Buying flights online- which laws?

tea and coffee

If I buy flights from Cayman airways, who are based on Grand Cayman, do I come under their domestic laws or EU/Irish law? Major flight schedule change and I want to know if I have any comeback

Thanks

stronglikebull

I believe you're going to have to fight it under the laws in the area where the business is based. Like if you buy from a Chinese site like DealExtreme, and you get shoddy service, you don't have any protection under Irish or EU consumer law.

The only chance is if the airline is registered to trade and sell in the EU. Then you would have protection here.

In addition, if things have been changed by them and you booked the flight with a credit card then you may be able to request a chargeback if they are not offering a refund. This won't help you with rescheduling, etc, but could help if a refund is the issue.

slimjimmc

AFAIK EU law applies to the overseas territories of EU member states (such as the Cayman Islands) though there may be some derogation for some places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Special_territories_of_the_European_Union
http://europeanlawblog.eu/?tag=overseas-territories

It might be worth contacting the European Consumer Centre in the UK as presumably they're likely to have some experience in this.
http://www.ukecc.net/

tea and coffee

Thanks all. Didn't think about the UK angle of it actually. They are offering me alternatives alright, but just wanted to know if I could request another alternative to the one they are offering under whichever consumer law they came under- but first I had to know which consumer laws!

tea and coffee

It's between 2 Caribbean Islands and then on to the US. It's in their terms and conditions that they can change the flight times and so on, so caveat emptor to a certain extent in that respect. However, I know that the EU have quite strong prtection for the traveller/consumer for delays and so on...