Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Re: Credit Card Refunds from Airlines

Your question sorta fits the Administrative Law category, but you might get more answers if you re-asked it under Business Law or some other category.

I don't know the answer, but my educated guess is that there is a law requiring refunds to the original credit card account but none forbidding refunds either to a different account or by check. The airline is therefore expressing its internal policy on refunds and the LACK of a law requiring a refund rather than the EXISTENCE of a law forbidding a refund. A big difference.

This is, however, only a guess.

In the end, your right to a refund and the method by which it is made may depend not so much on general laws that you can read in a code somewhere as on the terms of the agreement (contract) under which you bought the ticket. When you buy a ticket you are entering into a contract. Somewhere the provisions of that contract are set forth. They probably say something about how refunds are made.

In the long run, there is all kinds of case law about restitution when contracts have to be breached due to unforseen circumstances, and some of this may support your claim for a refund if the airline hasn't contractually shut you off.

Keep working with the airline, perhaps at a higher level of command, to get your refund by one means or another. But be aware of the conditions imposed on your class of ticket.