Since March, SkyUp Airlines has received about 286,000 requests for compensation for unused tickets due to the flight ban. Passengers have already received 13,186 euro and 1,882,158 hryvnia refunds. We’ll consider and fulfill all requests from passengers.
Three options for compensation to choose from
Passengers can use one of three available options to choose from:
- without additional surcharges, change the date of the canceled flight on the same route to a later date within the year after the date of canceled flight, except for holiday dates, if the canceled booking did not fall on the same dates of the current year;
- return the cost of an unused ticket in the form of a 120% promotional code of its cost. This promotional code can be used to pay for a new ticket or additional services on any regular SkyUp Airlines flight;
- receive a ticket refund according to the fare conditions. However, in most cases, the payback waiting period can take longer than usual.
To date, according to the statistics of our airline, 4,685 passengers have issued a promotional code for a total of 38,184,574 hryvnia.
Speed up proceeding requests with automation
From the beginning of quarantine, the support service has been working in an overloaded mode. During these months, up to 13,000 requests were received daily.
Since it was physically impossible to process them all within 3-5 days, as under normal conditions, the time for feedback continued to increase.
To address the situation, SkyUp is introducing an automated request processing. This means that after registering on the airline’s website in a personal online profile, the passenger will be able to independently choose the option for reimbursement that fits his or her needs, and passengers who have previously applied for a refund, if desired, can change their previous request status for a promotional code or date change if according to the previously submitted request, a refund has not yet been issued.
These functional options will be available approximately in three weeks.
All passengers whose flights were canceled due to quarantine or can be canceled due to the lack of permission from the countries of destination to enter Ukrainian citizens are entitled to a refund for unused tickets according to the fare. However, for the airline, request processing and payback period will take from three to six months.
Yevhen Khaynatsky, CEO of SkyUp Airlines, “The introduction of quarantine restrictions at the international level has had a significant impact on aviation in general, and SkyUp is no exception to this global air travel crisis. As for many airlines, we’re limited in carrying out operational activities during this period. Therefore, we have neither the opportunity nor the economic means to make all refunds immediately. We understand the desire of passengers to return their funds faster. We need to be patient now, because this process will take longer than usual. We will return the funds gradually.”
NB! Please take into account chosen fare conditions of an airline ticket when booking, since in case of cancellation of the trip (for example, passenger cancels for personal reasons), the change of the departure date or refund of the ticket price will be carried out in accordance with the fare conditions. May we remind you that Basic and Standard fares are more affordable, but have certain restrictions on changing the date or refunding a ticket, while Flex is more flexible. Read more about fares here.
In case of flight cancellation due to quarantine restrictions, the opportunity to receive a promotional code allows you to save a full amount of money spent and get a 20% bonus from the amount of an unused ticket, and the option to change trip to a later date allows you to save a a full amount of money spent.
The resumption of our international regular passenger traffic is scheduled for July 1
We plan to start international flights on July 1 with flights to Georgia and Albania, and from July 15 — to other countries stipulated by the schedule agreed before the introduction of quarantine, if the ban on entry to them is lifted according to preliminary agreements between the countries*.
We encourage you to be careful, because of the coronavirus pandemic, opening the sky does not mean lifting all travel restrictions. When planning a trip, before purchasing a ticket for SkyUp flights, we recommend that passengers familiarize themselves with the requirements for entering the destination country, with the rules for returning from a destination country to Ukraine, and also make sure that all the necessary permits for the trip are gathered. If a passenger purchases a ticket for a flight to a country and cannot fulfill the conditions of entry, an unused ticket will be refunded in accordance with the rules of the applicable fare, however it may take up to six months.
Stay tuned for upcoming flight announcements on skyup.aero.
______
*Schedule information is as of the date of this publication