. I have not received my miles or $. I did text them, the reply was 'contact us later when this is all over'.

The refund system for VS has always obviously been a money grab for a month after the refund is due. I have processed a chargeback with Amex, which so far appears to be holding. I will deal with the miles later.

Also cancelled a miles booking 2 weeks ago by phone - was advised to allow up to 90 days to receive refund of taxes/fees. Miles returned instantly.

Even in good time VS refund process for the cash is very slow, taking 4 or more weeks

My mum was also told wait 90 days for her refund. What is odd is that the agent said she would email her a refund confirmation. To date she hasn't received it. Hope VS don't screw her in 90 days and say "no we never said that".

In my fairly limited experience with rebooking an award ticket and cancelling a cash ticket within 24 hours it has taken 2-8 days to receive the initial notice that your case has been opened. Then it has taken another 5 days to 4 weeks to calculate and process the refund. Mind you, my experiences were with direct bookings between June 2019 and November 2019, so that was the normal processing time under normal circumstances. Clearly these are not normal circumstances so there's not need to panic just yet.

It has been roughly 30 days (March 10) since I canceled our ORD - TYO NH F award tickets and I have not received the refund. I did email to follow-up (there is a case number that exists) and was told it could take up to 90 days and they "were investigating."

The ticket was purchased last May so unfortunately not much I can do on a chargeback standpoint, AMEX advised they no longer hold those funds (which makes sense since the charge is 10 months old) so they have no way to force VS to resolve the situation and I've just got to wait for them to get to it.

Yep - also told would receive an email stating that refund request had been raised. No email received here either.

I cancelled an UC cash ticket on 3 March (pre-crisis) due to a Flybe cancellation. I was told 3-5 working days for a redund at that stage. I received an email from Virgin refunds stating they had received request on 30 March. In the meantime, I had contacted Twitter support who quoted 90 days.

No refund yet!

I cancelled an award flight about 6 weeks ago with miles returned immediately and I had money back after about 2 weeks in the end. No email came through to confirm either a cancellation or a refund, but everything was processed as expected.

They will be processing refunds a lot more slowly now as per the feedback that people are receiving, but don't be alarmed about the lack of an email confirmation.

I can imagine VS are in a very difficult place right now. Do they refund customers in a timely manner, burn through their valuable cash / go out of business, or do they risk damaging the relationship with their customers by being very slow returning peoples hard earned money?

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a stronger incentive for people to take a voucher over refund. I'm sure that if VS added a 25% to 30% bonus that would tip the scales for many?

I personally would push Amex on this (try call or chat and if that fails, send a written request). VS is seeking a bailout in part because CC companies are holding on to more dollars due to the VS in order to pay out chargebacks. They might not be holding your exact dollars but money is fungible and Amex is no doubt sitting on VS funds at this time.

I have followed up with Virgin a few times regarding a refund and I just won't wait 90 days for it when I can only chargeback at 60 days. Today I got this email response:"During these unprecedented times we are experiencing extremely high volumes. Please rest assured we have received your refund application and are working hard to bring this to a resolution as quickly as possible.

"The health and wellbeing of our customers and staff is our highest priority. We are working closely with the UK Government and health organisations to ensure we’re following the very latest advice. This, in turn, has had an impact to our staffing levels and therefore we are currently unable to advise a timeframe for completion."
I have now made two chargebacks to protect myself against any further issues. Both for award tickets that I rightfully cancelled and am entitled to refunds (totaling $1800) and I am just not going shell out cash for an indefinite time period. Good thing both charges were made in the last 60 days and I am entitled to a refund. Both charges have dropped from my bill, too.