Refunds.. Good and bad

[Steveje]

As like everyone nov holiday a no go!
VA rescheduled flights from 747 Gatwick to Heathrow.
Got my flights refunded from netflights.. no quibble.
Even got my overnight hotel refunded which was non cancel booking from the hampton by hilton. Got my parking refunded from ace parking.
The ***only***booking I cannot get back thru a VA change is the bubble seats. Been told twice i would have this within 14 days only to not turn up.. now told January.. absolutely shocking handling, when this change is their doing by flight change.. which I add I had no notification of what so ever! So pat on back for Hilton Ace and Netflights...boo VA!

On another note been told my villa deposit is non refundable.. just wondering if I can claim thru my insurance.. I guess I will have to wait to confirm my 13th Nov flight will be cancelled by VA before I make a claim

[Lola]

We had 5 trips to various places booked and ended up with the following:
Money refunded eventually £2860
Money lost £1335

Worst company Iglu cruises
Slowest refund Virgin Atlantic
Best companies Expedia, AMI rental company

[wombat girl]

I contacted VA over one of my bubble requests on whats app and did not get much sense.

I week or 2 later I had both of my bubble money back for a trip this year and one for next year.

I have had problems trying to cancel a flight with them.

[mick]

There's definitely good guys, not so good guys and the jury's still out guys.

The good guys are definitely Discount Florida Car Hire. He actually emails his customers to ask if they want to cancel. We cancelled April with him and moved it to November. That was cancelled so we moved it to next April. I chose to rebook as I wanted to protect Andy's cash flow because his customer service is second to none. Dibbers who come on here saying how difficult it is getting money back from Joe Bloggs car hire et al should look at DFCH next time.

The other good guy is Premier Inn. We'd booked LGW for April at a non-flex rate but they allowed us to move it to Nov at no cost. When Nov flight was off we cancelled the PI and money back on my CC inside 3 days.

The not so good guys. VA around 130 days to get our April flight back to my CC. I wasn't one of those Dibbers conducting a campaign to see them go bust though - what good is that for the consumer? It was the constant apologetic platitudes that annoyed me without a single original reply. Not really happy but I accepted the reasons - they had no money.

Jury is out on BA. Dibbers rave about how quick they reimburse. I'm on working day 6 since I asked for a refund for Nov's cancellation.

Mick

[grumpybri]

The good for me was Andy at DFCH and Holiday Extras.
Middling was Tui who stuck to the 30 day money back, but this was working days with a few extra thrown in.
Bad was Radisson Blu Manchester airport. Could not get a penny back from them.
I will be extra careful on my next booking.

[Dazed]

For us:

Good guys -
Princess hotels (moved booking on 1 year, at the beginning of the pandemic)
BA - refunds, moved bookings, refunds, 2-4-1 vouchers, miles etc
Expedia - full refund, prompt (again, beginning of pandemic)
Trainline - full refund, prompt
DVC - redeposit of points, returned into original use year

Bad guys - None! So far, no issues. I hope it stays that way!

I still have bookings for January (Disney) and April (Tenerife) that are completely covered as they were booked pre-pandemic. Hopefully we might be able to take one or both, although I realise the only chance I have of January booking is the travel ban being dropped or an air bridge between London and New York.

[Orlandoguy]

Good - BA having cancelled my April and nov Florida trips and my July trip to New York they have been amazing, refunds done with no issue credit card was refunded for the April trip in 10 days same with New York and my nov trip was refunded within 4 days also avios put straight back onto my account for the car hire. Have 3more bookings with them for next year two of which for Florida and am positive those positive experiences will be repeated should They be cancelled again . Universal were great for getting my refund for my hotel booking for the April trip too , refunded straight away back onto my card
Bad - nothing

[Steveje]

The frustrating thing is the crap they tell you.. understand the situation with the current unreal situation.. and got plenty of sympathy for those involved.. and don't care if it took 3 months or 6 months.. or whatever...just want to told the truth up front and be done with it.

[Shooby doo]

Ok a bit of a mixed bag, BA sort of get a pass as I had to wait until 30 days before & apply for a voucher- 5 days later they actually cancelled the flight but as I had already chosen a voucher then I was stuck.
Hotel.com - were excellent but again I had to wait until I knew we couldn't go but once I had actually spoken to them all good. Easyjet holidays - mmmm now baring in mind they cancelled my trip I still had to chase & chase to get my money back, with several promises of it will be there in 3-5 days!
Easyjet flights - fairly shocking, constant promises & constant failure to deliver.
Disney They don't get any sort of pass, weeks of wait & see about a great offer that never materialised & then easily 5-6 weeks to wait for my refund.
This is a mixture of 3 trips, 2 European & one US
SD

[Noodle500]

Attraction Tickets Direct refunded within the 2 week timescale in their email for deposit on our Kennedy Space Pass.

Disney direct deposit refunded even though we chose to cancel. Another Dibber has mentioned use the phrase "what are my options" rather than I would like to cancel when ringing.

VA reward flights, two separate bookings.Outbound MAN to MCO and return JFK to LHR. Miles funded immediately and a timescale of 120 days for refunds. Received a couple of weeks ago and about a month before deadline.

Virgin Holidays. We had a car hire booking which was refundable and three separate hotel bookings which were none refundable as the standard deposit on VH bookings were higher than the cost of hotels. I rang for options on the bookings expecting no refund for hotels but VH transferred them all to vouchers to use on a new booking and I was happy about this. But roundabout when we had the flights refunded we had the car hire and hotel bookings refunded over several days, about £1.5k so even happier.

We had an internal domestic flight booked with Delta and when DH logged in to see what options available he went through to an ecredit as the flight had not been cancelled. So we have an ecredit for about £500 sitting with them to be used by 2022. Not sure if we will use it. Has anyone else been able to get a refund with Delta if it was you rather than Delta cancelling?
I felt we've done ok considering circumstances.