Why is it taking so long for Opodo to refund my cancelled flights?

QIn September 2019, I booked two return flights on InterCaribbean Airways from Antigua to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for March 2020 through online flight broker Opodo.

The flights were cancelled because of the pandemic. I tried to push the booking forward a year, but Opodo did not respond to my request. I applied for a refund of £665 in June.

In August, I received a recorded message from Opodo asking for my bank details. I had paid through PayPal and couldn’t understand why the refund could not be sent back to my account.

I called Opodo twice to sort the matter out. Both times, I had to wait on hold for a long time. Finally I was told I would get a refund by Dec 17.

Stupidly, I then booked new flights to Tortola for March 2021, again through Opodo because booking direct with the airline looked complicated and I was concerned I might not get a refund from a US-based company. These flights were cancelled in November. I applied for a refund immediately but have heard nothing since.

My friend who booked direct with InterCaribbean was refunded within days of her flights being cancelled, so Opodo’s claim that it is waiting for a refund from the airline doesn’t ring true. Can you help?

AYours is one of many emails The Daily Telegraph has received about the difficulty in contacting Opodo and the length of time it takes to get refunds.

There are a number of issues at play here. Firstly, PayPal does not accept refunds more than six months after payment has been taken, so customers must be contacted individually.

When the pandemic took hold, many airlines disabled the standard automatic refunding processes that had been in place in the industry for years. This has resulted in further delays as refunds for flights cancelled by airlines are now approved at their discretion and are repaid in monthly billing cycles. If the travel agent has used an intermediary – another flight broker – to buy the tickets, this can add to the delay.

Opodo has been telling customers it may take four months for a refund to be approved by an airline. It says it has now employed an extra 200 staff and has so far processed more than one million flight refunds. But it appears that some refunds have got lost in the system, especially those for flights cancelled early in the pandemic.

Opodo has now reviewed both your reservations and says that InterCaribbean has approved both refunds (the second one just a few days ago). These will arrive in your bank account within 10 working days.

The best way to contact Opodo is by clicking on the Chat button located on the “Can we help?” page on its website (opodo.co.uk). At first, I had to deal with an automated Chatbot but, after putting in all the information for one of Mrs Brown’s bookings, I was put through to a customer services agent within 30 seconds.