Right to change of mind re airline ticket

castie

Okay so scenario as follows.

You book a return flight departing January 1st returning January 2nd.
You realised moments after completing the booking that there is an error and it should be returning January the 3rd instead of the 2nd.

Where do you stand legally with regards the standard change fees for an airline?
Is there any kind of cooling off period after the booking completion?


I booked a 00:20 flight before for a friday but made the mistake of not realising that it was of course Friday morning and not Friday evening as my brain had though. On calling the airline they changed it with no questions asked but I am not sure if this is standard practise?

coylemj

By the time you had paid for the original flight you had ticked the 'accept Ts & Cs' button so from a legal perspective, the answer to your question is : read the Ts & Cs.

In most cases there is an 'administration fee' to make a change to the flight, or you have to upgrade the reservation to business class in which case you can make a 'free' change to the schedule.

You were lucky to get to talk to a human being, let alone getting them to make the alteration to match your requirements for free, don't let it happen again!

castie

coylemj wrote: »

By the time you had paid for the original flight you had ticked the 'accept Ts & Cs' button so from a legal perspective, the answer to your question is : read the Ts & Cs.

In most cases there is an 'administration fee' to make a change to the flight, or you have to upgrade the reservation to business class in which case you can make a 'free' change to the schedule.

You were lucky to get to talk to a human being, let alone getting them to make the alteration to match your requirements for free, don't let it happen again!

In my situation I missed the flight at the airport.
I fly Singapore Airlines and have the highest FF status so they made the change without issue. Have no doubt they would again as well.
Above is based off an article I read today thats over 2 years old saying 1 in 5 people making bookings make errors.

Thoie

T&Cs obviously form part of the contract, but as far as I was aware (and please correct me if I'm wrong), a company's terms can't over-ride what's legal. So even if I tick the box saying I agree to the T&Cs, if the T&Cs say that the company can call by my house at any stage and break my windows and kill my pets, that part isn't binding.

In answer to the original question, the distance selling regulations specifically exclude "agreements for the supply of "accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services where the supplier undertakes, when the contract is made, to provide those services on a specific date or within a specific period" from the cooling off period. (Taken from here.)

Procrastastudy

Thoie wrote: »

T&Cs obviously form part of the contract, but as far as I was aware (and please correct me if I'm wrong), a company's terms can't over-ride what's legal. So even if I tick the box saying I agree to the T&Cs, if the T&Cs say that the company can call by my house at any stage and break my windows and kill my pets, that part isn't binding.

In answer to the original question, the distance selling regulations specifically exclude "agreements for the supply of "accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services where the supplier undertakes, when the contract is made, to provide those services on a specific date or within a specific period" from the cooling off period. (Taken from here.)

You could consent to them coming over and digging you in the head.

I'm quite impressed we've managed to get R v Brown into a discussion about airline tickets

castie

You would think at this point and human error seemingly rife according to that survey that there would be some sort of legislation around this rather than "tough shell out a few more hundred".

I would think something along the lines of 2-4 hours post booking would be good for the passenger and also allow the airline not to get conned by people trying to block up cheap fares.

Procrastastudy

At a practical level I could see it causing all sorts of issues for the airline. To be blunt (and I've done a similar thing to you) everyone would end up paying more because of people not being careful enough. Furthermore you put a safety net in even more people will mess up costing even more.

Kosseegan

castie wrote: »

You would think at this point and human error seemingly rife according to that survey that there would be some sort of legislation around this rather than "tough shell out a few more hundred".

I would think something along the lines of 2-4 hours post booking would be good for the passenger and also allow the airline not to get conned by people trying to block up cheap fares.

That is a matter for Consumer Issues or some such. The law is that if you make a contract you are stuck with it, except in a small number of situations. The consequences of allowing change of mind after the event would be that there would be a massive increase in overheads for business as people would keep hunting for a better deal after making a booking and business would find that they were turning people away only for the bookings to unravel. There are laws around misleading advertising and unfair contract terms. After that people have to be careful.

castie

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

At a practical level I could see it causing all sorts of issues for the airline. To be blunt (and I've done a similar thing to you) everyone would end up paying more because of people not being careful enough. Furthermore you put a safety net in even more people will mess up costing even more.

Costing what exactly?
Almost all airlines these days you can change online. (except they initiate a charge)

What happened to me wouldnt apply as I missed a flight which is a bit different.

Procrastastudy

If you allow a cooling off period that period is going to need to be reasonable. Say 48 hours. Those seats are going to be booked and the airline is going to lose sales over the seat price increases as the flight fills. Not to mention the timewasters that are going to book seats and then think better of it. Furthermore as you pointed out yourself it's open to abuse.

Even if you limit it to 4 hours the issues remain the same. With this small a colling off period would it not be easier to allow yourself you're own cooling off period in going and making yourself a cup of tea before hitting "OK".

Without trying to turn this into a philosophical debate on contract law (which I would lose) there is still a level of caveat emptor and rightly so. You can't legislate for every bad bargain someone gets involved in at the expense of the seller.

I think the solution we have currently is the best one. Certain airlines will allow you to change for a fee, certain airlines will do it for free or on a case by case basis. We as customer keep the freedom to chose and the companies operating get to chose if they want to operate at low margion low cost or higher margins with better service. Moreover only the people that make the mistake pay the fee.

coylemj

The problem with allowing people to make changes is that they could book an off-peak flight, wait for the cooling-off period to start and then switch one of the legs to a peak flight. The only way around it really is to allow them to unconditionally cancel the whole flight within an hour, refund them on the CC and allow them to start again.

