Scandinavian Airlines - Fare Refund Help

k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 00:10
Last edited 03/04/2024 - 09:56 by 1 other user

G'day OzB, in need of the brains trust for some advice on options

• A family member purchased international flights direct from airline's website.
• Airline has 24 hour full refund policy.
• Within 24 hours, booking was cancelled by family member (screenshot was taken) website said it's been cancelled and email to be received shortly
• Family member re-booked through booking.com shortly after
• No email from airline ever received

When we call airline, they avoid acknowledging that their cancellation/refund system has not worked. Insist that they cannot send any emails (besides the itinerary).

Family member unfortunately told them about 2nd booking. Airline says duplicate booking may get canceled automatically and they have given authority to refund to the agent (booking.com). They did not engage at all about discussing the refund through their system, maybe it was just the agent I spoke to, but family member had tried a few times too.

Booking.com say they have not received this and we can't send it because airline doesn't want to email us.

Family member losing sleep, is retired. Besides wait and see the only other option I can think of is charge back. I've never done this so not sure on technicalities.
Eg. Is this a legitimate reason to chargeback?
What might be the longer term repercussions?

Sorry if this reads poorly, typing on phone.

Edit: airline is Scandinavian Airlines, here is a link to their 24 hour refund.

• 

  holdenmg on 03/04/2024 - 01:28

  Hi,

  Is this with Qantas?

  If so, look carefully at:
  https://www.qantas.com/au/en/manage-booking/cancel-for-any-r…
  in particular the BOOKINGS THAT CAN BE REFUNDED vs BOOKINGS THAT CANNOT BE REFUNDED criteria.

  • 

    burningrage on 03/04/2024 - 01:38

    Wow good to know. Essentially bookings that can be refunded would be those bookings that were NOT done by the majority of population as they only accepted free cancellations for bookings that were made:
    1. In Cash (most passengers pay by credit card)
    2. For domestic flights (that pretty much excludes about 50% of passengers).

    Pretty impotent "benefit" from my angle.

  • 

    k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 08:07

    I've updated the OP, it was with Scandinavian Airlines

• 

  burningrage on 03/04/2024 - 01:33

  What did they say when you said, "I took a screenshot that will show we have already cancelled and have a confirmation screenshot to confirm it was done within 24 hours"?

  If it is Qantas, make sure you tell this story to the ombudsman as they desperately needed stories like this to wise the eff up after their monumental eff up in 2023.

• 

  k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 08:18

  I've updated the OP, it was with Scandinavian Airlines

  I've only gotten involved with the latest phone call, so everything before hand is third party through my family (not fluent English).
  At this point, they are already aware there is a 2nd booking. When I called, they just ignored the screenshot and said "our back office has advised we have given authority to refund to the agent so you must call the agent".

  I did ask "what if I just want to cancel booking 1" and "what if I want to cancel both bookings?" I received pretty much the same response. I needed to prompt them to confirm which would be the ongoing future Booking Reference Number (which will be Booking #1)

  My thinking is, either their system was too slow to cancel booking #1, and booking #2 was booked to soon, perhaps triggering a duplicate issue and something that overwrote the cancellation/refund ; or
  Once they found out that there is a 2nd booking they decided they would pocket the cash from booking #1 and let us sort out booking #2 with the agent.

  Anyway their lack of transparency and helpfulness of customer service is unfortunate.

  • 

    holdenmg on 03/04/2024 - 08:56

    +3

    Hi,

    I have read:
    https://www.flysas.com/en/customer-service/cancellation-refu…

    It states:
    REFUND HANDLING

    THE REFUND PROCESS

    After we've processed your refund request, we'll email you a refund notice to let you know the amount that will be refunded. No refund notice will be generated for tickets paid with points and cash.
    The amount will be refunded using the original form of payment used for the purchase. Please note that it can take up to 7 working days, from you receive the refund notice, for the refund to be shown in your statement.

    So…
    Your role is to wait at least 7 working days after receiving the refund notice.

    If you haven't received the refund notice, phoning them won't expedite it.

