COVID-19 Flight Update
MESSAGE FROM OUR CCO
We, at Fly Sharp, would like to advise all customers that we are removing the administration fee for ALL flights cancelled due to COVID-19, including those who have already received their refund.
Jaymin Borkhatria, Chief Commercial Officer at Fly Sharp comments:
"We recognise these are extremely difficult times for our customers, and we at Fly Sharp would like to support them as best we can. We have taken the decision to remove the administration fee, in order to help our customers through these turbulent times and provide them with as much support as we can offer.
"Whilst this is of significant financial loss to our business, our customers are of paramount importance to us. As customers are facing huge financial difficulties, we hope that removing the fee will go in some way to ease their personal burdens.
In order to handle the extreme volume of customer queries, we have increased our refund processing team from 15 to 300, enabling us to process up to 2,000 refunds per day. Customers, including those who have already received their refund, can call our friendly and helpful customer service advisors on 02087050130 or email info@flysharp.com
FLIGHT-ONLY (SINGLE COMPONENT) BOOKINGS
These are of course unprecedented times, with millions of individuals being affected and unable to travel because of their flight cancellation.
Responsibility for refunding flight cancellations lies with the airline, but Fly Sharp is committed to helping you at this difficult time. We have therefore set out below an overview of the options which are being offered by the airlines to their customers, which we can help secure for you.
Airlines are taking two different approaches to COVID-19 related flight cancellations. Some airlines are choosing to issue customers with a credit note only, without the option for a refund. Others are offering customers a refund.
Please understand that we have no control over these flight cancellation policies. They are set by the airlines and, as a booking agent, we have no control over them. Nevertheless, we are working tirelessly in liaising between our customers and the airlines in relation to these options. If you would like us to do so for you, here are the options available to you:
- Credit notes: Some airlines are currently only offering credit notes for the full amount of cancelled flights. In these cases, we will endeavour to provide you with a credit note within a week of cancellation.
- Refunds: Some airlines are offering a refund. In this case, we will make the refund request with the airline and pass on the refund to you within 14 days of us having received it from the airline. Please note that we have no control over how long the airline takes to process your refund request.
Some airlines have now introduced a manual process for requesting refunds instead of their usual process. This requires us to complete an application form to request your refund, which significantly adds to the time and cost of requesting a refund on your behalf. We have increased the size of our refunds team to complete these application forms, which we typically lodge with the airline within 7 days of your refund request. However, some airlines are anticipating taking 4 to 6 months to process your refund following receipt of the application form. This timeframe is not something which we control.
As we incur a cost in processing refunds on behalf of our customers, clause 21 of our terms and conditions allow us to charge a per ticket administration fee to cover these costs. However, we recognise these are extremely difficult times for our customers, and we at Fly Sharp would like to support you as best we can. We have therefore taken the decision to remove the administration fee, in order to help our customers through these turbulent times and to provide them with as much support as we can offer.
Please refer to Question (3) in FAQ Section for more details
We'll work to ensure you receive your refund or credit note as quickly as possible. To do so, we've increased our staffing levels to ensure we're delivering the best and quickest customer service to you and our call centre currently has an average call waiting time of no more than two minutes.
We appreciate this is a difficult time and that the trip you were no doubt excited to take has now been cancelled. While we are dealing with a large number of requests, we'll do our best to come back to you as soon as possible and thank you for your understanding.
This statement has been issued to explain how airlines are currently dealing with flight cancellations and how we may help you to secure those options. This statement does not change our terms and conditions, which remain the same as at the time of your booking.
Covid-19 FAQ
For customers whose travel plans have been affected by COVID-19, please read the below Q&A which we hope will help you during this difficult time. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. The below will be updated on a regular basis.

