Financial and personal toll revealed on airline customers still battling for a refund

People are suffering serious financial and emotional distress as they struggle to claim refunds for flights and holidays cancelled due to coronavirus, according to a dossier of more than 14,000 refund complaints compiled by a consumer watchdog.

Ryanair was the most complained-about airline.

The complaints – which have been passed on by Which? to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as part of its review of how airlines have handled cancellations and refunds in recent months – are collectively worth more than £5.6 million.

The findings come as Which?'s campaign, 'Refund Us. Reform Travel.', demands that airlines urgently refund any passengers still owed money for cancelled flights and holidays.

Under the Denied Boarding Regulations, if a UK or EU airline cancels a flight, the passenger should be refunded within seven days. However, many customers have faced delays amid an unprecedented volume of cancellations caused by the pandemic.

Since asking affected passengers to report their airline to the CAA through its online tool on 22 May, Which? has received and submitted over 14,000 reports in just under six weeks, of which over 12,600 have been analysed to establish trends in the data.

Those who reported that they had been denied a refund are out of pocket by an average of £446.40, and have collectively spent a total of 52,000 hours – almost six years – trying to chase their airline for the money they are due. Which? also invited people to report the impact that being denied a refund on their lives has had, revealing people struggling to pay mortgages after losing work during the pandemic and others taking the decision to stop fighting for a refund due to the toll on their mental health.

The most reported airline was Ryanair, accounting for four in 10 of the complaints made to Which?, with passengers reporting a combined total of £1.15 million owed. Half of those reported spending more than five hours of their time trying to contact the airline for a refund.

Despite being the third largest operator flying out of the UK, behind EasyJet and British Airways, Ryanair owes over £400,000 more than the two market leading airlines, with its £1.15 million total equating to one in every five pounds that was reported to Which?.

Easyjet was the next most complained about airline, accounting for one in seven complaints worth more than £663,000 in refunds.

Airlines have cited huge volumes of refunds and limited staff available to process them as an explanation for the delays in refunding customers.

A Which? survey of airline customers in May who had had flights cancelled found that four in 10 BA customers surveyed had received their money back within the legal time frame, while three in 10 Jet2 customers who responded were refunded within the seven day window. This was in comparison to only five per cent of Ryanair customers telling Which? they received a refund within the legal time frame, and one in seven Easyjet customers.

Which? called for the CAA to take “urgent enforcement action” against airlines that are failing to pay refunds.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “We are hearing from thousands of passengers who are still waiting for refunds months after flights and holidays were cancelled. These people are often in desperate circumstances of their own and have told us the stress of being left out of pocket has significantly impacted on their emotional wellbeing and their finances.

“As a first step to restoring lost trust in the travel industry, it’s important that lawbreaking companies are not let off the hook for their actions during this period. The regulator must act swiftly on this evidence and take strong action against those airlines that have repeatedly been exposed for flouting the rules.”

A spokesman for EasyJet said: “We are processing refunds for customers and aim to do so in less than 28 days. But in these unprecedented times, the volume of cancellations compounded by local lockdown restrictions leading to reduced staffing levels in our customer contact centres, means that processing of refunds is taking longer than usual.”

A spokesman for Ryanair said: “Ryanair has already processed over €500m in refunds and vouchers since mid-March, which is over 40 per cent of Ryanair’s total backlog of Covid cancellations in March, April, May & June.”