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Turbulence hits request for refund from airline
The Observer
|September 21, 2025
My partner and I bought tickets through Booking.com to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with Shenzhen Airlines on 16 April.
On 4 April, I suffered a serious arm fracture and my doctor recommended not going away in case surgery was required. Following Booking.com’s explicit instructions on its website to “contact the airline directly” for changes and refunds, we called the airline.
The representative assured us we would receive a full refund. Importantly, he did not instruct us to formally cancel the flights but did say he would email specific instructions to apply for the refund. A few days later, we sent our medical documentation to the airline, followed by further medical documentation and chasing emails.
This story is from the September 21, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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