Easyjet flight refunds

[TaylorConrad]

Anyone else having difficulty obtaining a refund for their Easyjet flights? It is widely reported that you can obtain a refund by going to Manage Booking. However there is no option to obtain a refund, only to change your flight to a different one (and who the heck knows how to plan that one?!). The flight I have is to Spain on 31 March and clearly this will be cancelled. Is anyone else having a problem finding the elusive option to get a refund (are Easyjet actually not providing refunds because of Cashflow problems?). TIA for any information you may have.

Helpful info about the vouchers only being valid for 6 months

Easyjet has grounded it’s entire fleet of planes (announced on the news today). Soon they will be asking the Govt for a bail out (that’s you and me bailing them out of course, via taxes). Just as the coronavirus crisis hit, they distributed £160million to it’s shareholders. My flight to Spain was due to leave tomorrow (31st March). I held out until yesterday hoping for the illusive ‘REFUND’ button to appear. It did not. I made the decision to apply for a voucher, as may as well try something. Round and round the pages and links I went. Highlights you should know...
*Allow 28 days for the voucher
*once applied for it cannot be reversed
*Voucher will be sent to your email address
*If no voucher received after 28 days and no refund received, please contact us (hahaha, we gotcha!) - Ed
*It must be used in the next 6 months
Then something weird happened that looked like they may be refunding me, but no it was just an invoice showing the voucher value.
NOTE. The voucher was only available on the outbound flight that they had noted as ‘cancelled’. I will have to monitor the website on the return part of the journey until that is marked up as ‘cancelled’ also before I can apply for a voucher on that part of the journey.

This is all a huge runaround and waste of energy since a voucher for a flight on an airplane owned by an Airline in administration is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I think I’d rather have a chocolate teapot right now. Maybe they will bring in a button for that?
Anyone out there having any better luck on getting a refund from Easyjet, please chime in.

Will travel insurance companies pay up when an airline doesn't? I can't see why they would want to do that. A chargeback on my debit card would be another option, possibly. My flight is clearly cancelled but they haven't said it is yet - it's in two weeks time.

In my experience they will not mark the flight as cancelled until about 5 days before it is due to leave.

Todays MSE weekly email has helpful confirmation of our rights to have a refund and not vouchers. www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/02/coronavirus-travel-help-and-your-rights/#vouchersnotrefunds

Booked a package through Travel Republic which in theory gives me more protection. Had only paid for the flights so far. I've had the cancellation confirmations for everything through but am yet to hear anything at all about refunds. They've had the money for about ten months

Thanks MoonahStone, that’s a useful link to a good source of advice. The problem as they point out is how to ENFORCE your legal rights in this climate. Are you willing to spend hours on the phone trying to get your refund? Is your hourly rate (and stress level) worth it for a £100 Easyjet flight? Remember you will be stuck indoors holding that energy of anger and frustration most of the day until your daily walk/run/cycle. Easyjet are hoping you won’t want to do that. Maybe you can ‘reframe’ the situation ... you opt for a voucher to save your sanity and maybe save an Easyjet job in the process. I’m not sure our individual contributions in this way will make a difference to a collapsed industry that will seek a multi billion pound govt bail out. As taxpayers we will contribute anyway. Do you want to throw in a few hundred on top? What could you use that money for to protect you and your family?
I’ve already applied for a voucher for one flight. In two weeks’ time when the return flight comes round, who knows if there will even be a functioning website or phone line. It could just be a screen still telling us the company has gone into administration.

Have a good day everyone and make the best of what you have.

I've now got three cancelled return flights - no sign of a refund on any of them. I think I will give them 28 days and then try to claim on my credit card.

Do you think it would be worthwhile to send a recorded delivery letter requesting a refund? I'm not even sure if there is a physical address to send correspondence to?

Yes, and perhaps mark it to Head of Legal at their registered office address (which will be on the companies house website) for the company from which you bought the tickets.

We booked a package holiday direct with easyJet. They cancelled and told us a refund would be issued about a month ago. It's just come through so fingers crossed other refunds will follow soon.

I've been told how to get refund now, although I think I did fill in a form a few weeks back before it disappeared from their site.
I've got my refund from Expedia for the hotel

What's the secret then, @bruffin ?!

I applied for a voucher. No voucher has been received (they’re sent by email, it’s a code to be applied on future booking). So no voucher. I’ve checked Spam. Nothing. But I’ve had an email to advise that the voucher can be used for 12months not 6. But no voucher so no cigar.

Anyone else noticed that you can’t ‘manage booking’ anymore on EasyJet’s site. So, whereas before you could apply for a voucher, now you can’t do anything at all. And the page just keeps flicking over, flicking over, like it has a glitch. The pages look like these screenshots...

Some people might need to send a special delivery letter of claim to the head office giving them 7 days to make a full refund otherwise you will sue and yes post offices are still open. Then start a claim on moneyclaims online and I suspect you might be more likely to get a refund that way - depends how much is at stake as to whether that is worth while.

That sounds like a plan. Thanks Xenia

Easyjet have just responded to a Tweet I sent them re a refund. They're directed me to this page bit.ly/34otD53 to apply for a refund. It does say 28-90 days...

Here's hoping.

@celeriacacaca That’s really helpful. Everyone, if you follow this link you get 3 options: rebook, voucher or... refund! Let’s see if it works. Thanks @celeriacacaca

I've posted my successful refund story on another thread, just thought I'd add it here. EasyJet sent me (on twitter) the instructions below and I did what they said, about 4 or 5 days later the money is in my bank account.
Couldn't believe it to be honest!

If you prefer a refund, email your request to [email protected]. As soon as your refund is processed, we will send you an email confirmation. It is extremely important that you enter the following information in the subject line of the email, in the same format as shown below. This will ensure we can process your request quickly. If you have more than one booking reference, please submit separate requests.

-Subject Line: Booking Reference/Departure Date/EN

-Example: ABC1D2E/16042020/EN

Good luck @TaylorConrad - hope it helps. One thing to note everyone, keep a record of your booking reference. I notice all mention of mine has now been removed from the app. Luckily I'd noted it down previously as you need this for the refund form.

@Watertorture - that's interesting. How long ago did you do this? I'm just wondering if the system has changed or whether I should do likewise for belt and braces approach...

I've done both. I didn't directly receive the info about the email refund request but a friend did and she gave me the email address (same as in Watertorture's post above). I sent that email on the 11th and as yet have had no reply.

So I'll try Celeriacacaca's link as well....

Thanks!

@Celeriacacaca I emailed my request in last Saturday. My flights should have been this week.
I think it might be just luck of the draw, but certainly worked out better for me than waiting on hold for hours.

Thanks @Watertorture and let us know how you get on @Vargas

I got the email address directly from easyjet and had an acknowledgment which basically said that be patient, next time you hear from us will be to advise you that we have refunded you.