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If your flight is canceled, who pays?
Court decision on compensation after Iceland volcano scrubbed flights spurs debate in Europe, U.S. EIPZIG, Germany – Compensation abroad for airline passengers whose flights are canceled is changing with the smoke of a European volcano. Europe has a generous compensation policy, which forces airlines to give each passenger as much as $775 when a flight is canceled. (www.usatoday.com) Mais...
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You know, most any contract has an "ACT OF GOD" clause in it, which makes either party exempt from damages or fault resulting from same. That said, it is awfully easy for an airline, or other business for that matter, to cancel/reschedule a flight or event and it can inconvenience the daylights out of a person. I remember a PAX trip one time on DAL.I had booked this flight about 3 weeks in advance. A schedule change came about about a week ahead of the trip that would in no way work for my tip purpose. DAL refunded the ticket, but wheras before, rates had been similar on another carrier, when I went to it now, the cost was about another $150. Nobody reimbursed that.
Yeah I think DAL should've covered the extra charge. The purpose of buying a 21 day advance ticket is the lower cost. DAL made it to where that was no longer possible. It's a shame that these costs are passed on to the consumer.
I'm half and half on your case. I think it's proper you were not reimbursed the $150 for booking on another carrier because you cancelled your reservation instead of trying to rebook wtih DAL when the schedule change didn't work for you.
Due to DAL changing the schedule, I feel DAL should have offered to waive the reservation change fee and give you the same fare you paid for that same city-to-city ticket as long as you book it 3 weeks in advance (and if you needed to go sooner, DAL should waive change fee but charge you the additional fare for less than 3 week reservation for that route since you are changing a low-fare 3wk advance fare into a short-term booking fare).
Due to DAL changing the schedule, I feel DAL should have offered to waive the reservation change fee and give you the same fare you paid for that same city-to-city ticket as long as you book it 3 weeks in advance (and if you needed to go sooner, DAL should waive change fee but charge you the additional fare for less than 3 week reservation for that route since you are changing a low-fare 3wk advance fare into a short-term booking fare).
Well, I kinda see your point, BUT, as with most business travel, it must be done at a specific time. My reservations were not nexessarily made for the low fare as they were made as soon as the meeting was confirmed. The low fare was just a side effect. There is nothing that DAL could have effered to allow the ime to be made, hence the rebook on another carrier. While $150 did not break the bank, it was just the principle of the thing. I made my advance booking in good faith and the hit my Credit Card right then. It is not my problem that they opted for a schedule change. Most of their changes over the years only involved a few miutes, one way or other and weren't a big deal, but in this particular case involved a half day.
I can remember when the hurricane hit the Eastern half of the United States last fall. I flew from ODS to IAD with a transfer in IST (Istanbul)on Turkish Airlines. This was a couple of days after the hurricane, and they had cancelled the IAD flight for 3 days, so I called Turkish Airlines and asked if I could move my return date back a day or so... they said no, unless I paid the change fee, and that if I didn't show up, I would lose my ticket. So at ODS I was issued a boarding pass with seat assignment all the way thru to IAD. Upon arriving in Istanbul (on time with plenty of time for check-in), was called to the counter 30 minutes before the flight departed and was told that my IAD flight was full from the people whose flights were cancelled from the prior 3 days, and that it would be days before they could get me a seat. They said that I could leave in an hour on a flight to JFK... I took it! At the time of take-off, JFK had not even opened from the flooding yet. The reason I am writing this here is because of the substantial cost and hassle of getting from JFK to IAD where your car is parked when New York had no rental cars, no taxis, NO GAS, and no domestic flights flying yet! Hired a car service from Ohio to pick me up at a cost of $1000. To this day, I cannot even get a response from Turkish Airlines for anything... no flight voucher, no money, not an apology, nothing! They told me (and about 12 others in the same boat)to see the agent in New York when we landed and they would take care of us. The agent in New York said that there is nothing they can do, it should have been done in Turkey. Then they provided the email address for customer service and said they would handle it. THEY, will not respond! Tried once a month for 6 months now... Turkey is not EU regulations, and definitely not US regulations... any ideas?
What would the airline say if a passenger missed their flight due to a road closure or similar? Smoke from a forest fire drifts across the Interstate and the State Troopers close the highway. Passenger gets a refund for the missed flight? I don't think so.
In most cases no, but many will get rebooked as a courtesy, or at least allowed to get a standby seat.