Thoie

coylemj wrote: »

The problem with allowing people to make changes is that they could book an off-peak flight, wait for the cooling-off period to start and then switch one of the legs to a peak flight. The only way around it really is to allow them to unconditionally cancel the whole flight within an hour, refund them on the CC and allow them to start again.

To my mind the "cooling off" period would not allow you to scam the airlines, but, as you said, allow you to cancel one or many leg without any penalty, and rebook a "replacement" leg, or the other scenario is that you would be able to correct a spelling mistake in the name within an hour/two hours. To make it "fair", you would only be allowed to change either or the surname, or the first name

Procrastastudy

If we have to introduce legislation because people can't spell their own names I think we've bigger issues. Legislating for lack of attention to detail really is the nanny state gone mad.

Strictly

I was booking an Aer Lingus flight recently and I clicked the late flight instead of the mid day flight for coming back I realised it as soon as I got the confirmation of the flight. As it was 1am I waited until the next morning to call them and they changed the flight with no extra charge as I had called within 24 hours. The guy told me that this happens alot and if you call them in time there is no charge!

Thoie

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

If we have to introduce legislation because people can't spell their own names I think we've bigger issues. Legislating for lack of attention to detail really is the nanny state gone mad.

True, but I was thinking of two specific scenarios.

The first is where people's everyday name is different from their passport name - for example, I'm booking a flight for you and me, and book it under Ms. GCD Lawstudent, and then you point out that GCD is not the name in your passport.
The second is where someone's just changed their surname - it's easy to become confused as to which document is in which name during the switchover.

Procrastastudy

In see your point, but I think legislation is taking this a bit far. If a company policy isn't enough perhaps an industry best practice would suffice.

Perhaps not immediately relevant to this topic but there are a plethora of issues with the airline industry that come down to safety which must take precedence over customer service. 45 minutes sounds like some jobs worth not letting you on the air craft but if you start to erode this paperwork gets rushed at various points in the chain and you end up with an accident.

Couple of pieces of aviation trivia for you:

Window blinds and lights dimmed at take off/landing - so they can see in if you crash
Attitude of staff on airlines - deliberate following behavioral research done after the Manchester disaster.

seb65

castie wrote: »

You would think at this point and human error seemingly rife according to that survey that there would be some sort of legislation around this rather than "tough shell out a few more hundred".

I would think something along the lines of 2-4 hours post booking would be good for the passenger and also allow the airline not to get conned by people trying to block up cheap fares.

Yep, I believe a number of airlines have a 24 hour window where you can change/cancel without charge.

Ryanair is probably not included in that list

seb65

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

You could consent to them coming over and digging you in the head.

I'm quite impressed we've managed to get R v Brown into a discussion about airline tickets

Actually you cannot consent to that. Consent is not a defence in an assault charge and illegal agreements are not contracts.....because they're illegal.

castie

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Window blinds and lights dimmed at take off/landing - so they can see in if you crash

Going to be lynched by the aviation experts on the forum for this one!

Blinds up is said to be so passengers exiting the aircraft can be aware of whats happening outside.
If you think of it whos going to get close enough to a crashed plane to see anything in these windows?

Lights dimmed is said to remove the need for your eyes to adjust should you need to exit the aircraft in an emergency as people going from a bright area to a dark area would take time to adjust causing them difficulty in seeing whats around them and slow the evacuation.
Seeing into the aircraft wouldnt make sense to dim the lights as if your sitting downstairs and have the lights on and its dark outside everyone can see in to you.

seb65

coylemj wrote: »

The problem with allowing people to make changes is that they could book an off-peak flight, wait for the cooling-off period to start and then switch one of the legs to a peak flight. The only way around it really is to allow them to unconditionally cancel the whole flight within an hour, refund them on the CC and allow them to start again.

That makes no sense at all. If you switch one of the legs, you will pay a higher price. A cooling off period is to allow a person to change a flight when they've made an error. Your cc is refunded and you book the flight you originally intended. You don't get to go mad choosing whatever flight you want for the same price.

castie

seb65 wrote: »

Actually you cannot consent to that. Consent is not a defence in an assault charge and illegal agreements are not contracts.....because they're illegal.

I know its a bit off topic but how do you explain boxing then?
By entering the ring you are accepting the sport which technically is smacking you in the head yet you cant take legal action afterwards.

seb65

castie wrote: »

I know its a bit off topic but how do you explain boxing then?
By entering the ring you are accepting the sport which technically is smacking you in the head yet you cant take legal action afterwards.

I don't know. I'm just saying what the law is. There's obviously some sort of exception for all contact sports. Interesting point though, I'd like to know myself!

Procrastastudy

Have you read R v Brown?

I'll have to grab my source for what incident it was but the blinds are definitely a safety thing. I think it was opening the doors on an Aircraft that caused a massive flash-over but I could be wrong on that part.

TOEJOE

Hi
It's interesting to hear people discuss changing a booking on an airline.
A quick story several weeks ago I gave my daughter my Mastercard to book her holiday flight with Ryanair to Malaga.Yesterday she went to print the Boarding Pass and my name was on the Boarding Pass.I asked her to contact RyanAir they indicated they could do nothing. She is out 100+ Euro to change the Boarding Pass to her name. Is there a tiny tiny chance of a glitch in there system (Ulster bank!!!).She said she put her name down as the passenger.

Aka Ishur

You get a confirmation email when you book, why didnt she read that? I made a misake booking my flights to malaga, saw the mistake in the email, called ryanair and they changed the booking no problem. Think there was a ten euro fee but thats all.