A Wagga Wagga woman who spent $35,000 on a family holiday to Hawaii is urging people who have had travel cancelled to fight for a refund.
Cherie Benn paid for 10 relatives to go overseas for her 70th birthday, but the trip was cancelled in March because of COVID-19.
She did not want a travel credit because she did not plan to go to Hawaii again.
"I have spoken to a lot of people my age, which is 70 plus, and not one soul has received any money back. They've all been told they've got credits," she said.
"Some of these people will never be flying again.
"When I told one woman that my travel was $35,000 she said hers was double that and that she had tried to get it back but she had given up."
After more than two months of negotiations with the travel agent, a letter from a solicitor, and help from her local state MP and New South Wales Fair Trading, she got a $27,000 refund and flight credits for the rest.
People encouraged to turn to Fair Trading for help
Fair Trading's South West Manager Kim Jenkins encouraged people to be persistent, but also urged them to be patient.
"Consumers are really frustrated because sometimes they can't even contact the trader, whether it's a travel agent or a travel company," she said.
"From the other side, we're seeing businesses so overwhelmed with people coming to them that they've just got a backlog."
Ms Jenkins said Fair Trading tried to work between the two parties to try to get a satisfactory resolution.
She said in a perfect world people who wanted a refund could get one, but that was not the reality.
"It often comes down to the terms and conditions of the original agreement," she said.
"A lot of people have non-refundable flights and other non-refundable parts of their contracts."
She said no-one could have planned for COVID-19.
"The Government put in travel bans, which made it illegal for a travel organisation to provide the service, so it's not that they don't want to provide it and it's not that the consumer doesn't want to go on their trip, but the government has banned it both ways so that changes things," she said.
"Be organised, have all your paperwork together, keep times and notes of when you contact someone and who you speak to, and keep a record of emails."
