Pressure on airlines for refunds

Airlines have to refund tickets for cancelled flights within a week. But many of them are fobbing off their customers and playing for time – and not without reason.

Anger is growing about the manner in which some airlines are trying to avoid paying refunds for cancelled flights. There are currently numerous cases in which obstacle are being deliberately created for customers who make such applications – and these can no longer be explained away as isolated cases.

"We are particularly annoyed about the unfair communication strategy of some airlines," says Simon Sommer, co-founder of the Cancelled.ch platform run from Hünenberg, which supports passengers in making compensation claims. "It is understandable that airlines are currently in a difficult situation. Their fleets are on the ground, which leads to liquidity shortages. However, it cannot be allowed that the airlines fob off their customers with vouchers all the time, while not even mentioning that their customers are actually entitled to a full refund of the ticket price."

A lot of patience is required for a refund
Article 8 of the EU Passenger Rights Regulation requires airlines to refund the full amount of the price of a cancelled flight within seven days. The Corona virus hasn't changed that., Many airlines have made such refunds more difficult since the beginning of the crisis, however. In recent weeks, even the major figures in the industry, such as Lufthansa and its subsidiary Swiss, have removed the usual refund forms from their websites. Instead, they advertise free re-booking and vouchers for the cancelled flights.

A large part of the Swiss fleet currently has to remain on the ground: a view from the deserted Zurich airport in Kloten.

When asked, Swiss justifies this practice by referring to limited capacities. The airline is complying with applicable law, a spokeswoman said. Guests whose flights do not take place still have the opportunity to have their ticket refunded. However, this service "cannot be granted within the usual deadlines, due to the high demand".

Other airlines also require a lot of patience when it comes to reimbursement. Our newspaper has found several cases where customers have had to wait in hotlines for hours or have to click through a jungle of links in order to be finally fobbed off with only a voucher in the end. Others don’t even manage to make contact with the airline – both telephone calls and mail enquiries remain unanswered.

Simon Sommer from Cancelled.ch sees this as a certain degree of calculation on the part of the airlines. "Customers shouldn’t get the idea that they can request a refund. They are quite deliberately counting on many people eventually losing their patience and settling for a voucher or a rebooking."

National Council wants to help travel agencies
The complaint that the airlines are deliberately delaying the legally prescribed refunds has not only been heard from disgruntled customers, but also more recently from travel agencies; Tour operators are obliged by law to repay the funds to their customers – and are thereby accordingly dependent on the cooperation of the airlines. But they can now at least hope for help from politicians.

On Tuesday, for example, the National Council (Nationalrat) approved, by a narrow majority, a motion by the Bernese SVP politician Lars Guggisberg that the Swiss and Edelweiss airlines should only receive state aid if they reimburse the money for cancelled flights to travel agencies by 30 September at the latest. The condition has yet to be approved by the Council of States (Ständerat). Parliament would thereby be ultimately responding to a demand from the Swiss Travel Association.

Several ways to refund tickets
Individuals who have not booked their flight through a travel agency, on the other hand, have no choice but to "demonstrably claim their right to a refund from the airline," says Jan Bartholl, a specialist lawyer for travel law and European passenger rights. In this case, ‘demonstrably’  means by registered letter with return receipt.

If the refund is not met, passengers can also contact the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (Bazl). The Bazl monitors compliance with the Passenger Rights Ordinance and issues fines in the event of repeated violations by the airlines. Anyone who has taken out travel insurance can also apply for compensation there. In addition, alienated customers could also sue in court as a last - but also the most nerve-wracking – step.

Bartholl advises all those who want their money back to act as quickly as possible, however. It cannot be excluded that Article 8 of the EU Passenger Rights Regulations could soon be restricted. "It would be a bitter pill for customers, because airlines could then legally offer vouchers instead of refunds," he says. And these would be of little use if the airline ended up being bankrupt.