If your flight has been canceled by the airline, you are entitled to a refund for a trip that did not take place. However, you should remember that the refund only applies to services that you have not received. Therefore, the final refund amount paid by the airline may differ from the total amount paid for the booking. What exactly does a refund for a canceled flight include?
What does the amount of the refund include?
Most often, the amount of the refund includes:
- the cost of airline ticket(s) and airport fees,
- the cost of additional services provided by the airline, including, but not limited to, luggage, priority boarding, and seat reservation.
Please note that each airline has its own return policy, which means that the list of refundable items varies depending on with which airlines you have booked your flight. Each refund application is considered individually, at the sole discretion of the airline, regardless of whether your ticket was purchased via eSky or directly from the airline.
You should remember that by purchasing a ticket on eSky, you accept the airline's return policy and its conditions.
What is not included in the amount of the refund?
Usually, the refund amount does not include:
- service fee,
- Service Package,
- online check-in - if the flight was canceled, but the check-in had been performed,
- other additional services purchased on eSky that have been performed or for other reasons are not refundable (AirHelp +).
Additionally, airlines may not refund money for a flight booking modification, e.g. changing the date or destination as well as for changing passenger’s personal information.
Split refund
You can receive a refund for your flight ticket from the airline in separate payments. Sometimes airlines reimburse the amount having divided it for each passenger. In addition, airlines can thus refund bookings that also include additional travel services, such as purchased luggage, seat reservation, etc. Then the refund is in several payments, separately for the ticket itself and for other services purchased from the airline.
When can you receive a lower refund amount?
If your refund amount is lower than your total booking amount, this could mean that:
- your booking partly consists of services that have been performed and are not refundable,
- your booking includes additional airline’s services which are non-refundable in accordance with its policy and terms & conditions,
- your booking includes additional services, whose return is considered by the airline separately, therefore the funds will be returned in several payments,
- your booking consists of tickets for several passengers and the airline pays back the funds separately for each passenger,
- only part of your booking has been canceled (if there were separate tickets for the flights).
When will you receive a refund?
Both in what form and when you will get the refund depends solely on the airline, also if you purchased your tickets via eSky. Due to the unprecedented number of canceled flights, which results from the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent introduction of lockdown, the wait time for a response and airline's decision has significantly extended.
eSky customers are regularly updated on the change in the status of their inquiries, according to the information sent to us by the airlines.