Aer Lingus case number

Not receiving an email confirmation for a refund has been my experience as well ( across different vendors). I would check your credit card account periodically around the promised time frame of the refund.

I was supposed to fly Aer Lingus RT Seattle-Dublin, 5/4-5/23. I first called on on 4/22 for info because long before then, Aer Lingus stopped flying from or back to Seattle. I was told that I had to wait until I got an email cancelling the flight before I could apply for a refund.

When I'd received no cancellation email by 4/29 and I couldn't even get into the website to see what was happening, I called again.

I talked to someone named Caterina. She gave me a refund case number. She said nothing about getting a confirmation email.

She did say that it could take 2 months to get the refund back to my credit card. And that I should check back after 2 months if it hasn't happened yet.

Now that the EU is scheming on its airlines not being required to give refunds, but rather vouchers only, I'm not feeling very optimistic. Ireland is one of the countries in favor of this.

Here's a link to a recent forum discussion on that topic: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/12-eu-members-call-to-suspend-law-requiring-cash-refunds-for-cancelled-flights-replaced-by-vouchers#bottom

A voucher is not going to help me.

Hi. Thanks to the advice I read on this forum, I waited until all of my Aer Lingus flights from/to Boston (for May 22 and June 9) had been cancelled by the airline. Today I tried to request a refund by phone but their voicemail system said that their staff couldn’t process refund requests over the phone and to instead use their online refund request form. I submitted that form and quickly received an email acknowledging my refund request and telling me my case reference number.

An excerpt:
Aer Lingus is currently processing an unprecedented level of refund and voucher requests together with rebooking requests. We have expanded our teams and introduced new processes in an effort to speed up the processing time. We will review and process your request as quickly as possible.

If your flight is no longer operating, we will process a full refund. As noted on the Refund Request form you submitted, if your flight is still operating, we will be refunding per the rules of the fare purchased. ...

So I’m cautiously optimistic that Aer Lingus may have improved their refund request process in cases where they’ve canceled a customer’s reserved flights (I had purchased non refundable fares so I wasn’t sure if I could get a refund.) I would much prefer a refund instead of a voucher — even if some percentage additional value were to be added. Who knows when I’ll be able to travel internationally again and which airlines will still be operating at that point in time? Never mind which destination I might wish to choose in a year or two. We’ll see...

Thanks for reporting back. I'll be trying to call with my case number on Monday. I have never received anything in writing from them.

I wonder if their more positive response has anything to do with the recent DOT announcement?

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/new-dot-faq-on-airline-refunds-5-12

Update from Aer Lingus.

Today I talked to Marcie. She verified my id in a variety of ways after I gave her my case number.

She said that I didn't get an email because I called instead of using the online form. I pointed out that when I tried to do it online, the website wouldn't let me in at all because it was listing my flight as "unavailable status" which means the flight was canceled.

She also said that refunds are slower via the website than if you call. My calls have been answered promptly, by the way. Immediate whining, no waiting.

So I need to watch for a full refund to be posted to my CC by mid-June. Time will tell.

On a slightly different topic, I printed the USA DOT reference in the RS forum linked above. It does give the airlines some slack at this time:

"6. How quickly must airlines and ticket agents process refunds?

Airlines and ticket agents are required to make refunds promptly.
For airlines, prompt is defined as being within 7 business days if a passenger paid by credit card, and within 20 days if a passenger paid by cash or check. For ticket agents, prompt is not defined.
The Aviation Enforcement Officerecognizes that, given the significant volume of refund requests resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency, processing refunds may take longer than normal and will determine the timeliness of refund processing for ticket agents based on the totality of the circumstances, such as the volume of incoming refund requests and steps taken to address the increased volume.
Also, the Aviation Enforcement Office will use its enforcement discretion and not take action against airlines for not processing refunds within the required timeframes if, under the totality of the circumstances, they are making good faith efforts to provide refunds in a timely manner."

Well-padded velvet hammer? Maybe, but I'll be happy to get that refund.

On May 17, I had submitted an online request for a refund from Aer Lingus for their cancellation of the flights which I’d booked on their website. When I still hadn’t received my refund as of June 10, I called Aer Lingus, waited on hold for 15 minutes and then gave my refund case number to an employee who immediately processed my refunds. Just as she said, I saw the refunds (including for fees for seat assignments, etc.) about 48 hours later. Yay!

My Aer Lingus refund finally showed up on my credit card today. It took a 3rd phone call to get it resolved. (See my preceding posts above.)

What Patty told me when I called on Monday, June 15th, was that she was not usually able to process the refunds herself and that she normally had to pass them on to someone else. But that Monday was an exception.

It may have helped that she asked me if my email address was somehow connected to the University of Texas at Austin. When I verified that it was and that I was a Texas Ex, she said that her son had gone there. Hook 'em Horns!

Update: I called Aer Lingus, and gave the reference number given to me when I cancelled the 5/4 flight. The woman took the reference number and confirmed which credit card I used to pay for the tickets and told me it would be credited back within 24-48 hours and it was!!