Time taken to process frequent fyer cacnellation - urgent

[tania73]

Hi - would appreciate knowledge/insights.

I cancelled a frequent flyer seat today. Because my credit card that was used to pay the booking is no longer in use, I had to send a stat dec giving them the old credit card details and new ones. I did this and rang them and they put it on the urgent queue in the ticketing queue. A few hours later I can see that the flight has been removed from my bookings but the points have not been re-credited. Any idea how long it takes to get them back? This is urgent as AF cancelled my return flight from Europe so I need these points to book an alternative.

Thanks for any advice

 

[incumbent]

All you can really do is keep pushing them.

 

[Anna]

When I cancelled a points booking earlier this year that I had paid 'taxes' on an old credit card, the points were recredited within a few days but it took weeks and much pushing to get the refund of the 'taxes' (aka QF fees).

 

[tania73]

Yes, looks like I will have to. The points not back in the account this morning. I just don't understand why especially as they have actioned the cancellation as it is no longer showing in my bookings

 

[incumbent]

Yes, looks like I will have to. The points not back in the account this morning. I just don't understand why especially as they have actioned the cancellation as it is no longer showing in my bookings

My last four cancellations have all taken different amounts of time. They have discretion to process the points refund manually, which is why it may be best to just keep pushing.

 

[Pushka]

It took me two months to get a refund last year on the actual fare. It went to a voucher which I had not selected when cancelling, and they could see that when I rang but said give it a couple of days for it to transition to a credit. And there it sat for weeks. Finally received a refund and the voucher can still be seen in my profile. I suspect its a dud.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I think it depends if there is foreign currency involved as we had to cancel two Classic awards - one on AA SKB x/MIA BCN where the taxes were in USD and the other BCN EK x/DXB QF x/SYD QF BNE taxes were in GBP.

After cancelling over the phone we still hadn't got the points or taxes back after one month so followed up.

They refunded points immediately then the CSR in the ff service centre had to refer to someone else re the foreign taxes being refunded which were credited back to the Amex card a couple of days later.

 

[tania73]

I think it depends if there is foreign currency involved as we had to cancel two Classic awards - one on AA SKB x/MIA BCN where the taxes were in USD and the other BCN EK x/DXB QF x/SYD QF BNE taxes were in GBP.

After cancelling over the phone we still hadn't got the points or taxes back after one month so followed up.

They refunded points immediately then the CSR in the ff service centre had to refer to someone else re the foreign taxes being refunded which were credited back to the Amex card a couple of days later.

Yes my SIN-BNE flight did involve a foreign currency. Points still not back in account but booking has not re-appeared in my bookings so will call tomorrow. Thank god the seat I need is still showing as available touch wodd.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Yes my SIN-BNE flight did involve a foreign currency. Points still not back in account but booking has not re-appeared in my bookings so will call tomorrow. Thank god the seat I need is still showing as available touch wodd.

Try calling up and get them to put a hold on it & explain you need the points refund expedited in order to use them for this one.

 

[MrJetset]

I've had this happen, especially when the taxes are charged by a foreign ticketing desk, e.g. THB.

I escalated to a supervisor on the Premium Desk and they called the FF service centre, had the points refunded, then contacted the Thai ticketing office to process the refund immediately.

It's ridiculous that the points aren't instantly refunded, especially if making an imminent change. I should add that I haven't had a FF redemption or change ticket correctly without at least 3 phone calls (all WP Release requests).

 

[tania73]

Just to those following the thread - all resolved. I phoned this morning, evidently they had cancelled the booking but then lost the email to do the rest ie refund points and taxes. Took 35 mins on the phone but was done by the time the call ended. Thankfully the FF seat was sit there (thanks Cathay Pacific!!) so booked and ticketed it!!

 

[RichardMEL]

Just to those following the thread - all resolved. I phoned this morning, evidently they had cancelled the booking but then lost the email to do the rest ie refund points and taxes. Took 35 mins on the phone but was done by the time the call ended. Thankfully the FF seat was sit there (thanks Cathay Pacific!!) so booked and ticketed it!!

What concerns me is that this is apparently a manual process?

surely if a refundable ticket (as a FF ticket is) is cancelled, then the system should process it automagically and refund as appropriate - to wherever it came from - CC or QFF points or whatever.

maybe that's just me

 

[Anna]

My problem, and I think also the OP's, was that I no longer had the credit card I had used for the booking so the system could not do an automatic refund to that credit card number.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

In our case we still had the same credit card, I'm sure the issue is they can't automatically refund the same amount of tax in AUD back to the cc as the exchange rate used will ve different when calculating the USD & GBP back to AUD hence the manual intervention of someone.

They need a special queue for such bookings to go to where foreign currency taxes require refunding.