Quote:
Originally Posted by monkey
When an airline changes your scheduled departure,
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This thread was entirely about when the airline makes the changesd.
I am pleased to see that you have changed your position ChrisH. On the 14th December you took the position that "
it states in the contract of carriage of basically every airline that changes in schedule, etc., will occur. The way I see it, non-refundable, is non-refundable. If you purchase something from the store that is non-refundable, than it is non-refundable, period".
After the debate, you had changed your mind, and on the 16th December you were now saying "
I agree 100% that passengers deserve a refund of their ticket, in the event that their flights are changed, by the airline - non-refundable ticket, or not.".
That is a pretty dramatic turn around... and I hope you will apply this new thinking to your customers at the airline. If your management prevents you from doing so, perhaps you can suggest that they contact the Department of Transport, so that more reasonable people, like butterfinger can review the circumstances and bring the airline into line.
The airlines and their management are arrogant and out of control, but given you willingness to change your mind, I am happy to withdraw my allegation that
you are arrogant.
Nevertheless, for the purpose of clarity, lets just say, Butterfingers is right, and I am afraid ChrisH you were wrong and you were trained poorly by your management. It is astonishing that your expectations of a provider of goods and services are so low, that they could sell you faulty goods in a sale and you believe you are not entitled to a refund of your money. For a contract to be valid, you are entitled to have a reasonable expectation that the goods are fit for purpose. Target cannot sell you faulty goods and refuse a refund on the grounds that they are non-refundable, contract law does not permit it. Equally, if I book a flight at 9am and the airline changes that to 5pm for reasons that are within it's control (such as operational reasons or schedule changes), the contract between us in no longer valid. For this reason, I am entitled to a refund. If this were not the case, airlines would be able to make up fictitious schedules to attract customers in on non-refundable tickets and then simply "switch" the offer and refuse refunds. It is potentially fraudulent.
That still makes it worthwhile for the airline to offer lower "non-refundable" tickets, because the truth is most changes are in fact because the customer requests this change, perhaps due to a change in plans, illness or bereavement. In this situation the airline is fully entitled to demand either a change fee or make the customer forfeit their ticket with no refund.