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Chinese students stuck in the US suspect airlines of cash grab as tickets advertised ‘for flights that will never take off’
- Many Chinese students in the US looking to return home amid Covid-19 are stuck in a loop of bookings, cancellations and battles to get refunds
- A United Airlines flight attendant says he has seen flights available for booking that were not included on flight schedules and had no crew assigned
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Shuo Fang is sitting nervously in his student accommodation in Davis in the US state of California, waiting to see if he will be able to board his flight to Shanghai, China, on May 26.
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The 22-year-old university student has bought several tickets in recent months in the scramble to flee the coronavirus pandemic in the US for the relative safety of home. Every one of those flights, bar the upcoming one – so far – has been cancelled, he says.
Like many other Chinese students in the US, Shuo has faced an uphill battle with airlines to get a refund on those fares.
“I have now been refunded for three flights, but only after waiting four to six weeks … and being left up in the air on the status of my refunds. The airline never until this day contacted me about the cancellations.”
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Studying statistics at the University of California, Davis, Shuo is one of many Chinese students in the US who have been stuck in a loop of bookings and flight cancellations.
Some have bought nine airline tickets or more, he says, and they feel that the withheld refunds are being used in a deliberate cash grab to keep airlines afloat. Some US carriers continue to sell tickets for routes that have been closed during April and May because of China’s travel bans and flight restrictions.
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