Consumer group to AirAsia: Refund customers

A consumer watchdog called on AirAsia Philippines to honor its promise to its passengers to refund tickets for canceled flights during the Covid-19 pandemic.

United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC) president Rodolfo Javellana Jr. said in a statement issued on Wednesday that AirAsia's failure to refund the tickets of their clients whose flights were canceled has caused a lot of inconvenience to passengers who pay their fares.

“This is not just,” Javellana said.

AirAsia passengers have taken to social media to raise their frustration and disappointment with the airline's supposed failure to return the money they used to buy their plane tickets.

Several years of Facebook posts have exposed a troubling trend of delayed refunds, a lack of communication, and a perceived lapse in customer service, customers said.

For instance, Facebook user Tun Tair expressed annoyance with a refund request being labeled “in progress” for three years. Tun Tair recounted sending emails to the airline without receiving a response, and even contemplated engaging local travel agents to aid the refund procedure.

The low-cost carrier has yet to give information on unpaid refunds to a still undisclosed number of customers.

Last June, AirAsia announced to the public that it is targeting to resolve the unpaid refunds for canceled flights in the Philippines by October or November 2023.

An AirAsia A320. PHOTO BY AARON RONQUILLO

So far, as of April 2023, AirAsia said it has paid $2.1 billion or 98.4 percent of the refund claims it received since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

The Senate has an ongoing investigation into the recent spate of passenger complaints on flight delays and cancellations.

During a recent hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Tourism, it was revealed that AirAsia Philippines, as well as its competitors, are working on fleet expansion to minimize flight cancellations and other disruptions resulting from supply chain issues.