Which? Magazine investigating cancellation of flights after missed first leg
Dec 10, 2018, 5:16 am
#16
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And it's worth remembering that in the Lufthansa case, the German court accepted as legitimate the commercial / revenue protection reasons for the normal rules.
Dec 10, 2018, 6:12 am
#17
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It's an agreed-upon contract by consenting parties. If you don't agree with Ts&Cs, don't book. If you miss a flight for reasons beyond your control, take out insurance to cover additional expenses.
Dec 10, 2018, 6:12 am
#18
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Lufthansa does not cancel the tickets per se in case of a missed first segment, they are obligated to honor the booking, but they have a right under the contract to recalculate the fare based on the new itinerary. They will not transport you, though, if you do not cough up the fare difference before your flight.
(As an aside, they are even permitted to recalculate the fare in case of a missing last leg. They just do not have any immediate leverage to collect the fare difference, short of going to court afterwards, which I have not heard happen, yet)
(As an aside, they are even permitted to recalculate the fare in case of a missing last leg. They just do not have any immediate leverage to collect the fare difference, short of going to court afterwards, which I have not heard happen, yet)
Dec 10, 2018, 6:15 am
#19
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Correct. But there are limits to what two parties can validly agree on, at least if the customer falls under certain consumer protection rules.
Dec 10, 2018, 6:20 am
#20
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Which? is campaigning against airlines that cancel return portions of the ticket when the outbound was skipped due to circumstances outside the passenger's control: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/12...-show-clauses/, however BA's Ts & Cs already allow for protection on these grounds as quoted in the OP.
Dec 10, 2018, 6:31 am
#21
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All that will happen if anything from this is that airlines will put a tick-box on the booking page saying "I agree that I have to use all segments in the order booked otherwise they will be cancelled", just like Lufthansa have done since the German courts ruled the same way.
In the case, the court had found that cancelling subsequent flight segments when a segment is not flown constituted an unfair term. The court did recognise, however, that the airline had a legitimate interest in protecting its fare structure. Thus repricing in the light of the itinerary flown might be OK but automatic cancelling of subsequent segments would not be.
The hypothesis of a flight being missed due to events outside the passenger's control adds another twist to the issue and there is an arguable case that repricing in that situation would also be unfair.
Dec 10, 2018, 7:16 am
#23
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Do bear in mind that most of the pax are not FT expert flyers, and the vast majority won't have read the ToC.
Dec 10, 2018, 7:28 am
#25
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This is not what LH do and this would not have satisfied the ruling in the Court in the case concerned. What LH booking conditions say is that, if you skip a flight, the fare will be recalculated on the basis of the flights actually flown.
In the case, the court had found that cancelling subsequent flight segments when a segment is not flown constituted an unfair term. The court did recognise, however, that the airline had a legitimate interest in protecting its fare structure. Thus repricing in the light of the itinerary flown might be OK but automatic cancelling of subsequent segments would not be.
The hypothesis of a flight being missed due to events outside the passenger's control adds another twist to the issue and there is an arguable case that repricing in that situation would also be unfair.
In the case, the court had found that cancelling subsequent flight segments when a segment is not flown constituted an unfair term. The court did recognise, however, that the airline had a legitimate interest in protecting its fare structure. Thus repricing in the light of the itinerary flown might be OK but automatic cancelling of subsequent segments would not be.
The hypothesis of a flight being missed due to events outside the passenger's control adds another twist to the issue and there is an arguable case that repricing in that situation would also be unfair.
Dec 10, 2018, 8:03 am
#26
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One example quoted from time to time is, unsurprisingly, also in the field of transport: rail fares. There are more teeth in the railways legislation, though.
Dec 10, 2018, 8:04 am
#27
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What though is interesting is if the argument about repricing is judged to be not legal. I am struggling to think of another service where not taking the entire service requires an upwardly adjusted price. It could well be argued that this city-specific price discrimination is anti competitive.
Dec 10, 2018, 8:11 am
#28
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What though is interesting is if the argument about repricing is judged to be not legal. I am struggling to think of another service where not taking the entire service requires an upwardly adjusted price. It could well be argued that this city-specific price discrimination is anti competitive.
It's not city-specific price disrimination, but pricing for a different prodcut (nonstop vs connecting). It is not anti-competitive, but, to the contrary, adds to competition. Because BA is able to offer AMS-LHR-SIN at a low price, KL is forced to cap its fare for a direct AMS-SIN. Overall, prices will be significantly cheaper. If you force BA to offer ex-EU connecting flights at a price that is not cheaper than the direct flight from LON then prices would go up everywhere, because "home" airlines would have a quasi monopoly.
For that reason it is important that airlines are able to protect their ability to offer different fares from different markets.
By the way, the fare recalculation language is already in the BA terms:
3c2) Your ticket is no longer valid if you do not use all the coupons in the sequence provided in the ticket. Where youchange your travel without our agreement and the price for the resulting transportation you intend to undertake is greater than the price originally paid, you will be requested to pay the difference in price. Failure to pay the price applicable toyour revised transportation will result in refusal of carriage.
3c3) If you want to change all or part of your transportation, you must contact us beforehand. We will work out the revised fare for your changed transportation. You will have the option of either accepting the revised fare or maintainingyour original transportation.
Last edited by creflo; Dec 10, 2018 at 8:22 am
Dec 10, 2018, 8:22 am
#29
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They were not sued for this today. The Dutch consumer association challenged them and said they'd press charges. There's also no indication that this is illegal - that's for a judge to rule.
Dec 10, 2018, 8:24 am
#30
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I can't quite see how. There is no meaningful competition between PAR-NYC (whether direct or indirect via LON) and LON-NYC (whether direct or indirect via PAR). These are different products with different markets: there is competition between CDG-(LHR)-JFK and CDG-JFK direct and there is some competition between LHR-(CDG)-JFK and LHR-JFK direct but there is no competition between CDG-(LHR)-JFK and LHR-JFK nor between LHR-(CDG)-JFK and CDG-JFK