Think before filling in that convenient flight refund form with all your delicious details – there's a scam going about Email security biz Mimecast has warned of a flight refund scam doing the rounds amid a general uptick in coronavirus-related online crime. The scam itself is very simple and relies on current fears, some real, that airlines are reluctant to give refunds to customers who cannot fly because of the global coronavirus shutdown. …
Ryan Air finally cancelled some of our holiday flights overnight and I filled out the refund form this morning. While I had I'd done the obvious checks that the link was Ryanair and so on, for a few second on reading the headline I did think "Oh Pants".
One quick re-check later and it was Ryan Air, but a timely reminder to all to always check carefully...
just to piss on your hopes a bit, I requested a refund immediately after they cancelled my flight, and they emailed me to confirm it would take up to 7 working days. That was about 4 weeks ago, and instead of this 7-days-tops refund, they keep sending me an e-mail (once a week) to confirm they're on the ball and please please please please bear with us [because it took 1 minute to take my money, and takes 4 weeks to get it back, and counting]. That said, I'm already half-through my charge back letter to my bank which might, just MIGHT get me that refund anyway. Not that I would trust my bank more than I trust wizzair. And two other cases: my wife, who applied for a refund on her flights got information from wizzair it's gonna take at least 6 weeks. So what it's legally 14 days - sue us!
In short: they're all playing for time, apparently, over the last couple of weeks, there's been a rather intense lobbying campaign in the UK, by the operators, towards the UK gov, to change the law somehow so that they don't have to, by law, issue refunds, but can, legally, offer a mandatory "voucher". Which would be as good as shit for those people, who took similar vouchers last year, when Thomas Cook was in trouble, and then promptly collapsed. Apparently they were told to (...).
That said, with mass refunds, on top of current, indefinite no-fly disaster, airlines will start collapsing like dominos, and then, guess which airline's gonna stay around, having picked what's left of competition for one quid, etc.? Yeah, there's ONE airline that always comes "bottom of the bottom" in all reviews...
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