US Airways refundable fares?

[ruadisneyfan2]

Have any of you cancelled a refundable flight with US Airways? Last week, for some strange reason, the refundable fares for our return flight from FLL were much cheaper than the non-refundable fares, by around $50 pp. I figured why not since they're refundable. I could always cancel if I found something better.

So now the non-refundable priced dropped way down. To the tune of almost $400 savings.

So I quickly booked it and cancelled the refundable flights. It says it takes 6-8 weeks. Is this just estimating on the long end or does it truly take that long?

Any experience with this?

I'm hoping it's not true. I've never had any kind of refund for anything take that long to post to our cc account online. If this is really the case, our cc monthly billing cycle will likely close before the refund posts and I'll have to pay for both reservations before the refund comes through. Not the end of the world but just a pain that they move so slow on it.

Normally, I luv SWA but they haven't released our dates yet and I noticed that several Sundays leading up to our Sunday return don't show any non-stops at a reasonable time. Only 1 and that's at 9pm.
I don't think that's worth waiting for.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Generally unless your credit card company sits on it the credit posts much faster. At one point I had one card where they took 30 days once they got a credit to post it. (There might be a reason I don't have that card anymore)

 

[jsilvers]

So I quickly booked it and cancelled the refundable flights. It says it takes 6-8 weeks. Is this just estimating on the long end or does it truly take that long?

So far as the airline is concerned, it had better not take that long. DOT regulations require airlines to post refunds to your credit card within 7 business days. See, for example, http://www.dot.gov/sites/dot.dev/files/docs/eo_2013-8-27.pdf. But it's possible US Airways may be counting the time for the credit to actually show up on a card statement.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

USAirways.com has a page where you can check the status of a refund. That's why I got the impression they're the ones making it take so long, not the cc bank.

 

[DebbieB]

If the credit shows up after your statement posts, you can subtract it from your payment as long as the credit posts before the due date.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

If the credit shows up after your statement posts, you can subtract it from your payment as long as the credit posts before the due date.

I called the bank once before about a similar situation and was told if I don't pay the "full balance" amount listed on my statement, I would be charged interest. I even recall the man being somewhat rude to me with a "duh" sort of attitude.
Maybe I'll secure message them. Then I'll have it in writing.

 

[DebbieB]

I called the bank once before about a similar situation and was told if I don't pay the "full balance" amount listed on my statement, I would be charged interest. I even recall the man being somewhat rude to me with a "duh" sort of attitude.
Maybe I'll secure message them. Then I'll have it in writing.

In my experience, credits are treated the same as payments. I just looked at my Disney Chase Statement it reads:

Previous Balance
- Payments Credits
+ Purchases

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Here is the reply I got:

Dear xxxxx,

Thank you for contacting Chase about the charge on your
account.

To avoid paying interest charges, a payment for the
previous statement balance must be received by the due
date listed on your statement. If a partial payment is
made, you will be assessed interest charges on the unpaid
portion of the statement balance.

If the credit is not received by 09/28/2014, there will be
interest charged on your account.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the
Secure Message Center.

I'll just have to hope for the best but plan for the worst. Either way I'm still glad I checked. The one way return fares which I jumped on at $201 pp are now back up to $346. It's all good.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So for the fun of it I rechecked our refund status on USAirways.com.
Here's what it showed:

A $333.80 refund was issued to your Visa/MasterCard credit card ending in xxxx for this ticket on September 13, 2014. Please allow one to two billing cycles for this refund to appear on your credit card statement.

Usually within 10 business days any refunds show up on my account online. So maybe the original 6-8 week warning was for some slow banks or old school customers who still wait for their statement in the mail.

Looks like I was stressing over nothing.

Thanks everyone!