“Hello from New York,” begins the cheery mail from Cliona, but that is where the cheeriness ends.
“The long story short is that Aer Lingus charged me $1,953 change fee for my cancelled flight during the strike which at the time I was told would be reimbursed within seven days. It is now 120 days and counting and I am still waiting to be reimbursed,” she says.
Readers will no doubt recall that the travel plans of thousands of Aer Lingus passengers were thrown into disarray at the height of the summer season just past as a result of industrial action taken by the airline’s pilots in a long-running row over money.
Cliona was one of those unlucky passengers – but unlike many of the passengers who have their claims for refunds processed, she has been left hanging and the delays have come at a cost to her.
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“I am planning on using the money to book my flights home for Christmas,” she says. “I usually book these flights in August to get the best price. While I have been waiting on my money to purchase the flights, the price has gone from approximately $800 a ticket to $1,900 a ticket.”
She points out that the rising prices mean she will have to pay $5,700 for three return tickets from the US to Ireland instead of the $2,400 she would have had to pay had she had the financial wherewithal to book the tickets in August. “I feel like I am being taken advantage of by Aer Lingus now,” she says.
“I have followed up with Aer Lingus at least 20 times since regarding the refund but have not gotten a meaningful response from them.”
She also includes some details of the original flight disruption.
The June 28th flight from JFK to Dublin that she and her teenage daughter were booked on was cancelled on June 21st. It was essential that they got to Dublin on time as they were heading to the Taylor Swift concert on June 30th – and as a parent who brought teenage children and a six-year-old to the first night of singer’s three-night stop in Dublin as part of her Eras Tour, we know how important that was. Anyways, we digress.
“I went on to the website to change once the flight was cancelled as I couldn’t get through on the phone; as per the website flight changes would be reimbursed. I changed our flights to June 27th as that was the only flight that had availability. I was charged $1,953 to change the flight,” Cliona says.
“I submitted the request to be reimbursed as soon as the charge showed up on my credit card.”
The disruption to her travel plans was not finished, though.
“My return flight on July 4th from Dublin to JFK was also cancelled when we were in Ireland and this time I did manage to get to speak to a customer service rep and they were able to put us on a flight from Shannon on the same day we were supposed to return for no change fee. We took the train from Dublin to Limerick and the bus from Limerick to Shannon to get our flight back. I am also still waiting to be reimbursed for the taxi/bus/train expenses, but that is way less important as it was less than $100,” she writes.
“I feel this issue is a circular one. Aer Lingus should honour the price I would have paid if they had reimbursed me in a responsible time frame. (Is that unreasonable?) Do you think this is something you can help me resolve with Aer Lingus as I have had zero luck in even getting a response from them! The only time we haven’t gone to Ireland for Christmas was in 2020 due to Covid.”
She points out that she is a loyal Aer Lingus customer and has travelled with the airline to and from New York for the last 27 years between three and four times a year.
“During the pandemic we had a few trips home cancelled and always took the vouchers as we knew that we would get to use them on future trips home with the airline, but I am so disappointed with how they have treated me as a customer. I would love to get this resolved so that I can secure our flights for Christmas, and if there is a way that you could champion this I would be very grateful.”
We contacted the airline and it sent us the following statement.
“Aer Lingus apologises to this valued customer for the issues they encountered when seeking reimbursement for cancelled flights with the airline earlier this year. Our team received an EU261 compensation claim from this customer, which was paid in August. Additional claims by the customer have since been processed by our customer team. Aer Lingus was also able to assist this customer in booking flights for travel to Ireland this Christmas and we look forward to welcoming them onboard.”
We then heard back from Cliona, who confirmed that with the airline’s assistance she had indeed been able to book the flights for not much more than they would have cost had she been able to book them this summer.
