Our flights have been refunded, so why haven’t we got the money yet?

QLast November, my husband and I booked return business-class flights to Melbourne with Royal Brunei Airlines through flight spe- cialist TravelUp. We paid a total of £4,930.

The flight out from London on April 19 was cancelled at the end of March. I emailed TravelUp to discuss our options. We were asked to fill in an online form with all the details. At this point we did think about taking a voucher but, after speaking to an agent who said that flight prices to Australia might rise considerably next year, we decided to request a refund.

In May, the agent assured me we would be refunded, minus a £50 administration fee, as soon as the airline repaid TravelUp. She did say that Royal Brunei was being very slow in processing refunds and it could take weeks.

In late July, my husband lost patience and telephoned Royal Brunei direct to be told that it had refunded our fares on July 6.

I have emailed TravelUp to find out why the refund hasn’t been passed on to us, but have had no response. What is our next move?

– Alison Hinge

AIt’s all in the wording. Royal Brunei’s email to you actually says it “authorised the refund” on July 6. This means it was approved, not that it had been processed by its accounts department. There is a further delay, usually of about a month, before it lands in the agent’s bank account.

As six weeks had now elapsed, I asked TravelUp to trace the payment. It said the extra delay was due to the payment being routed through the supplier from which it had bought your tickets. It expected the money to reach its bank account on September 3 and that you should receive the refund a few days later.

By September 16 there was no sign of the refund. I contacted TravelUp again. The supplier still had the money, it said, but it had now been released and is on its way to your bank account.

TravelUp says that many airlines and flight brokers are still taking months to authorise refunds, even though this is in breach of legislation.

To update customers – and stop them calling all the time – it has used its coding expertise to build a real-time refund check function on its website plugged into airline booking systems. Customers can use it both to check their flight status, apply for a refund and check the progress of the refund.

The system also links with card providers to identify customers who have applied for a chargeback to make sure they are not refunded twice.

These are welcome moves by an online flight broker, though the system is not without its glitches. For readers seeking flight refunds from agents, lack of communication is still a big issue. But once you have confirmation that the refund request has been accepted, it really is a waiting game as airlines with few forward ticket sales struggle to find the cash.