Airlines are withholding billions in refunds: WSJ

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that airlines are withholding billions of dollars in refunds as travelers continue to cancel their trips amid the coronavirus pandemic. Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus and Kristin Myers discuss.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Airlines are withholding billions-- that is billions with a B-- in refunds. So for more on that, we're joined now by Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus. Hey, Sibile.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: That's right. So getting a refund when airlines cancel flights continues to be a major headache for many Americans, in spite of the fact that the law is actually on their side. In fact, the Department of Transportation actually issued a warning to airlines, saying you must refund passengers the cash from their tickets if the airline cancels those flights.

In spite of all that, we're still seeing airlines trying to push vouchers on customers, not wanting to give back. And we're looking at the numbers, and we're talking about billions of dollars in refunds that airlines are refusing to give, or making it extremely difficult for Americans to get back. Now, we're also seeing this with international carriers also preferring not to give refunds and instead offering vouchers.

Now, the vouchers do have their own challenges for people, especially if you wanted the cash. You have a voucher instead. But also, there are restrictions in terms of the vouchers. Sometimes, airlines give consumers vouchers for 90 days, but that's hard to anticipate if you are planning much further ahead.

So we're just seeing a very complicated, confusing environment for many consumers who would rather get their cash back as they're trying to figure out where they want to go on vacation and book flights. And as we know, the holiday season is coming up pretty soon to.