In a press release today, seen by Simple Flying, Austrian Airlines says that it is committed to speeding up its efforts to reimburse passengers for tickets that were impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. In the statement, Austrian said it is being bombarded with a historic number of inquiries related to the temporary cessation of Austrian Airlines flights.
Austrian has not only been impacted at home but abroad as counties introduced landing bans, some of which were extended or implemented at short notice. The Austrian national flag carrier says that it would like to apologize to its customers that have been impacted by the coronavirus, especially those who are still waiting for ticket refunds.
Austrian Airlines is busy processing refunds
When speaking about the current situation and the challenging working environment, Austrian Airlines CCO Andreas Otto explained the Vienna-based airlines refund predicament by saying,
“The global coronavirus pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to the aviation sector. Our colleagues in the Service Center are working full steam to process all inquiries and applications. At present millions of euros in refunds are being carried out each week, corresponding to several thousand tickets. Until now, in this way, 40 percent of all refund requests have already been processed.”
According to the statement, all outstanding refund applications that have been submitted so far will be processed over the coming eight weeks.
“We are well aware of the fact that the current situation is not satisfactory for our passengers. That is why we want to apologize for this. Every passenger who applied for a refund will get his or her money back,” ensured CCO and Executive Board member Otto.
Austrian asks customers not to call about refunds
Austrian Airlines asks customers who have submitted a request to have their tickets refunded to please not call the airline again regarding the reimbursement of tickets. The reason for this is to help keep the phone lines open for passengers looking to travel in the near future.
The statement says that customers whose flights were canceled and who do not want to take advantage of rebooking options can ask for a full refund using the online form on the Austrian Airlines website.
Passengers who had tickets for flights before June 30, 2020, for trips up until April 30, 2021, can have their tickets held in abeyance until January 31, 2021. Rebooked journeys can be scheduled to take place until the end of 2021. For more information on the rebooking process, please visit the Austrian Airlines website.
Two-thirds of travel agency tickets have been reimbursed
Regarding tickets issued by travel agencies, CCO Andreas Otto said.
“We have increased all available capacities to a maximum level. In the meantime, travel agencies have already been reimbursed for about two-thirds of all their bookings.”
In other Austrian Airline news, the European Commission has approved a 150 million euro ($170) million) loan to help the airline recover from losses sustained during the coronavirus medical emergency.
Are you waiting for a refund from Austrian Airlines? If so, please tell us about your experience in the comments.
