Virgin Atlantic has become the latest airline to leave a vapour trail of furious customers who are now being told they will have to wait up to four months to receive refunds for cancelled flights.
Following warnings in May from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), more airlines have started processing refunds to customers, after initially trying to get customers to accept vouchers rather than the full cash refund to which they are entitled.
Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways initially bore the brunt of consumer ire, but Virgin Atlantic customers have this week accused the company of not processing refunds in order to prop up the company.
Those behind a Virgin Atlantic refund action group on Facebook, which has more 400 members, say they are yet to find a single person who has received a voluntary refund from the airline.
Virgin Atlantic, which along with other airlines has been fighting for its survival as the pandemic forced all flights to be cancelled, told the Guardian that it is paying back about £20m a week in refunds.
Virgin declined to say how many customers had been refunded so far – and admitted the company was now taking up to 120 days to process refunds.
Hundreds of customers, frustrated at the delays, have instead asked their banks to process chargebacks, or credit card claims.
Gill Jones from Rayleigh in Essex has been been waiting since early April for a £1,895 refund for cancelled flights to Las Vegas, and said she has contacted her MP to highlight the company’s failures.
“Initially, we were only being offered vouchers but we stuck to our guns and insisted on a refund,” she said.
“At the start, Virgin would only correspond by text, and took until 1 June before it finally emailed to say the refund would be processed. Then we were told it would be 60 days, but I am not holding my breath.
“Lots of others have been told the same but are still waiting three months later. The feeling is that the company has just sat on its customers’ money and waited until future bookings start coming in.”
In May the CAA said it was reviewing the way airlines were treating their customers, and warned them that it did not “expect airlines to systematically deny consumers their right to a refund”.
Virgin said: “Our customer centre and finance teams are working from home with limited infrastructure. We have boosted the size of the team handling refunds and these additional staff are receiving training.
“We would like to reassure all customers that if they’ve eligibly requested a refund, it will be repaid in full and we are committed to completing each refund at the earliest opportunity.”
In April Sir Richard Branson offered to mortgage his private Caribbean island to raise money to help his Virgin Group empire, as he pleaded with the UK government to step in and save his airline from collapse. The company has since announced more than 3,000 jobs losses in the UK, although flights are due to resume on 20 July.
