UK: Airlines causing ‘financial and emotional distress’ over refund delays

Travellers are suffering an emotional and financial ordeal chasing refunds from airlines, the consumer group Which? has said. Under European air passengers’s rights rules, carriers that cancel flights are required to return the fare within a week of the cancellation. But millions of travellers have been waiting for months to get their money back. Which? has compiled a dossier of more than 14,000 refund complaints. The consumer group says passengers denied a refund are out of pocket by an average of GBP446, and have collectively spent a total of 52,000 hours – almost six years – chasing their airline for the money due. Nearly half the complaints were from Ryanair passengers whose flights were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Of the 44% who complained about the Irish airline, half said they had spent at least five hours trying to contact the airline for a refund. In second place was easyJet, with one in seven of respondents deploring tardy refunds from Britain’s biggest budget airline. Virgin Atlantic, which has just secured funding to keep it afloat, was third-most complained about. Its package holiday sister firm, Virgin Holidays, has been highlighted in surveys about slow refunds.<br/>