One Third Wants Refund from Icelandair
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous Icelandair flights were canceled, but obtaining a refund from the airline has proven difficult for customers. In some instances, no refund has been issued months after the flights were canceled, Morgunblaðið reports.
Processing the requests for refund has taken a long time, states Ásdís Ýr Pétursdóttir, media representative for Icelandair. She reports that the airline´s flight cancelations, due to COVID-19, have affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
A third of those have requested a ticket refund, while the rest have either accepted a credit note or agreed to change the date of their flight.
“There are many unsettled cases, and processing them has taken a long time. We’re doing all we can to process this as quickly as possible,” Ásdís states.
Some Icelandair customers have contacted the Consumer Association of Iceland, according to Breki Karlsson, who heads the association. For the most part, he states, association members have been able to change the date of their flights and obtain credit notes without any trouble.
Obtaining refund is a different story. “We have complained to the Consumer Agency and to Icelandair that while you can obtain a credit note with one click [of the mouse], you must go through fire and water to get your money back,” Breki argues. “We know about a number of people who have not obtained a refund although a few months have gone by, but receiving the bad news is of course part of our business.”
When asked what recourse customers have in this kind of situation, he responds that either the airline would have to be summoned, which is a burdensome option, or a claim sent to a collection agency. Last week, he adds, some consumers were considering sending a claim through a debt collection agency.
