Airline changed dates in August

Hello, long term lurker and now first-time poster. Really enjoyed reading the posts on this forum over many years but now I am need of some advice.

I have booked a non-refundable return flight to SFO in Z for mid-August from LHR and received from the travel agent this morning an email advising of a change of day for both outward and return flights (delayed by 24 hours). The TA (Expedia) are giving me the option of accepting the change or to cancel the flight. Those changed dates don’t suit; I have also looked at dummy bookings for LHR to SFO and don’t not appear to be any direct flights (on either VS19 or VS41) on the suggested date – or any day in mid- August.

Does anyone know if I cancel the flight because of the changed dates will I get my full fare back and any estimate of how long it would take to be refunded - is a TA likely to be quicker than VS directly? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

Hi and welcome! It’s good to see you here.

Ok: first the good news - a cancellation by the airline entitles you to a full cash refund if you’d prefer not to travel on another flight.

But - unfortunately you’ll have to deal with Expedia to claim it, and VS are currently being extremely slow to pay out: think months rather than days or weeks.

Also, and I don’t know whether Expedia are guilty of this or not, but some OTAs knock an admin fee off the refund on the grounds that even though your flights have been cancelled, they’ve still incurred costs. So check your T&Cs.

Good luck!

looks like VS has cancelled all lhr/sfo/lhr direct flights through september 1.

The latest update this afternoon is that SFO should start in early August. LAX on 21st July. See the schedules post...

Just to reiterate that yes you can have a full refund but equally you need to go via expedia for it. How long it takes depends on if expedia had paid it over to VE or not. If expedia has the money then it should be relativly speedy but will take a lot longer if VS has it and they need to refund expedia before they can refund you.

One of the pains of using a TA in circumstances like these.

The latest update this afternoon is that SFO should start in early August. LAX on 21st July. See the schedules post...

yes but as of today VS has cancelled all sfo/lhr/sfo flights on many dates through September 2nd.

VS19/VS20 only flying tues, thur and sat until sep 2 (subject to future schedule reductions)

VS41/VS42 not scheduled through end of september(didn't look any further out)

All - just to complete this post with the outcome

Airline cancelled both outward and return flights on 20th June
Contacted OTA (expedia) to advise revised dates not suitable and to cancel flight on 22nd June
OTA advised that full refund was processed on 12th July and should appear soon
Full refund into my a/c today 16th July

All credit to Expedia for sorting it out. Thanks to all who posted here - useful advice and observations.