Originally Posted by
Deltahater
If you recall, I never argued that you (one) have no chance of winning in court. I am simply saying that it is not clear cut, it is not a slam dunk and it is not a court case you will win in one hearing. Yes, many times airlines have lost in court against consumers. No, it is not a guaranteed win in this case with EY.
Re LX:
An IATA fare (RGN-YUL) was published at 1% of the (alleged) intended fare. LX was the plating carrier in most cases. After LX issued tickets and took the money, LX was alerted by a consumer of the situation. LX swiftly cancelled almost all tickets and refunded the money. DOT decided to interpret the regs as non-applicable as we were all flying through the USA to Canada, with connections or very short stopovers in the USA. DOT bowed out due to political pressures (assumption on my part).
The Canadians, however, have ordered LX to reinstate the tickets 2-3 times now and LX has appealed every time. 17 months and $200-400K in legal fees later, LX is still fighting everybody tooth and nail on this. Another decision will come next Wednesday.
So, to all who think that since DOT fines are more expensive than reinstating the tickets, an airline will be rational and honor the tickets, might want to think twice.
I hope that EY will honor the tickets, but I want to caution anybody to assume the DOT will fix it and it will be a done deal.
LX is a special case, they dug themselves into a hole and they think that digging to china is the best way out; they were now trying to appeal to the Canadian Supreme Court, which I doubt will hear their request.
The airlines knew about the devaluation of the currency, there were IATA memos advising airlines to fix it. LX decided to participate in YY fares and after 18 months and probably way more than 200-400k in legal fees, they continue to fight. Let’s hope that when they reinstate the fares (if the appeal fails), SQ, MH and the other airlines charge Swiss Full F. LX applied a scorched earth policy and the DoT was weak as hell, claiming that since it was under 24 hours in certain cases they didn’t get involved.
In this case, it’s a straightforward OW or RT to the US. Hard to argue against the regulations, I think the maximum fine is $27,000 per complaint or something like that… EY is running the numbers, they could cancel all and settle with the DoT after getting a massive fine, hopefully the DoT will show some “cojones” and stand up for consumers…