Background:
In December 2019, I planned a Europe Trip for July 2020. Due to COVID, I obviously wasn’t planning to take this trip, but I didn’t proactively cancel any of the flights I had booked because I wanted the airline to cancel them first so that I could get a full refund rather than a travel credit.
My first leg to Europe was thankfully booked on points, and I was able to cancel and receive a refund of my American AAdvantage Points. I wrote about my cancellation experience and it was pretty easy. I saw my miles return back to my account instantly which was nice.
Additionally, my Norwegian Airlines flight got refunded just 12 days after it got cancelled, and my easyJet flight was refunded in one month. Pretty smooth sailing so far.
Lo and behold; Alitalia:
On a short hop from Budapest to Rome, I had an Alitalia flight booked. On June 18th I got an email that my flight was cancelled. I tried pulling up my reservation online, and the website instructed me to contact customer service for a refund. I was dreading to call because I was worried that the hold times would be long, but thankfully I connected with an agent in 10 minutes.
She stated that since my flight was cancelled, I was eligible for a refund back to my credit card. Sounds good to me. She said she sent my request to the refund department and that I would receive an email when they processed it. I asked what the ETA would look like, but unfortunately she didn’t have an answer. Guess we will wait and see!
Fast forward (or slow forward) to the end of October:
So from June, it was a good 4 months later and no email, or refund to my credit card. I decided to call back Alitalia on October 20th to check up on my refund. I quickly reached a representative and he said I was eligible for a refund but it hadn’t been submitted properly. He said he would do that for me and I should see the refund “soon”. Thankfully 3 days later I saw the refund pop back on my credit card. Finally!
Better late than never. But lesson learned- Always remember to follow up and check the status!
Has anyone had an interesting refund experience during these times? How long have you waited for a refund from a cancelled flight?
Best,
Ty
Have any questions? Comment below or email me at takeofftotravel@gmail.com. You can also view all my other posts here! Thanks for stopping by!
I also had an Alitalia flight canceled in July. I called the number like you did. Was told 2 months. Va bene. October rolls around and still nothing. I called again and was told that they would escalate my claim. And no ETA. I’m not happy!
Darn, sorry to hear that! Hopefully the refund will come soon.
they cancelled my flight after i transfered 160k amex, they wont transfer the points back to amex… im pretty upset.
Darn! Hopefully you can find a way to use the miles in the future. Thanks for sharing.