Batgung

Last month we booked and paid for tickets to the UK on Oasis to save money. We thought we'd lost all the money when we heard the airline went into liquidation.

Thanks to this thread over at Geoexpat I learned about credit card chargebacks, and there seems to be a good chance we'll get our money back. The short version is that if you buy something through your credit card, but the goods or service are not delivered to you, you can ask your bank for a chargeback. It is one of the benefits of paying via a credit card.

My Visa card is issued by Hang Seng Bank, so I went along to their head office building on Des Voeux Rd. I took a copy of my credit card statement showing the payment to Oasis, and a copy of the confirmation from the Oasis website confirming the booking and the amount.

If you need to do the same, don't go to the normal banking counters, instead take the escalator down one level to the basement, and say you have a question about your credit card. The credit card section is in the right-hand corner in front of you as you come down the escalator.

At the counter I explained I had booked tickets on Oasis, and wanted to make a chargeback. The gentleman there took copies of my two documents, filled out a form, and sent them off to the bank's card centre for processing. He mentioned "many people come here to report this problem". Yup.

He said I should get a call from them within a week, and that they will put my transaction on hold so I won't have to pay it yet. That was last Friday, 18th April, so we'll see how it turns out - fingers crossed!

MrB