In the time of Covid when the world was off its axis and not rotating, airlines issued millions upon millions of dollars in voucher credits to tens of thousands of travelers.

Yes, a lot of us complained that we should have been refunded, but the airlines fought that like crazy. After all, a credit means you have to fly their airline at some point or forfeit the credit. Yes, politicians talked about it a lot and promised (or did) hold “hearings.” That’s the cod word for: We understand a lot of you are mad and this makes it look like we’re going to do something. We’re not really going to be able to – but it’ll get you to think we’re on it…

These IOUs come with a voucher number and, with most airlines, a PIN number to be able to use them. One of mine was from Air Canada. My bad in that I had forgotten the voucher email for the $244 was separate from an email with the PIN number. Thus, I printed the voucher, checked the amount and then (and now) deleted the junk emails from them. Well, it turns out that I deleted the separate PIN number email.

On October 20th, 2022 I started my part-time work contacting Air Canada to get the PIN replaced. This week (8 1/2 months later) I finally received a replacement.

Almost NINE months of written attempts (to have all the backup documents)! It makes me wonder how many thousands of people with the missing voucher and/or PIN, or an incorrect amount from dozens of airlines don’t spend the (about 30) hours to get their credit in a usable format.

And THAT is why airlines fought like crazy to avoid actual refunds on our credit cards….