    Please indicate the date you Booked

    Please indicate the date you Cancelled

    • 

      burningrage on 03/04/2024 - 09:00

      +1 for effort in researching.

      I think OP might be correct. Despite cancelling booking #1, in their system it's still live (up to 7 days?) and during that time, OP booked second flight which triggered the duplicate refund order.

      • 

        holdenmg on 03/04/2024 - 09:06

        I wouldn't cancel (and rebook) until I had received the Refund.

        Even more so if it was for the same flight/day/date.

        • 

          k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 10:19

          @holdenmg: Agree but my parents are old. I'm impressed he took a screenshot and a few other things.

    • 

      k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 10:17

      Thanks, I missed this yesterday. Have just returned from overseas myself with flu. It would have been 7 days today, but I suspect it doesn't matter now.

• 

  Duckie2hh on 03/04/2024 - 09:05

  Did they at least re-book with the correct middle name?

  • 

    k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 10:20

    I'm guessiing this is maybe a running joke related to another flight related topic ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    • 

      Duckie2hh on 03/04/2024 - 10:23

      ^__^

• 

  JimmyF on 03/04/2024 - 10:08

  A family member purchased international flights direct from airline's website.
  family member re-booked through booking.com shortly after

  So was the saving worth it? How much had they been TRYING to save by using booking.com?

  • 

    k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 10:24

    when I saw how much was potentially saved, I thought it was not worth the risk to rebook so soon. I would have waited till the refund actually occurred, or forfeit the potential savings. I know there's also credit cards that might reimburse you.

    In case it helps, I believe they used the Citibank No Fee for Life Premium Credit Card (pretty sure the better one), I did suggest to Family Member that once NAB takes over I dont know what happens to the Travel Insurance that is usually covered by the credit card.

    • 

      JimmyF on 03/04/2024 - 12:53

      I dont know what happens to the Travel Insurance that is usually covered by the credit card.

      It's only valid if you meet the requirements to activate it. So if the refunded ticket was part of that, then no more travel insurance.

      when I saw how much was potentially saved, I thought it was not worth the risk to rebook so soon

      So it was a nothing saving and not worth all the hassles? Why do people do this to themselves to save $50.

      Plus you lose so much by going with a 3rd party 'agent' compared to direct, so if the saving isn't much, don't bother people!

      • 

        k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 14:16

        yes agree, it was something like 200 bucks off a ~4k purchase :/
        but dont really want to make family member feel worse, assume lesson has been learnt in some way

        • 

          JimmyF on 03/04/2024 - 15:07

          @k15866: Yikes, all this hassle to save 5% on a good day.

          Hopefully with time your refund will come through for them.

          assume lesson has been learnt in some way

          Never assume!!

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  star-ggg on 03/04/2024 - 13:18

  I'm not sure what the drama is. Why did you contact the online when the cancellation was confirmed with your screenshot? If for some reason the cancellation wasn't actioned by SAS then you have the chargeback protection.

  Now you know booking through third party agents the $ saving is paid for with hassle cost. Online booking agents don't have an incentive to deal with ad-hoc queries at all. They're very slow to communicate with you or nickel and dime you for every change request.

  • 

    k15866 on 03/04/2024 - 14:28

    Though their online portal indicated the request to cancel had been received, no confirmation email was received. Now we know perhaps that would come after 7 days, personally think the email should come relatively soon eg. within a business day. and then the refund can take as long as it needs. Perhaps this would have been received within a business day had a 2nd booking not been created. Lessons learnt

    Actually I have found Booking.com's phone service quite efficient (specific communications, quick to answer phone ~30sec). Though they are somewhat powerless to refund without instructions from the airline in this case, this is because the airline is unwilling to do something that is (in my mind), a really basic task/service (put their decision on paper)

    • 

      star-ggg on 03/04/2024 - 15:55

      What's the point of the quick replies if actual actions are slow. The outcome is the same. Also, blaming the other party isn't good communication. It's classic deferring of accountability. The agent will blame the airline, and the airline will blame the agent.