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In Fine Print, Airlines Make It Harder to Fight for Passenger Rights
As air travel reopens and flight bookings begin to creep up, AvGeeks — aviation geeks — and others may notice some new legalese in the fine print when they buy plane tickets. More and more carriers are adding clauses that require passengers to settle disputes with the airline in private arbitration, rather than in court, and bar passengers from starting or joining class-action lawsuits. In early April, American Airlines updated its contract of carriage, a standard industry document that… (www.yahoo.com) Más...Maybe not corrupt, but certainly greedy.
WestJet refused to refund me for an Easter trip to UK (YYZ-LGW-YYZ), offering a travel voucher only. I called Visa and disputed the charge for 'frustration of contract', got the money back from Visa within a week.
I'm pretty sure they have no power in whether or not people are allowed to file class action lawsuits.
Typically, contracts are binding, so if it is part of the contract, then people get stuck. It will be interesting to see what happens over time and if regulations step in or if an arbiter says, yes, the law says you are legally to get your money back, but you can not have it....
Absent action in the courts I doubt the airlines will honor even the extremely narrow conditions under which they are required to provide refunds. I had round-trip tickets to Hawaii via Delta for late April/May 2020, purchased late February (just before COVID measures commenced). When it became obvious my flights would not take place (Delta had suspended service), I began unwinding my travel bookings. Because my flights were booked through Costco, Delta wouldn't take my call directly. Costco's telephone lines were overwhelmed; on-line they used a form that only allowed a choice between accepting a partial refund or a voucher because *I* was cancelling my vacation (ha!). After finally getting through on Costco's telephone line, I was told on two separate occasions that I didn't understand the rules and that a refund wasn't "required" because Delta was offering a voucher. The voucher they offered had to be used by the end of December 2020 (highly unlikely). I responded by citing Delta's own contract of carriage Rule 22 (refund required for flight cancelled by airline), I was told (again) that I didn't understand the rules and that I was wrong. On my third call I asked to speak with a supervisor after getting the same initial responses as before, which yielded the explanation that Delta hadn't yet "canceled" the flight (just suspended service!), where upon I politely told the supervisor that I would call back again the day before the flight when it would obviously be canceled, thanked him for taking my call, and hung up the phone. About 2 minutes later my phone rang, with the supervisor on the line. He apologized for the inconvenience and agreed to refund the full cost of the flights. Whether the refund came from Costco or Delta I'll never know. The entire system was rigged to avoid the refund required by DOT rules and Delta's own "contract of carriage".
The fun, and more importantly, the dignity has been sucked out of the travel experience.