ITM Negotiates Changes To BA/Virgin Fuel Surcharge Refund Process

The United Kingdom & Ireland's Institute of Travel & Meetings announced today that it successfully negotiated important changes to the British Airways/Virgin Atlantic fuel surcharge refund process for travel managers.

Last month, EuroBTN revealed a litany of complaints from corporate clients about the way the two airlines were handling the refunds, including failure to supply data with refund checks and poor communications between the administrators and travel managers. After EuroBTN ran the story, 23 travel managers contacted the ITM to say they had experienced problems with the process, the most important being the lack of information to clarify which refund claims were being upheld.

The law firm Feinberg Rozen, which is the claims administrator, and Hausfeld, the law firm which originally secured the £73.5 million class action settlement, confirmed to the ITM yesterday that they will revise several of processes. From now on, the administrator will send reconciliation data to corporate clients in an Excel file within 24 hours of issuing a refund payment. The spreadsheet will include passenger names, ticket numbers, dates of travel, reimbursement values and, if applicable, reasons for denial of claims.

The administrator also has laid out clear communications procedures and undertaken not to send checks to corporate clients without including a named recipient on the address. Several travel managers complained that checks had been sent without a name to their corporate headquarters, leading to them getting lost. Checks will be addressed to the name on the claimant form. If there isn't one, the administrator will contact the company directly for clarification.

"This is a perfect example of how quickly we can influence industry issues which have resulted in direct contributions to members' bottom lines," said ITM industry affairs chairman Chris Reynolds. "The fund lawyers are to be commended for their response to the association's concerns."

BA and Virgin set aside a multimillion-pound sum for settlement last year, following class action suits for unlawfully conspiring to fix a fuel surcharge. The refunds, which are partial, are for surcharges on long-haul tickets issued between August 2004 and March 2006.