South Africa’s biggest bank by assets, Standard Bank, has announced how it will be assisting its clients affected by Comair’s recent liquidation.
At the beginning of the month (June 2022), Comair, which operated British Airways in South Africa and kululua.com announced that all flights would be suspended as it did not have the funds necessary to continue to operate in the country.
The next development in the saga saw the airline nosedive, when it applied to change its status from business rescue to liquidation, which was granted on Tuesday, earlier this week, by the South Gauteng High Court.
Comair was placed in provisional liquidation.
In a statement, Standard Bank said on Friday, “Standard Bank is aware of the liquidation procedures relating to Comair and the disruption and distress that this has caused to many of its clients. Fortunately, Standard Bank Credit Card holders do have chargeback protection, and may qualify for a full refund.”
The bank further stated:
Clients who purchased their tickets with Standard Bank credit or debit cards directly from the affected airlines can lodge a dispute by sending an email to chargebacksanddisputes@standardbank.co.za who will assist with the refund process.
Standard Bank clients who purchased their tickets using UCount Rewards Points and have not received a refund from the airline or have not been accommodated on an alternative flight will be refunded.
Unfortunately, clients who paid for a flight with any other payment method such as EFT are advised to contact Kulula or British Airways directly as Standard Bank cannot facilitate a dispute for any of those transactions.
Meanwhile, last week, Discovery said it would be refunding Vitality members who are Discovery Bank clients for cancelled departing flights that were booked from June 1, 2022 onwards due to Comair stopping its operations.
Dinesh Govender, Vitality CEO, said: “We are sorry that Comair has suspended their flights and encourage those with flights in the next few days to consider making alternative arrangements. While the Comair refund and credit processes will apply, we are exploring additional potential support for all affected Vitality members and will advise on this in due course. In the interim, for any Vitality member who is a Discovery Bank client and has a discounted flight booked to depart between 1 and 7 June 2022, Discovery Bank will automatically refund the amount they spent on that flight into their Discovery Bank account.”
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