Refunds that are a ticket to NOWHERE

Your flight’s cancelled, so you’re given a voucher. But what if it expires before you can travel? As more and more are discovering, you’ve been palmed off with...

THE COMPETITION watchdog is being urged to come down harder on firms holding pandemic refunds hostage after a Money Mail poll found millions are still waiting for cash.

Our postbag has been flooded with complaints about withheld refunds.

And a survey of more than 1,000 people shows one in ten still hasn’t been refunded for holidays, concerts and other cancelled bookings.

Some 12 pc of those waiting for their cash have been chasing for more than a year.

It can be revealed:

■ THE Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is being urged to threaten more firms with court action

■ VOUCHERS are out of date before customers can use them

■ AIRLINES are refusing to swap vouchers for cash even while holidays are banned.

Last summer the CMA said that customers would ‘generally be entitled to a refund’ for goods and services that could no longer be provided because of the pandemic.

And in July it warned more than 100 package holiday companies that they could face enforcement action such as fines if they dragged their feet on refunds.

But consumer experts say many firms are still not playing fair.

James Daley, of Fairer Finance, says: ‘The time for excuses has expired. The CMA needs to threaten more companies with court if that will get them to pay up.’

A survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence for Money Mail found holidaymakers were the most likely to be left out of pocket as a result of cancellations caused by the pandemic.

Four in ten refunds still outstanding are for flights, 17 pc are for hotels and 5 pc for cruises.

Around 7 pc are for online purchases, 6 pc are experiences such as spa days and 1 pc for weddings. Meanwhile other companies have pushed, or even forced, customers to take vouchers and credit rather than cash.

More than a third of survey respondents who had received credit or a voucher with an expiry date said they had not been able to use it in time.

Four in five of these customers said a company had refused to extend the deadline for their use. Consumer experts say if lockdown restrictions stopped you rebooking, firms should allow more time.

Jennifer and Keith Temple spent £6,700 on return flights to Australia to visit their daughter in March 2020. When their airline Etihad cancelled their return flight due to Covid, the 72-year-olds had to pay an extra £4,700 to fly back to London with Japan Airlines.

BUT a year on the pensioners are yet to receive a refund for their cancelled flight — or money towards the replacement flights they needed.

Etihad told them to contact the online travel agent they had used to book their trip, Gotogate. But Gotogate said it had to wait for Etihad to refund the cost before they could get their money back.

Jennifer, a district nurse from Royston, Hertfordshire, says: ‘I’m just appalled by the way we have been treated.’

The CMA has launched probes into eight firms over their failure to refund customers, prompting all but one to commit to clear their backlog.

And last month the CMA threatened to take Teletext Holidays to court over failing to provide refunds.

But Louise Hastings is still waiting for a £790 refund from the firm, 12 months after her trip was cancelled. The bank worker booked a week’s stay in Majorca in May last year, but Teletext told her she would not receive a refund until the end of 2020. At the time, Louise, 26, was happy to wait.

Yet after making monthly calls to Teletext since January, she has still not been refunded.

Louise, from Bootle, Merseyside, says: ‘It’s not fair that they are holding on to my money when I’ve been so patient.’

Meanwhile airlines including British Airways and easyJet refuse to let passengers trade in their vouchers or credit notes for cash.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, says: ‘Many people who accepted flight vouchers did so out of goodwill. So it will strike them as hugely unfair that airlines are now refusing to refund these vouchers despite there being no opportunity to fly.’

Hilary and Kenneth Collins were left with £900 of easyJet vouchers they cannot use because he has cancer and is too ill to travel.

Their family holiday to Tenerife had been cancelled last March, as well as flights to Ibiza for a wedding in August. The first voucher, worth £563, was due to expire last month and the second £326 voucher had to be used by July. But in the summer Kenneth, 76, was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told to avoid travelling for 18 months.

However, easyJet refused to swap their vouchers for cash.

Hilary, 62, says: ‘Even when travel opens up again we won’t be the first on a plane. It is just not worth the risk.’

A CMA spokesman says it has already secured hundreds of millions of pounds for those struggling to get money back.

‘We will continue to watch firms closely to make sure they stay on the right side of the law and treat their customers fairly,’ he adds.

After Money Mail intervened, easyJet refunded Hilary and Kenneth as a goodwill gesture.

An Etihad spokesman says it was unaware of the Temples’ case because Gotogate had not completed paperwork for the refund properly.

Gotogate confirmed it has now sent Etihad a new form.

Teletext did not respond to requests for comment.