Please call us on 02087050130. Our phone lines are open from 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. Our average call wait time is less than 2 minutes. We are here to help and assist you in any way we can.
You can also email our dedicated team at info@flysharp.com

Please understand that we do not decide upon the flight cancellation policy which applies to your ticket. These policies are set by the airlines and, as a booking agent, we have no control over them. Nevertheless, we are working tirelessly in liaising between our customers and the airlines in relation to the options made available to our customers by the airlines. If you would like us to do so for you, here are the options available to you:
Credit notes:Some airlines are currently only offering credit notes for the full amount of cancelled flights. In these cases, we will endeavour to provide you with a credit note within one week of cancellation.
Refunds: Some airlines are offering a refund. In this case, we will make the refund request with the airline and pass it on to you once we receive it. Please note that the airlines are taking a long time to process refunds and we explain in question 3 below the reasons for this. There will be no delay on our part - we will pass on the refund to you within 14 days of us having received it from the airline.
As we incur a cost in processing refunds on behalf of our customers, clause 21 of our terms and conditions allow us to charge a per ticket administration fee to cover these costs. However, we recognise these are extremely difficult times for our customers, and we at Fly Sharp would like to support you as best we can. We have therefore taken the decision to remove the administration fee, in order to help our customers through these turbulent times and to provide them with as much support as we can offer.

Ordinarily, when a customer asks us to process a refund with an airline, we are able to request this refund through the same reservation system which we used to make the booking with the airline. After we make the request, it is processed through that same system. The refunds are paid to us on a monthly basis, which we reconcile and check to make sure they are correct before we pay this to the same card used by the customer to pay for the flight. This process typically takes around 4-6 weeks in total.
Following the grounding of flights because of COVID-19, a large number of airlines have disabled travel agents access to the standard refund system described above. In its place, these airlines have imposed a manual process which we must complete to request a refund on your behalf. This requires us to complete an application form for each and every passenger on a booking, with specific information on the passenger, the fare and the other charges included in the original booking. This is a complex, time consuming and labour-intensive process for us to complete, particularly given the unprecedented number of refund requests we are currently being asked to process. We have therefore increased the size of our refunds team to complete these application forms, which we can typically lodge with the airline within 7 days of your refund request.
Once the application form is sent to the airline, it is entirely beyond our control whether the airline approves that refund request. We also have no control over how long the airline takes to consider the application. Some airlines have publicly stated that it may take 4 to 6 months to process these refunds.
If application is not approved, or we need to find out when it will be dealt with, we have to follow up with the airline in the same way. This is a manual process which requires our refunds team to contact the specific airline. Any other query on the refund application has to be made in a similar way.
Please rest assured, we will pass on to you any refund we receive from the airline within 14 days of having received it. However, for the reasons we have described above, the airlines have now made the process much more time consuming than that which existed before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please bear with us whilst we do our best to secure your refund from the airline.

We are a booking agent, which means that we are responsible for arranging your booking with the airline and for issuing the flight ticket to you. Your contract for the provision of the flight is with the airline, which means that responsibility for a cancellations lies with the airline.
Having said that, we are working hard to help our customers understand the options which are being made available to them by the airlines. We are also helping our customers to select their options and to communicate those choices to the airline. We would be happy to do so for you.

We incur a cost in processing refunds on behalf of our customers. Clause 21 of our terms and conditions therefore allow us to charge a per ticket administration fee to cover these costs. However, we recognise these are extremely difficult times for our customers, and we at Fly Sharp would like to support you as best we can. We have therefore taken the decision to remove the administration fee, in order to help our customers through these turbulent times and to provide them with as much support as we can offer. Whilst this is of significant financial loss to our business, our customers are of paramount importance to us. As customers are facing huge financial difficulties, we hope that removing the fee will go in some way to ease their personal burdens.

Your legal rights in relation to the cancelled flight are set out in your contract with the airline, which you can find on your airline's website. You may also have legal rights against the airline under EU Regulation 261 (see question 14).

You can call us anytime between 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. We can advise you of your manual refund application document number which is linked to your original e-ticket, if you wish you can contact the airline and confirm its progress. Again, please note that we have no control over how long the airline takes to process your refund request.

You can contact us, or you can visit the airline's website for UK passengers.

