Spike alert
Under controlStory of the week
The refund that ran on airline time
Stephen booked Virgin Australia flights to get to a funeral in Launceston. The day before he was due to fly, he found Virgin had moved his 6:05am flight to 11:50am and the connecting leg from 8:30am to 8:55pm. In his words: “This is not acceptable as I was due to go to a funeral. I want to cancel all my bookings and demand a refund of all monies paid.”
Airlines' own conditions generally allow a full refund when they significantly change your schedule. Getting Virgin to follow theirs took two weeks:
- The runaround. Virgin's own rep told Stephen to email his booking details to a helpdesk address – at a domain that doesn't belong to Virgin. “The email cannot be sent.”
- The promise. After 30 minutes on hold, Stephen was told the process was complete and the money would arrive in “5 to 6 days”. It didn't.
- The deadline. With Ajust's help, Stephen sent a formal demand with a three-business-day deadline and a warning that we'd escalate. Three days later, the refund was approved in writing.
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$985.55 came back in total, the last of it on 26 August – everything but a $10.45 non-refundable fee. Of course, none of that makes up for the trip Stephen never got to take.
What you can do:
- If an airline significantly changes your flight times, ask for a full refund in writing – their own conditions usually allow it.
- Don't check in for flights you're rejecting. It can read as accepting the change.
- Put one deadline in writing. When it passes, escalate – that's often when things move.
