Help! My TAP Air Portugal ticket credit has expired — or has it?

Photo of author

By Christopher Elliott

TAP Air Portugal cancels Mary Dexter’s return flight from Lisbon to Boston during the pandemic. The airline issues a credit, but it expires. Can she get a refund?

Question

I’m trying to get a refund for a flight canceled by TAP Air Portugal during the pandemic. In March 2020, while I was in Lisbon, authorities declared a pandemic. On April 4, TAP Air Portugal stopped flying to the U.S.

I tried changing my flight, but TAP wouldn’t answer the phone. So I purchased new tickets to fly home. When I checked in for my flight back to the U.S., I spoke to a TAP agent at the airport, who promised I’d get a refund.

Instead, my online travel agency, Travelocity, gave me a flight credit. But now, the credit has expired, and TAP won’t respond to Travelocity or me regarding my refund. Also, my TAP account is locked.

The last I heard from TAP is that Travelocity issued our ticket and “has the ability to process our refund and has been provided with instructions on how to do so.” I need your help getting $1,881 refunded from either TAP or Travelocity — whichever company has the money. — Mary Dexter, Newton Center, Mass.

Answer

You should have never received a credit from TAP Air Portugal or Travelocity. Instead, they should have given you a complete refund after canceling your return flight. 

After the outbreak in 2020, TAP argued that the pandemic was an extraordinary circumstance and that it could only offer a flight credit for canceled tickets. But EU regulations require an airline to offer either your choice of a full refund or a credit for a canceled flight, no matter the reason for the cancellation. Eventually, authorities forced TAP to issue full refunds but the airline took its time. It’s nothing short of the biggest refund scandal in modern aviation.

But somewhere between TAP and Travelocity, your tickets remained in the system as an expiring credit. It’s highly unusual — though not unprecedented — for an online agency to be an accomplice to an airline that doesn’t want to return your money. So I thought something else might be going on.

Travel Leaders Group is transforming travel through its progressive approach toward each unique travel experience. Travel Leaders Group assists millions of travelers through its leisure, business and network travel operations under a variety of diversified divisions and brands, including All Aboard Travel, Andrew Harper Travel, Colletts Travel, Corporate Travel Services, CruCon Cruise Outlet, Cruise Specialists, Nexion, Protravel International, SinglesCruise.com, Travel Leaders Corporate, Travel Leaders Network and Tzell Travel Group, and its merger with ALTOUR. With more than 7,000 agency locations and 52,000 travel advisors, Travel Leaders Group ranks as one of the industry’s largest retail travel agency companies.

I publish company contacts for TAP Air Portugal and Travelocity on my advocacy site, Elliott.org. (Expedia owns Travelocity.) You could have sent a brief, polite email to one of them, asking them to review your refund request. I checked your paper trail, and it seemed everyone was cooperating with your refund request — until they weren’t. (Related: TAP Air Portugal rescheduled my flight — can I get a refund?)

What could be going on? I asked Travelocity. It turns out Travelocity wanted to refund your tickets, but it says it couldn’t. “When attempting to process, our agents learned the card on file is expired,” a representative told me. “Our customer service team sent an email requesting new card details in August but had not heard from Mary.”

It’s possible that Travelocity’s emails went to your spam folder. It’s always a good idea to check your spam folder every now and then, and whitelist emails from companies you trust. Also, if you’re expecting a refund and your card expires, let the company know your new credit card information. (Here’s how to get a refund on a nonrefundable airline ticket.)

You received a full refund of $1,881 from Travelocity.

Photo of author

Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter.

Related Posts