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Mike Young is questioning why it could take months to receive his refund, when the airline was at fault.
A Flight Centre customer has been told he may have to wait up to 18 weeks to receive a refund after the airline changed his flights to a time that didn’t suit.
Mike Young used Flight Centre’s online booking portal to book flights with Qantas from Wellington to the Whitsundays in Queensland, via Sydney.
The gym owner last week received an email from Flight Centre notifying him Qantas had rescheduled his return flights, which would cut his holiday short by a day and see him having to spend a night in Auckland.
He was given 48 hours to confirm the new itinerary, or request a credit or refund.
Young called Flight Centre to say he wanted to cancel and get a refund. A customer service agent cancelled the booking and put in the refund request with Qantas – but then warned it could take “12 to 18 weeks” for the refund to be processed, should it be approved.
“I was like, ‘what?’” Young said.
“You could have told me that before I asked for the refund, because maybe I would have got a credit.”
Young said he wasn’t so concerned about the amount he was owed – roughly $1200 – but was annoyed about the process taking so long, when the airline had been the one to make the changes that upended his holiday in the first place.
“12 to 18 weeks is a ridiculous amount of time for my money to be held back… it’s the principle here,” he said.
He said he had booked via the Flight Centre website for convenience, but also thinking it would offer similar protections to using a travel agent.
However, he now regretted not using a real travel agent who would have outlined his options and been able to better manage the refund process for him, rather than him having to chase it up himself.
“Next time I will book differently.”
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Young said third-party booking sites should be more proactive in informing customers of refund policies.
A Flight Centre spokesperson said they sympathised it could be “frustrating” waiting on a refund, so wanted to be upfront with customers when it came to wait times.
Processing times for refunds varied depending on the airline.
“We do aim to process refunds shorter than 12 weeks, the reality is though lodging refunds can be a manual process for airlines and there is no difference if you book with us or direct with an airline,” the spokesperson said.
“Airlines are also still dealing with higher requests than normal, with a significant backlog of credits and refund applications so this does mean at times there can be a processing delay.
“Our suggested timeline reflects this, as we would rather prepare our customers for a longer wait time and work to exceed their expectations, than the alternative.”
For those who didn’t want to wait for a refund, they could opt to receive the cash value in credit which they could spend online or in-store with Flight Centre.
A Qantas spokesperson said customers who booked direct with the airline were usually receiving refunds within two weeks, but were advised it may take up to four weeks depending on their method of payment.
The Qantas website says those who book flights via travel agencies or third-party websites are required to contact the companies directly for assistance.
Travel Agents Association of New Zealand president Brent Thomas, who is also chief operating officer for House of Travel, said they were seeing a “significant” amount of issues related to airline schedule changes.
It should be standard business practice for airlines to refund affected customers on a timely basis, he said.
“An airline knows who’s paid, they know which flights have been cancelled or rescheduled which has created a situation where a client has not accepted a change and therefore wants a refund,” he said.
“Within a month, you would expect… four-and-a-half months is unreasonable.”
