I applied for a flight refund but didn’t see a penny for 10 weeks

QOn January 1, my wife and I booked premium economy tickets with Virgin Atlantic from Edinburgh to Orlando, Florida, to attend my grandson’s graduation in April. The tickets cost a total of £3,240. As we are in our 80s, we had paid extra for the Premium Flex option in case we had to cancel.

Unfortunately, due to ill health, we applied to cancel the tickets in early February. Virgin sent us confirmation on February 8 saying that our refund claim had been received and it would take 10-12 working days for the funds to be sent to us.

It is now five weeks later and no refund has appeared. When I have chased Virgin’s customer services, I have been told that they are short of staff. Please could you help us find out when we will be repaid?

– Richard Edmonds

AI was interested to learn that Virgin Atlantic offers affordable Flex tickets, as these are a rarity among scheduled airlines. Virgin’s Flex options cost from £60 per flight and give customers the ability to make unlimited date changes free of charge, and the option to cancel the flights for a full refund.

A Flex option on a premium economy flight to the United States costs around 10 per cent extra – a sum worth paying if you think your plans might change closer to your departure date.

However, obtaining a refund appears to take time. While Virgin Atlantic quickly acknowledged Mr Edmonds’s refund submission on February 8, it only issued an official refund confirmation document on March 16. I asked Virgin why the refund was taking so long to process.

The airline claims that while its part of the refund process takes around seven working days, customers should allow up to 21 working days for their payment provider to make the funds available to them. While this might well have been the case some years ago, I find such a comment surprising today when you can transfer funds between bank accounts and credit cards in a matter of seconds.

After I got in touch, a Virgin customer services agent phoned Mr Edmonds in early April to say that the refund was now being processed. However, the money only landed back in his bank account on April 13.

Whatever airlines may claim, it is not unusual for refunds to take a month or more. Refunding air tickets is a manual process and requires staff to have a high level of training. While this was a fairly straightforward refund, as Mr Edmonds booked directly with the airline, it can take far longer when the flight itinerary includes sectors operated by other airlines. And if you have booked the flights through an agent, expect a refund to take at least three months, as agencies and airlines work in monthly billing cycles.