Airline went bankrupt before flight; credit card refund denied
QI booked a flight with Primera Air last year. The airline went bankrupt before my flight, so I filed a chargeback with Chase because I never received the service for which I paid.
Chase denied my claim. I appealed, provided more information and receipts, but they still say the charges are valid. Can you help me?
AIf your airline went bankrupt before your flight, and you paid with a credit card, you should receive a full refund.
Why didn’t you? Chase won’t say. All it sent you is the following message: “As you requested, we reviewed our original finding that you are responsible for the credit card transactions you disputed with us. We have confirmed that these transactions are valid and will remain on your account balance.” That’s infuriating. Your right to dispute a credit card transaction comes from the Fair Credit Billing Act. It’s a federal law that protects you from unauthorized charges, incorrect charges and charges for goods or services not received, among other things. You must initiate the dispute within 60 days of the first statement in which the error or charge appeared. Some banks extend this deadline, but they don’t have to.
It looks as if your initial transaction posted on Aug. 8, 2018, and you disputed it on Oct. 3 — that’s 56 days, which is well within the 60 days required by the FCBA.
I reviewed the paper trail between you and Chase. It looks as if Chase didn’t fully review your case and continued to send you form-letter rejections. Under the FCBA, you were entitled to a full refund. Even if you’d gone past the 60 days, Chase should have carefully reviewed your case. After all, one of the big reasons I recommend a credit card for airline ticket purchases is that if the airline goes belly-up, at least you can get your money back through the credit card dispute process.
It’s unclear why Chase continued to deny your claim. Not only had you filed your dispute on time, but you had obviously not received the service for which you paid. If I’ve ever seen an open-and-shut case, it’s yours.
You might have tried an appeal to one of the Chase customer service executives. I list their names, numbers and email addresses on my consumer advocacy site.
I contacted Chase on your behalf. The company said it agreed to reopen your case and, after a brief investigation, claimed it had already refunded your ticket. And indeed, upon review of your records, you found that you already had your refund.