Flights Refund?

[79abbot]

We booked tickets for a family of 5 to fly to Mauritius next week. For obvious reasons, we won't be going and the flights are cancelled. The airline is Edelweiß and the flights were supposed to be via Zurich. I booked via a travel agency / skyscanner.net, so not directly with the airline. Because of Coronavirus, the agency is closed / too busy to reply to my emails. So nervous we won't be getting a refund. Does anyone have any positive news re flights refunds? Many thanks!

Who is your contract with?.

Skyscanner and the like are agents; they are NOT a travel agency in the usual sense of the word. They are basically middlemen who arrange flights and accommodation via their platform. You need to contact the airline in question.

Your other alternative is to contact the credit card company if you did pay by credit card.

If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to a full refund to the original form of payment within seven days, although many airlines will be struggling to meet that deadline. You can accept, or refuse, vouchers or a rebooking but a voucher will probably be invalid if the airline later goes bust.

If you decide against going on a future flight, which is not yet cancelled, then there is no right to a refund. Different airlines have different rules over what you can do but many are waiving any charges for changing to a later flight or having a voucher instead. Your travel insurance may, or may not, cover you.

Last Saturday our Virgin flight to New York was the only one they flew but we are getting a refund. They offered us the opportunity to re-book our flights to travel anytime up to next April but we decided to take our money. However, we have lost the airmailed we used to buy upgrades.

Our experience this month is that the Credit Card company ask you first to contact the airline and pursue a refund through them first.