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Rex has quietly amended its COVID Refund Guarantee to make it almost impossible to actually get a refund in the future if you can’t travel due to COVID-19.
Until recently, Rex offered a refund (minus its booking & card payment surcharges) if you needed to cancel your flight for any COVID-related reason. But on 28 March 2022, Rex amended its terms & conditions so that refunds are now only offered if you can’t travel due to a government-imposed lockdown or border closure.
With high vaccination rates in Australia, state border closures and lockdowns are now a thing of the past. It is highly unlikely that there would be another city or state-wide lockdown in Australia going forward, meaning the new terms of Rex’s COVID Refund Guarantee basically now guarantee that you can’t get a refund.
The Rex website still has a page dedicated to the Rex COVID Refund Guarantee. This page has been updated with the new conditions, which state that a “full refund of the fare or changes with no admin fee” now only applies to “any passenger whose trip has to be cancelled or changed due to COVID related border closures or geographical lockdown, even if Rex’s flights operate as scheduled.”
Furthermore, Rex’s website says that “where travel insurance covers part of the loss, the COVID guarantee only covers the loss not covered by insurance.”
What happens if you miss your Rex flight because you have COVID-19?
If you get COVID-19 or need to isolate as a close contact of a confirmed case, and can’t fly with Rex as booked, you can no longer get a refund from Rex unless you originally purchased a refundable ticket.
Rex Flex fares and all types of Business Class tickets can be cancelled for a cash refund for a $33 fee. Other fare types are not eligible for a cash refund.
However, if you cannot travel due to COVID-19, you can still request a travel credit from Rex without paying any service fees. You can request this using the form on the Rex website or over the phone. All Rex flight credits must be used within 12 months of the date when you booked your original ticket.
If you originally booked a Promo or Community fare, it is not possible to change the route or name on the ticket. You must redeem your credit to book another flight for the same passenger/s on exactly the same route. If your new flight is in the same fare class as your original booking, there is no cost involved to rebook. However, you will need to pay any fare difference if your new flight is in a higher fare class.
More flexible rules apply to credits if you originally booked a Resident, Saver, Flex or Business Class ticket.
Rex travel bank credits can only be redeemed by phoning the Rex call centre. They cannot be redeemed online.
Additional flexibility on Qantas & Virgin Australia bookings
For now, Qantas and Virgin Australia continue to offer customers the option to change their bookings or cancel for a travel credit without paying service fees. But both airlines are currently planning to end this benefit for domestic bookings at the end of this month.
It’s possible that one or both airlines could extend this for another few months, as both have continued to do for the past two years. If one airline extends its “Fly Flexible” policy, the other will almost certainly follow.
Strangely, Qantas did update the “Flexible Classic Flight Rewards” page on its website last Friday morning to say that the increased flexibility on domestic bookings would be extended until 30 June 2022. But within a few hours, it reverted this page back to saying that the policy was only valid until 30 April 2022 for domestic flights.
You can leave a comment and discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.
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