Involuntary refund explains the epidemic situation.

For the online sales and service system of airlines, ticket selling and refund have always been two indispensable modules. However, compared with the ticketing system that has experienced numerous airline spikes and big promotions, the refund system has never been a bright moment like recently and has been tested by such a large flow.

Before discussing the refund business related to this epidemic, let's briefly talk about the routine business process of airline refund.

Take official website channel as an example. Generally speaking, when a passenger logs into official website, he/she chooses to refund his/her ticket, and chooses the reasons for the refund, such as voluntary refund and initiating a refund application. Then the system background will do a few things:

Cancel the seat;

The refund surface is to change the status of this ticket from available to refundable;

Waiting for refund review and refund, voluntary refund mainly checks whether the amount is correct, and involuntary refund mainly checks whether the involuntary conditions are met.

For voluntary refund, most airlines have been able to submit their own refund applications, and the system will automatically review and refund, which can greatly reduce the manual workload. For involuntary refund, some airlines may be able to automatically review some situations, and there is also an involuntary refund application that needs manual review.

If passengers buy tickets through agents or OTA, the usual principle of airlines is to refund tickets from the place where they bought them. Passengers want to find an agent to submit a refund application, and then the agent applies to the airline for a refund. The following procedures are basically the same as those written above, except that the agent applies through the agent's website, not official website.

There are a few points to note.

First, you can apply for air tickets, but you can cancel your seats, but the air tickets are not refundable. Because the ticket is valid for one year, I will not return it when I abdicate, that is to say, I will not fly this time and give my seat to someone else, but I will keep the ticket and fly or return it later. I think the agent knows this, but most passengers don't.

Second, there are two main reasons for refund, voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary means that passengers voluntarily apply for refund for their own reasons, usually deducting the refund fee. Involuntary is due to non-passengers' own reasons, such as airline reasons, flight delays, cancellations, natural and man-made disasters and other force majeure reasons, including medical retirement of passengers. For example, an earthquake is a natural disaster. For example, the pneumonia epidemic is both a natural disaster and a man-made disaster. I don't know. In short, it is the personal force majeure of the passengers. Involuntary If eligible, the air ticket fee will usually be fully refunded.