UPDATE: This article was updated on June 14, 11h45. Para 2 has been inserted, and para 3 updated.
South Africa’s banks have advised their clients who hold bookings on BA Comair or kulula flights (flights that have not flown due to Comair’s initial suspension of all flights followed by its announcement of an application for liquidation last week), that lodging a dispute and applying for a charge-back would be the best course of action as long as the ticket was paid by card.
Update: However, Asata CEO, Otto deVries, has warned agents that it is imperative in the case of BA Comair bookings made on the GDS, that agents seek refunds from British Airways in the normal way by using the normal British Airways refund application process for travel agents. He said it is important that agents don't apply for chargebacks from banks for these BA Comair GDS bookings, as that would attract an ADM.
For bookings for kulula.com made via the airline's website, a chargebacks process should be started. These applications can only be processed once the liquidation order is granted – Finance news website Moneyweb warns that this could be a lengthy process. Agents who have kulula bookings made via Hahn Air should email service@hahnair.com. These date back to when kulula was bookable via Hahn Air (prior to March this year).
Discovery Bank clients’ bookings of discounted flights, done via its website would have already have been refunded, according to the bank. But that was strictly Discovery Bank clients, not all Vitality members with Vitality bookings made via the kulula.com website. Discovery Bank has encouraged its members to make new discounted bookings with FlySafair, Lift and Airlink on the Vitality site, via the Discovery Bank website.
According to Moneyweb, FNB and RMB clients who booked Comair flights on the e-bucks travel booking platform will be assisted in a refund process by lodging a dispute through the Secure Chat feature on those banks’ apps. But FNB says it cannot help customers who paid for tickets using third-party instant EFT services on the direct websites of BA Comair or kulula.com, as instant EFTs cannot be reversed by the bank.
ABSA says its customers who booked using their cards should first engage with the airline and only then lodge a dispute with the bank in the hope of getting a chargeback. “As with all chargeback requests, each matter is evaluated in line with the Visa and MasterCard chargeback rules,” says ABSA.
Nedbank also advises clients who used a payment card to buy tickets on the two carriers to apply for a chargeback.
Standard Bank too says clients should apply for a chargeback. It added that in the case of a liquidation, the client has the right to an immediate chargeback on the date of the granting of the liquidation order.
Meanwhile, legal adviser to the UK-based industry body, the African Travel and Tourism Association’s (ATTA), Alan Bowen, has sent out a notice to its members with some guidance on how they might proceed in the light of Comair’s voluntary liquidation application.
One piece of advice was that members should claim from their insurance provider. But he sounded a warning that Comair’s two years in business rescue might prove a hazard to operators’ supplier failure insurance claims, rendering the cover invalid.
“BA, under whose franchise Comair flew, has issued guidance notes for all tickets issued under their 125 plate but for those who booked directly with Comair, the outlook is far less certain,” he said.
“Any agents holding bookings become creditors of the airline in the forthcoming liquidation but the prospects of any recovery are slim. If the flights were sold as part of a package, UK operators would be expected to replace the flights with alternatives at no extra cost to the customer. Regulation 14 of the 2018 Package Travel Regulations requires the replacement of any service that is no longer available with a suitable alternative or, if none is available at all, to cancel and offer a full refund, a much worse outcome.”
However, said Bowen, EU261 (under which passengers may claim up to €600 (R10 000) compensation for cancelled, delayed or disrupted flights) is not applicable at all in this case. “Comair was a non-EU airline operating non-EU routes despite being marketed as a BA franchise.”
