irishguy28

I'm assuming that they did a check on all affected bookings, and if the contact details for several bookings were identical, decided not to send a specific email about the "duplicates". I know that the emails sent referred only to one specific booking, but the details contained in the email should have been a trigger for those with multiple bookings to check the others (if they didn't, as I did, assume that this meant that all bookings would be cancelled).

I'm just wondering on what grounds you are challenging this (other than disappointment at not having a very good offer honoured). I'm no expert, and I don't know if any law was broken, but I think you'd need to have some legal basis to state before you could hope to take this further. I'm sure that CSA can offer any number of pieces of supporting evidence that the fare loaded was a mistake, and that they would suffer severe economic loss if they were required to honour it on those terms. I don't know yet what an affected passenger could state to aid their case that the fare should be honoured.

Culture Guru

My first complaint is about the way CSA handled this. I got a generic email from some newsletter account at CSA, which didnt even have my name. If CSA will suffer severe economic loss, atleast acknlowedge the severity by handling it properly.
Secondly, if it was a mistake and they will suffer if they honor, then I expect customer service or reservations department to send me a propoer email, not some generic newsletter style email.
Finally, an eticket is a binding contract. If they dont want to honor it is upto them, but they cannot unilaterally cancel a contract. A better way would have been to call customer first, and give couple of options. Options could have been - get money back or pay at full rate. I didnt get any of these options, just an unilateral cancellation email. What is that?

If I would make a wrong booking, will CSA refund me my money if I cancel it at a later date?

flyingcrazy

exactly just wait till the next one, it seems CSA are not gonna give in so just move on

YuropFlyer

Some people apparently had their tickets moved fully on Etihad stock, even including the flight from AUH to Europe.. with Etihad ticket number, viewable on Etihads page, as fully booked... I doubt this is "move on" but rather trick it

irishguy28

Well, in this case, it was a fully flexible fare, so yes. But if it wasn't a fully-flexible fare, you would probably have to cite consumer protection law/contract law in order to make the cancellation and receive a refund, assuming that there is a law that would allow you to make such a claim.

I agree that CSA should have explained why they were, in their opinion, entitled to make unilateral changes to these tickets. But until someone can clearly show that what they did was illegal, there's not much point in complaining about it, or the manner in which they notified (or not) the affected customers.

irishguy28

I'd be worried that, when they come to check in, Etihad might demand extra payment, if they ever notice just how little money was received for those tickets.

honzeek_cz

That is, funny, indeed. Because I do believe that the directive applies to cancellation of flight, not cancellation of ticket. They are trying to play random cards without thinking anything through. But I guess it's an argument that will decrease amount of people demanding to fly on those tickets.

I am no expert on Amadeus etc, but obviously it must be possible to change status of flight in particluar booking without affecting status of the flight in the system?

hsk

April fools joke?

irishguy28

No, it was claimed long before April 1 that some people had their itineraries moved over to all-EY itineraries.

No valid explanation was given, so I've taken it (along with the claims that some people - or at least one Russian lady - have already flown these tickets) with a pinch of salt.

tangoll

Can you shed anymore light on how these people moved their tickets to Etihad stock?

I've now received a second cancellation email from CSA's general sales agent in Frankfurt (maybe because my booked ticket was BKK…FRA?), ie from

"Aviareps AG, GSA für Czech Airlines
Kaiserstraße 77
60329 Frankfurt
Tel: 0900-1-001083 (49 ct/Minute aus dem deutschen Festnetz, abweichende Mobilfunkpreise)
Fax: 069 - 770 673 028
email: [email protected]
Hotline für Passagiere: 00420 239 007 007"

But my booking is still showing up on the CSA website under checkmytrip.

YuropFlyer

It was posted in Vielfliegertreff Forum, including screenshots, from a user which seems to be legit. Of course you can always fake screenshots, but he did report he was moved on EY-Stock all the way a few days before he actually got confirmation from EY, and then subsequently could check his flights on the EY website. Again, I doubt it's fake..

zackery149

And some of us did book through Orbitz and are therefore interested in hearing others experience in getting refunds from Orbitz. And, the comments were in response to Carrotjuice's thread, not yours......dude....

I fully intend to 'move on' , agree with that completely, once I have my refund.

Henwurst

Exactly, I sent them a reply reminding them that it was not a cancelled flight, but an attempt to void a contract, and that they are still required to offer alternate arrangements.

honzeek_cz

I guess it's also a language issue ... I am trying to do the same in Czech (trying = no response so far), as their T&C state if something is unclear, Czech language supersedes other languages, so they probably need more time to answer my email

irishguy28

I'll admit that I've not looked at the thread on vielvliegertreff in a while now, due to the very low signal-to-noise ratio there.

Did this poster offer any explanation as to why this change was made?

In any case, I don't see why Etihad can't, at some point in the future, possibly as late as check-in, turn around and demand further payment in order to honour a ticket that they may not have been paid for at all. They certainly never filed such a fare for travel on these routes, so can make a very strong case that they have been underpaid by the prospective passenger, regardless of the length of time it took to discover the error, or the fact that the passenger believed that all the terms of the contract had been met.

I don't know if these tickets were booked via a third party, or via CSA, but I don't understand why an 064 ticket would suddenly get converted to an Etihad ticket. And if CSA was the party that sold the ticket, taking an issue (related to Etihad demanding extra payment to travel) up with them, after the fact, would not even be possible if CSA had gone to the wall by then!!!