Why So Long For Refund Of Taxes On Award Ticket?

[Tiki]

It's been over two weeks since I cancelled our Krisflyer award tickets (27 Oct) BNE-SIN-MNL and the refund for the taxes and fees still hasn't hit my Amex card. Both the booking and the cancellation were done online without calling any SQ offices. I paid for both tickets on my Amex via the website and it showed up on my card within a couple days.

The day after I cancelled them, I got a confirmation email from SQ for each ticket. I will copy it here and remove personal details.

Dear Tiki


Your refund has been processed successfully and the refund amount will be credited back to you.

REFUND ADVICE REFERENCE: QZHxxxxxx


Document number(s): Refunded Segment(s)
----------------------------------------------------------

618xxxxxxxxxx BNE-SIN-MNL


Please quote this number when making enquiries.


Refund Details:
---------------
Refundable Fare: AUD 224.23
(+) Airport/Government Taxes: AUD 224.23
(-) Admin Fees: AUD 0.00
(-) Other Charges: AUD 0.00
-------------------------------------------------
Refund Amount AUD 224.23
-------------------------------------------------
*Please note that refund amount is subject to change, if it involves any currency
conversion (dependant on bank's exchange rate and applicable charges).

For credit card refund:
Instructions would be sent to the bank within 7 working days. Time taken for the
amount to be credited into your account is dependant on the bank's processing time.

For cheque refund:
Cheque for above amount would be sent to you within 14 working days.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

If you need assistance with your booking, please quote the above
document number(s) when you contact our local Singapore Airlines
office at these numbers.
http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_U...fo/contact.jsp

Thank you for booking with Singapore Airlines.
We look forward to having you onboard in the near future.

Sincerely,
Singapore Airlines

This is a computer-generated email message. Do not respond at this e-mail address.
You may not use, reproduce, or transfer this message or its contents into any medium
without the written permission of (c) Singapore Airlines Limited, 2006.

SIA REGISTRATION NUMBER: 197200078R

I called SQ and they said it was processed on 27 Oct and I should call Amex. I called Amex and they said they can't see any pending refunds to my account and I should call SQ. So where is my money?

How can they process a charge on my AMEX within 2 days and a refund takes over 17 days?

Is it normal to take this long or could there be a computer glitch somewhere? Does it automatically go back to the same credit card used for the online payment or does a human key in the credit card number for the refund leaving a question of data entry error? Could MY money have gone to someone else's credit card?

[TerryK]

......Is it normal to take this long or could there be a computer glitch somewhere? Does it automatically go back to the same credit card used for the online payment or does a human key in the credit card number for the refund leaving a question of data entry error? Could MY money have gone to someone else's credit card?

It is normal. Once it took me almost six months to receive refund for a BA ticket.

[Pinkfloyd]

SQ normally take up to 4 weeks for the refund to go through...

[Tiki]

The refund posted sometime this morning. A lucky Friday the 13th for me! 18 days from start to finish. It's always the way for me, I go rant on a forum (usually on FT) and the next day whatever I am waiting for posts! They like to make a liar out of me!

I really would have preferred to keep my SQ booking, I had no idea about the law in the Philippines they will only issue tickets there. But I couldn't use SQ all the way to TFN because they only fly as far as BCN and I would have had to buy a separate ticket.

I kept my SQ booking BCN-SIN-BNE for the last part of the trip.