Cecil Lau wishes he had known when he asked American Airlines orlando rent a car for a refund on a ticket from Toronto to Hong Kong. As a refresher, most discounted airline tickets are nonrefundable, but some are. Lau was lucky enough to have one. So when he asked for his money back, American agreed to credit his card $1,300.
U.S. regulations are clear about the timing of refunds. When a refund is due, the airline must forward a credit to your card company within seven business days after receiving a complete refund application, according to the Transportation Department . However, the credit may take a month or two to appear on your statement.
I m unable to find a similar requirement under Canadian regulations , at least as it applies to airlines, orlando rent a car but it stands to reason that an airline can t keep your money indefinitely although, if anyone needs the money right now, it s probably American.
But Lau s problem is hardly unique, and it s not limited to airlines. Travel agencies — and especially online travel agencies orlando rent a car — keep your money for a while. When I ve investigated this refund latency, experts tell me the following: First, there are no real requirements for a prompt refund. It s just a gray area some companies exploit.
Second, while technology exists to take money out of your credit card account in a few seconds, there s no incentive to return it as fast. So companies don t invest in the technology and human resources necessary to process a fast refund.
And third — and this is perhaps the most upsetting of all — companies orlando rent a car can benefit orlando rent a car from holding on to your hard-earned money. Having that money in their coffers, even for a few extra months, can have certain financial benefits. (Think of it as a microloan, with you as the unwilling lender.)
I called the credit card company and they said they don t see the reverse-transaction anywhere, he says. I got passed onto the dispute department and they requested some form of confirmation that American did indeed refund my ticket.
This isn t an easy case. A credit card dispute is unlikely to work, because the window is long past, and besides, the airline orlando rent a car insists it s sent the money. But without a written verification, which would serve as a debit memo, the credit card company is powerless to help.
If you ever find a company dragging its feet on a refund — whether it s an airline orlando rent a car or any other company — don t let it get away with it. Contact your credit card company right away, appeal your case to someone orlando rent a car higher up at the company, and if that doesn t work, please orlando rent a car let me know.
I agree that these refunds take entirely too long. My company had a policy of requiring staff members to purchase their own tickets (but then request a travel orlando rent a car advance to cover 100% of the ticket price because orlando rent a car we do have a lot of entry level staff who travel overseas and can t afford a $3K ticket on their salaries). I was told on a Wednesday that I needed to fly overseas on Saturday so I bought the ticket. Friday the trip was cancelled. Plenty of time for the charge to hit my credit card. 10 weeks to refund my card (less the cancellation fee of course). I had to keep the travel advance because orlando rent a car I do not carry balances on my credit cards and I wasn t going to let a work related expense mess that up for me. Finance kept bugging me and bugging me to clear the advance, but I wouldn t budge until Delta credited my AmEx and then AmEx had to send me a check.
orlando rent a car All the better! But for some reason, 7 days sounds awfully fast. Maybe I ve been too conditioned to expect very little orlando rent a car from the airlines orlando rent a car to the point where I d be happy with 45 days. What does that say about the current state of affairs?
This is really orlando rent a car strange. We average about 4-6 weeks. I never have a problem with that. The e-mail is sent to our office within minutes confirming the refund and that s normally that. Obviously, Cecil tried to get something done, thought that he was observing the proper line of communications, but failed. I am glad that the refund came, but why suffer with these problems. 10 hours of communicating, being on hold, writing letters, just can t be worth a $30.00 average agent fee. If we book the hotel and car, we waive the fee. Find yourself a good, BBB, ASTA certified travel agent, and deal with them. Your blood pressure will go down.
Chris, this is false. The only amount a agency keeps is their commission or service fee. When you purchase a ticket from an agency, online, homebased or brick and mortar, when the ticket is issued, it HAS to be reported during the reporting period the ticket was issued. The reporting period is one week long and the period closes at mindnight on Sunday. All tickets have to be reported to ARC and the report orlando rent a car has to be completed and submitted by Tuesday following the Sunday close. ARC then takes the information and submits it to the carrier who handled the charge or refund. orlando rent a car If you pay cash, the money for that ticket comes out of the agency orlando rent a car s bank account by ARC.
For refunds, there is a similar procedure. The ticket is submited orlando rent a car to ARC, which inturns passes this on to the carrier. It is out of the agencies hands. If the ticket was paid for by cash, the agency has to watch their account for the carrier s refund before they will cut you a check. If your payment was by a credit card, the carrier will refund to that not the agency. I just had a client wait 2 months for their refund. orlando rent a car All I could do was contact ARC who checked with the carrier and got the message orlando rent a car that the carrier was checking on the fare for a valid refund. orlando rent a car It was out of my hands.
Very good and accurate description of the B M AGENCY sales reporting and settlement process. I might venture to add that OTAs may have a lot more in-house Credit Card sales where they charge the card themselves especially orlando rent a car for international tickets.
They still have to report those tickets for the week they issue them. But yes, if they charge orlando rent a car your credit card in house, you don t know when they issue the ticket as the carrier isn t handling it. That is an important fact to point out. Look to see the issuing company. This can be helpful when you need to get the refund!
I used to fly F9 a lot, and I usually orlando rent a car buy the refundable tickets because they are still very low cost. When requesting a refund, I used to call and would always have the credit in 7 days. Since they got bought by Republic, the refunds have started taking orlando rent a car months. Not to mention I am usually on hold for a minimum of an hour to speak to someone, and usually have to call 3 times to get the refund because it keeps getting stuck (their words).
Last week, I called Sirius-XM Radio to dispute a charge that was posted to my American Express orlando rent a car card. They agreed that it was their error and the funds were back in my account within three days. If one corporation can process a refund that quickly, why should it take another several months to do the same thing? Greed is the only explanation that I can think of.
What s your problem? If you're having trouble with a business - any business - and you've reached a dead end, maybe I can help. Send me an email and I'll investigate. (I can't promise a fix, but I take every request seriously.) If you want to connect with other consumers, why not sign up for my free weekly newsletter , RSS feed or free daily email updates ?
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