Yes, if this option is covered in the airline policy. For the majority of airlines it is, but applicable fare differences will apply. Please check your airline's rebooking policy.

The date change fees normally imposed by airlines are waived in the majority of cases during this period. In most cases, this allows one date change only. If the fare is higher on the selected day of departure, then the difference in fare may have to be collected with some airlines. Please check your airline's rebooking policy.

The ticket or credit note will only be able to be used in the original passenger's name.

As long as the airline you have booked with is offering refunds within their policy, then yes you can. Some airlines may not initially be offering refunds but may offer cash refunds at a later date. If you would like a refund instead of a credit note, please contact us.

In circumstances like this, there is often mention of EU Regulation 261. This applies to all flights departing the EU/UK, as well as any flight arriving at an EU/UK airport which is operated by an EU/UK airline. In the event of a cancellation, the Regulation gives passengers the right to claim a cash refund directly from the airline within 7 days, even if the passenger purchased the flight from a travel agent such as Fly Sharp.
As Fly Sharp is not an airline, it is not subject to EU Regulation 261. Our only role as an agent is to arrange the booking between you, our customer, and the airline. However, we value our customers and we are working hard to help our customers obtain cash refunds from the airline and to process such request on their behalf.

Where we have organised a package holiday for you, we are responsible to you if we have had to cancel it because of COVID-19. We are therefore offering our customers the options of rebooking their holiday or a full refund. We will refund you even if we have not yet received a refund from the airline or other supplier. Please see our separate statement for package holidays for more information.
We appreciate this is a difficult time and that the trip you were no doubt excited to take has now been cancelled. While we are dealing with a large number of requests, we'll do our best to come back to you as soon as possible and thank you for your understanding.
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For links to the Airline policy pages please click on the links below:
- Aeroflot (SU)
- Aeromexico (AM)
- Air astana (KC)
- AIR CANADA (AC)
- Air France (AF)
- Air India (AI)
- AIR MAURITIUS (MK)
- AIR TRANSAT (TS)
- Alaska Airlines (AS)
- Alitalia Airlines (AZ)
- American Airlines (AA)
- AUSTRIAN AIRLINES (OS)
- AVIANCA (AV)
- British Airways (BA)
- Brussels Airlines (SN)
- Cathay Pacific (CX)
- China Airlines (CI)
- China Southern Airlines (CZ)
- Delta Airlines (DL)
- Egypt Air (MS)
- El Al Israel Airlines (LY)
- Emirates (EK)
- ETHIOPIAN (ET)
- ETIHAD Airways (EY)
- ETIHAD Airways (EY - ROW)
- Gulf Air (GF)
- Iberia Airlines (IB)
- INTERJET (4O)
- Kenya Airways (KQ)
- KLM Airlines (KL)
- Korean Air (KE)
- Latam Airlines (LA)
- Lufthansa (LH)
- Malaysian Airlines (MH)
- Middle East Airlines (ME)
- OmanAir (WY)
- Philippine Airlines (PR)
- Qatar Airways (QR)
- Royal Brunei (BI)
- Royal Jordanian (RJ)
- SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK)
- Singapore Airlines (SQ)
- South African Airways (SA)
- Srilankan Airlines (UL)
- Swiss International AIRLINES (LX)
- Thai Airways (TG)
- Turkish Airlines (TK)
- United Airlines (UA)
- Vietnam Airlines (VN)
- Virgin Atlantic (VS)
- WESTJET (WS)
Why book with FlySharp?
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Flysharp © Copyright 2021. All rights reserved Many of the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. But ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed on this website. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. If you have booked a flight only where the ticket is not issued immediately, your flight will be protected under our ATOL. Please see our booking conditions for information, or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to www.caa.co.uk/ATOLCertificate Book with Confidence. We are a Member of ABTA which means you have the benefit of ABTA's assistance and Code of Conduct. We provide financial protection for your money when you buy a package holiday. If you buy other travel arrangements such as accommodation only this protection doesn't apply.