Complaints and enquiries - Air Transport Users Council
Complaints and enquiries - Air Transport Users Council
Complaints and enquiries - Air Transport Users Council
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12<br />
Representing passengers<br />
Consumer protection issues<br />
This section looks at issues where the AUC has carried out proactive<br />
advocacy work on behalf of consumers. Much of our work on consumer<br />
protection issues is generated from complaints.<br />
Schedule changes<br />
Last autumn we carried out an online<br />
sweep of the conditions of carriage<br />
of a sample of airlines to find out if<br />
their condition on schedule changes<br />
complied with the Unfair Terms in<br />
Consumer Contracts Regulations<br />
(UTCCRs) (see box). The results of<br />
our sweep shows that policies on<br />
schedule changes vary between<br />
different carriers (see table on page<br />
13).<br />
Most carriers that belong to the<br />
International <strong>Air</strong> <strong>Transport</strong><br />
Association (IATA) offer passengers<br />
a refund for a significant change.<br />
Following a 1999 complaint from the<br />
AUC to the Office of Fair Trading<br />
(OFT) about airlines’ conditions of<br />
carriage, the OFT forced IATA to<br />
amend its Recommended Practice 1724<br />
(RP1724) on airlines’ Conditions of<br />
Carriage to bring it into line with the<br />
Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts<br />
Regulations. One of the amendments<br />
was to give passengers the option of<br />
choosing a refund if the schedule<br />
change was “significant”. This<br />
amendment has helped many<br />
passengers get a refund following a<br />
schedule change.<br />
One airline even offers refunds following all schedule changes. However, a<br />
number of airlines do not offer passengers the option of a refund of their<br />
tickets, or only do so under strict criteria. The clauses on schedule changes in<br />
these airlines’ conditions could therefore be considered unfair under the<br />
UTCCRs.<br />
We are pleased to say that as a<br />
result of our discussions with two<br />
airlines following our sweep, one<br />
airline has changed its condition<br />
on schedule changes so that<br />
passengers can now get a refund<br />
following a “significant” schedule<br />
change. The other carrier has<br />
made a commitment to do so. But<br />
other airlines continue to not offer<br />
refunds. We therefore plan more<br />
work on this issue this year.