Airlines slapped on wrists

Airlines have been slapped on the wrists by a consumer body that says they are making it too hard for passengers to claim refund when flights are disrupted.

The Air Transport Users Council (AUC) says airlines often hide details of how to make claims in the small print on their websites. Some, says the AUC, don't include any details at all.

Although most airlines based in the European Union have accepted they must refund passengers who were stranded overseas due to the recent ash crisis, many are making it difficult for passengers to make claims.

To make it easier, the AUC, which is part of the Civil Aviation Authority, has told airlines to include links from the home pages of their websites to information on how to make claims for all types of flight disruption.

We found that with many airlines websites, instructions on how passengers can go about claiming their expenses and also on how to get a refund of a ticket if they did not travel, are either tucked away in a section of the site that can be difficult to find or are not there at all, said a spokesman for the AUC.

We are pleased that most airlines have now committed to reimbursing the out of pocket expenses of passengers whilst they were waiting to get home but passengers need to know how to go about getting their money back.

"We, therefore, call on airline, as a matter of urgency, to provide a link to information on how to claim their money back from home pages of their websites."

Digg    Reddit    Facebook    Tweet This