In the midst of an unprecedented summer season there is also room for war between airlines and booking sites. With some – the carriers – who accuse the others of withholding ticket refunds and the others who retort by asking the airlines to get busy with the return of the money. In the middle of the users who – disoriented by the period and by the continuous change of programming – would like to have some certainty about their holidays. In the background, a dispute that has already ended in international courts.
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The platforms
Ryanair launched the first missile. Who, through CEO Eddie Wilson, accuses various online travel agencies such as “Kiwi.com, Lastminute.com, OnTheBeach and LoveHolidays, just to name a few,” “anti-consumer practices”. What happens? “That thousands of our customers ask us to get their flights purchased through these platforms reimbursed, but we have already given that money,” he explains to Courier service Dara Brady, marketing & digital director of the largest low cost airline in Europe. He adds: “There is little knowledge of what these sites are doing and the situation has worsened with Covid-19.”
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Accuses him
“When a customer buys a flight through online travel agencies, they provide their first and last name, credit card number and an email,” says Brady. “But these platforms to us companies provide an automatically created and assigned e-mail to the customer and a virtual credit card.” In short, underlines the low cost manager, “what we see in our booking system are virtual data”. And so “when travelers call us to ask for refunds we are unable to understand who they are because when they provide us with their contact details they do not match”.
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Screenshots of a booking through online agencies according to Ryanair–
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The procedure
And when they can locate the passenger data, Brady reveals, “we find that we at Ryanair have already refunded the online agencies but they are the ones who have not returned the money to the customers”. How many? “Thousands are complaining through our customer services.” For this reason, the Irish low cost company has announced the introduction of a new procedure (“Customer Verification”) on the official website “for customers who have been prevented from obtaining a refund for tickets purchased through online travel agencies”.
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The reply
But Kiwi.com is not there and replies to Ryanair accusing the airline of trying to undermine the relationship of trust with customers. “We are surprised at the words of low cost: the thing that should do is give back the money for canceled flights,” replies Oliver Dlouhy, founder and CEO of the platform. “Ryanair has so far only returned 10% of the amount due,” says Dlouhy. Other low cost companies, such as easyJet, also confirm that they have problems similar to those encountered by Ryanair, but without indicating the platforms. While some traditional carriers explain to Courier service who will pay more attention from now on to the correct transaction for tickets refunded through online agencies.
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The challenge
In recent times Ryanair – and beyond – have tried to contrast the role of online agencies by accusing them of violating intellectual property. A way also to push customers to book directly on the platforms of the airlines also to be able to sell additional services such as the choice of seat, priority boarding, suitcase in the hold. But in the courts – including the Italian Court of Cassation – it ended either with an agreement or with a victory for third party sites.
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July 18, 2020 (change July 18, 2020 | 5:19 pm)
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