Most agents have at least one ‘war story’ about unhappy clients who have not received airline refunds. Some common misconceptions among consumers are that the travel agent is in the employ of the airline, that the travel agency is somehow a part of the airline, that the travel agent is holding the money and hasn’t paid it to the airline or that the airline has refunded the agent, who hasn’t paid it over to the client.
Agents report that hundreds of refunds are still outstanding from various airlines and some clients are running out of patience.
An agent who chose to remain anonymous told Travel News that she had been threatened by a client who had been waiting for a refund from Air China since April 2020. “He indicated that he would report us to the Consumer Council if he did not get his refund. We have assured him that the refund application has been submitted and that we are waiting for the airline to communicate. But he is not happy with our response.”
Lara Saunders, GM of Sure Giltedge Travel, told Travel News that her agency still had an unreasonable number of unpaid refunds.
“Some airlines are worse than others. The main culprits are TAAG, El Al, Air China, SAA, Ethiopian Airlines and Precision Air,” said Saunders. “Some refunds from these carriers have been outstanding since the end of 2019 and they simply do not respond to queries or emails.”
On a positive note, she said some airlines had been refunding efficiently, such as Qatar Airways, BA Comair, Kenya Airways and Turkish Airlines. “In most cases these carriers’ COVID refund rules are flexible and their helpdesks are extremely efficient.”
In its most recent statement on August 30, SAA confirmed that the airline was currently managing all refund requests based on the date of the refund file registration. However, due to a reduced workforce and stringent COVID protocols, this process was slower than anticipated, said the airline.
Asata is currently focusing on the impact of COVID-related refunds and unpaid refunds, and the need to consider alternatives to the current BSP agency programme offered by Iata.
Otto de Vries, CEO of Asata, told Travel News that the current refund process remained fundamentally flawed. “It is one-sided and based on principles that no longer support the commercial reality of the relationship between airlines and agents.”
Hossam Zaky, EgyptAir Regional GM in SA, said about 90% of refunds requested had been processed by the airline since the onset of COVID-19. “We will refund air tickets when we have enough money to pay them out and we thank our valued customers for their understanding under the circumstances. Many airlines worldwide are in the same situation, not just EgyptAir.”
Celeste Gordon, Ethiopian Airlines Sales Manager, said the airline handled refund requests as quickly as possible. “The volume of refund requests has increased over the last year and we have added resources in order to process refund requests faster. We do request that travel agents process refunds directly on the GDS so we can clear any backlogs,” she said. Gordon confirmed that a service charge of R400 per ticket would be applied to process refunds and charged as an ADM.
Said De Vries: “Asata's involvement in the the Passenger Agency Programme Global Joint Council's Risk Management Working Group saw the delivery of the Enhanced Refund Application in BSPlink, an automated refund process that went into effect on June 30, which makes the process easier to manage.”
