(Also posted on the Austrian Airline thread). Please do let me know of my legal options here.


My parents are presently stuck in New Delhi trying to get to JFK via Vienna. They had purchased the ticket through an agent, confirmed the reservations with the airline. They had to change the return date and the agent endorsed the ticket. They called the Airline reservation office in Delhi, and confirmed that their new itenirary was on records and was confirmed. However when the went to the airport (@10:00PM) for the 2:00 AM flight they were told that there name was not on the list of passengers. Worse, the flight was delayed and they were asked to wait till 6:00AM (a full eight hours) in the hope that they may get a seat if there were cancellations. However after 8 hours the gate agents, told them to contact the city office since they could not do much at the airport.
And now the icing on the cake: The city office tells them that they were never confirmed AND they cannot be provided with any seat since flights are full for the next month!! They were given the option of taking their money back; not a word of apology. I can overbooking but I just cannot undestand how an airline can simply forget about its legal obligations. Arent they supposed to put you on the next flight out?

My mother is an arthitic. There is no space to sit down at the checkin area of most airports and they had to spend 8 hours in the hope that they would get a seat.

I would appreciate if someone could point us out to our legal options. Also a warning to anybody using Austrian Airlines out of New Delhi: All Europe bound flights are heavily overbooked and the airline does not believe in rerouting passengers they bump.