The pressure is mounting a notch for Airlines companies. Complaints from travelers are piling up. For over a year, theUFC-Que Choisir has received more than 25,000 reports, including 260 last month.
Lots of travelers accepted the credit offered by the airlines when the planet was idling. The companies limited them in time: twelve or eighteen months. “These expiration dates have no legal value, reassures Raphaël Bartlomé, legal manager for the consumer association. A credit note is a debt that must be repaid. ” As these expiration dates approach, companies tend to turn a deaf ear.
Last year, they all put forward the option of a credit note rather than reimbursement. However, European legislation provides that in the event of cancellation, the traveler must be offered either a new itinerary or a refund. The latter remains the rule and can be in the form of a credit, but only with the consent of the consumer, recalls Brussels.
“It’s the fair”
Faced with the avalanche of requests for reimbursement, twelve European countries, including France, had asked the European Commission to suspend this obligation made to airlines already on their knees economically.
On May 13, 2020, Brussels stood firm in the face of States and requests from the IATA (International Air Transport Association) and recalled that cash reimbursement within seven days was the rule for canceled trips or flights. “Some companies have continued this practice. It’s the fair “, loose Raphaël Bartlomé from UFC-Que Choisir.
The consumer association has sued twenty companies for deceptive practices: Air Corsica, Corsair, EasyJet, Lufthansa, Ryanair, TAP, Vueling, Volotea… “We are in the preparatory phase of the trial”, decrypts Raphaël Bartlomé.
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The Directorate General of Aviation recorded more than 3,500 reports. © Ouest-France infographic
In early March, the European Commission opened an investigation against eighteen companies. The results are expected at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, thousands of passengers have not recovered their money. “In France, it is the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) which is supposed to enforce European rules”, denounces Raphaël Bartlomé. “The DGAC cannot act for each individual request”, she defends herself.
The DGAC informs that it has received, “Since mid-March 2020, more than 3,500 reports related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which have already given rise to the seizure of fifty-eight different companies, French or foreign, in order to collect relevant information relating to possible breaches […]. »
Once these findings have been made, the DGAC could initiate an administrative sanction procedure against the air carriers concerned.
One of the difficulties encountered in refunding tickets is when the purchase has been made via a GoVoyages or Lastminute type platform. “The rule says it’s up to the company to reimburse but they don’t know the passengers. They do not have the account number to make the refund ”, adds the lawyer of UFC-Que Choisir.
In the meantime, the airlines behind the big metal birds keep playing the ostrich.
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