UK court ruling may lead to six years of refunds for cancelled returns on missed flights

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• HiDeHi says:

  28 Jun28 June 04:48

  Iberia were dumb for not settling this case. They must have been 100% confident of winning which seems unfounded given that morally at least it sounds like they were in the wrong.

  • HiDeHi says:

    28 Jun28 June 04:50

    Also won’t this mean that anyone who had deliberately abandoned an entire return ticket because say they couldn’t get the time off to take the holiday etc. can now reclaim the cost of a return leg that they wouldn’t have taken even if it hadn’t been cancelled once they missed their outward leg? Sounds messy.

    • Paul says:

      28 Jun28 June 08:05

      Yes that’s what I’m wondering

    • Gavin T says:

      28 Jun28 June 08:15

      Surely your claim isn’t for the original cost of the inbound flight, but for the new ticket you had to book to replace the flight the airline unreasonably cancelled?

      If you never travelled you wouldn’t have a loss to claim for.

      • pr99 says:

        28 Jun28 June 23:03

        In this case your claim would be for the airline refusing to carry you on the return leg you had paid for.

        If you had turned up and were carried or if the airline said they would carry you but you didn’t turn up then you wouldn’t have a claim.

• Stu R says:

  28 Jun28 June 04:59

  I guess that, where flights are priced individually, it’d be better to book them as two singles rather than a return? I’m afraid we always turn up at the airport hours before we need to, in order that we don’t end up in this situation …. hopefully!

  • Erico1875 says:

    28 Jun28 June 06:31

    Problem then is if the outbound is cancelled, you are stuck with the inbound

    • Frenske says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:09

      I hope this does not mean that BA and others does not allow to buy single tickets and not showing them. Pricing individually makes it easier to find better deals. I don’t agree with that the finding that because the pricing is individual for individual flights, it should be considered as 2 single flights. Pretty sure when the flight was searched the customer has chosen a RETURN flight as option and not ONE WAY.

      That said, air lines should not cancel the return flights one-sided especially since customer paid for the service. They could have contacted the customer and give him time up to 24h before the return flight to make a decision regarding the return flight. Other option perhaps give the customer a chance to recoup some of the costs of the return flight. BA is making a lot of money on missed flights.

• Chris says:

  28 Jun28 June 06:31

  On claims against cancelled flights…I am right that I’m unable to claim anything from American Airlines for a cancelled flight from Chicago to Manchester in 2013 ain’t i as the carrier has to be EU or the flight has to be in the EU?

  • Genghis says:

    28 Jun28 June 06:35

    Correct. EU carrier or flight departing the EU

  • Riaz says:

    28 Jun28 June 06:36

    If it’s to or from the EU, you’re covered.

    • Genghis says:

      28 Jun28 June 07:07

      Only on an EU airline

      • Genghis says:

        28 Jun28 June 07:12

        “throughout the European Union, and also to flights operated by European Union airlines, which includes British Airways. So all flights, from all airlines leaving the European Union, Norway and Switzerland are covered, as well as flights to the EU+Switzerland+Norway if provided by British Airways and European airlines.”
        http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1812051-2017-ba-compensation-thread-your-guide-regulation-261-2004-a.html

        • surfnode says:

          28 Jun28 June 09:14

          what about codeshares though, e.g. AA operated flight but BA number?

        • Genghis says:

          28 Jun28 June 10:22

          Operating carrier

    • Alan says:

      28 Jun28 June 07:59

      Nope, only on an EU airline.

• Cheshire Pete says:

  28 Jun28 June 06:38

  I’ve been in dispute with Iberia since our Easter break to Alicante where they delivered our bags over 24 hours late due to our Madrid connection being late(their fault). They turned down our receipts and awarded us €25 each(2 bags) and then their Madrid customer services ignore pretty much anything you say to them with an 18 day response for each reply.

  It’s the worst CS experience I’ve ever encountered. It’s now with my credit card CCA department.

• JamesB says:

  28 Jun28 June 06:43

  When it suits them BA, and likely most other airlines, exploit individual flight sectors for their own benefit such as reducing cash or miles refunded. I’m sure they will be up in arms about this but most passengers will be happy Dove won and despite any effort by the airlines I hope this sticks. It is another reason I love Air Asia, they have no such nonsense and any return flight is still available to use irrespective of reason for not using outward sector.

• Jason Hindle says:

  28 Jun28 June 06:46

  For the flight in question, it looks like the airline failed to demonstrate any advantage to booking the return vs two one way flights. For missed leg flights, on split tickets, the individual airline should be able to demonstrate an advantage to travelling on one PNR, though they may need to update their wording. I’m in two minds about this case. You should turn up on time! I’ve made made a very similar mistake. It ended well for me, perhaps because I consumed a slice of humble pie before throwing myself at the mercy of the AA ticket office at MAN*.

  * Having missed my MAN – LHR leg, they changed my routing to MAN ->ORR->LAX->NAN for the outbound, and saved me a lot of explaining to beloved employer (and charged me just £60 for the change).

• Leo says:

  28 Jun28 June 07:38

  I know that bloke. Very odd to wake up to this story….

• Alan says:

  28 Jun28 June 08:02

  Interesting case. If they’re sensible then Iberia won’t appeal this so that they avoid setting legal precedent – they seemed silly to fight it anyway given the small sum involved vs court costs!

  Of course this only said they had to refund the return leg, so not quite dealing with the other ex-EU flight of leaving from somewhere other than the UK but routing via London – always folk wanting to miss the first leg but this would only give them an ability to claim back flight costs, not to still take the itinerary if joining from London.

  • Leo says:

    28 Jun28 June 08:29

    Its only a Deputy District Judge here. A part-timer whose knowledge and expertise may be in a completely different area.

    • Alan says:

      28 Jun28 June 22:49

      I’m just meaning the lack of precedent, which they risk if they take it to appeal and lose…

    • Lesley says:

      30 Jun30 June 09:05

      That’s extremely dismissive. A deputy district judge could have been sitting for a long time and be considerably more experienced than a full time newbie. In my experience DDJs are quite capable of being better than the full time equivalent. The point here was James Dove was able to show that he was not trying to play the system but had a genuine need of both tickets – I suspect that may be key to a win and will not therefore help people who only want one part of a ticket and therefore do not turn up be able to claim. Also what you get is not the cost of the alternative but a refund of only the return journey – you lose the cost of the outbound journey. All airlines are being asked to do is refund the cost of the return leg if they cancel it.

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