Holiday refund vouchers..would you accept?

[YouAreMySunshinee]

Ryanair have offered vouchers as a refund. I am happy to accept as we will use them again but they have to be booked within a year, so by May 2021. Would you book a holiday for May next year, will things be okay by then? I know no one knows but just after some opinions before accepting the vouchers. If we accept the vouchers we would book for May 2021.

[IWantT0BreakFree]

We are in exactly the same position and have accepted the voucher. You can still request a refund at the end of the 12 months that the voucher is valid for, provided you haven't used it of course. I expect we will probably request a refund anyway down the line because our holiday was for a specific reason and with extended family, and there's no guarantee that Ryanair would have the best flight times/cheapest flights if we do rebook, but I'd rather the airlines didn't all go bust right now. We are taking the approach that if we can afford NOT to have refunds (or delay them) then that's what we will do across the board. We had other things booked like theatre tickets, festival tickets, UK holidays etc. I always book things like this via credit card anyway so I have an extra level of protection should things go wrong.

That said, I am not very impressed with the way that Ryanair have handled the situation. We initially did request a refund, having been sent an email informing of the cancellation with a “click here for a refund” link. We filled the form in and 3 weeks later received a voucher, not the refund we had been promised. I can’t imagine how soul destroying that would be for a family who have been severely financially impacted by the crisis. To think you’ve got several hundred pounds coming any day, and then to receive a voucher and be told that if you request a refund (again) it will take further weeks or months is disgraceful. I also think that their greed is stopping them from reducing the numbers of refunds being requested. If they offered people say £120 vouchers for every £100 of cash then I think more people would take them up on it, reducing refund requests and allowing them to process refunds quicker for those who are in desperate need.

[timeforawine]

I have a holiday booked this August and if it cant go ahead we'll be moving it May half term.

[YouAreMySunshinee]

That's exactly the same with us. It was a special birthday for DH why we were going away, without DC. We probably won't be able to do that now as grandparents were watching children, but as you said would rather accept vouchers if it meant airlines not going bust.
We also requested the cash refund initially and thought this is nice and easy, until they then said it would be vouchers. I had a quick look at flights for next year and they are really expensive; we got quite a good deal on our flights that were cancelled.

I think we will hang on to the vouchers then and request a refund once this is all over, depending on what happens.

[YouAreMySunshinee]

@timeforawine I'm really hoping it will all be okay for May next year

[timeforawine]

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻😄

[timeforawine]

Sorry you've had your special holiday ruined

[VenusOfWillendorf]

I've been offered a voucher by my Travel Company for my holiday which was booked for Easter. It's valid until Dec 2021, which I'm happy with.

[thismeansnothing]

I wouldn't accept vouchers.
What if the company was to go bust. They'll be worth nothing then.
Get your cash like your entitled to

[CallmeAngelina]

Dd had a trip planned in Australia for this April just gone. The company just keep batting back that "we are not offering refunds, but you can have a voucher/credit."
What can we do?

[YouAreMySunshinee]

@thismeansnothing
They will not offer a cash refund "until Covid-19 is over" is what they are saying.

[bilbodog]

Im ignoring the emails offering a voucher as i want the money - no idea if and when i will want to travel by air in the next year!

[Bumble84]

I wouldn’t accept vouchers. Worst case the company goes bust. Or you might get to book a holiday but it’s twice the price of the original because of supply and demand. I can only see airfares and hotel prices going through the roof unfortunately

[thismeansnothing]

Pretty sure the law is your entitled to a refund within 14 days of your departure date. With holding doesn't sound right at all. I get people are working from and apparently travel Places are working 6 weeks behind though.

I'd check moneysavingexpert and see what they say. But saying wait till COVID is over is a joke. And being Ryanair wouldn't suprise me if they are taking the mick

[crustycrab]

Well I've booked for a group of people that now won't travel together in the future. So no, I don't want to accept a voucher and have to refund my friends out of my own pocket.

[Roselilly36]

Ryanair still haven’t refunded us for our cancelled flights in March, not holding my breath.

I wouldn’t accept vouchers, they are worthless if they fold.

Also I agree with previous poster, holidays are likely to have a big price hike.