Tiger cancelled flight due to 'poor weather conditions'. But really?

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ajobbins

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First and last time I ever try and fly tiger.

We were supposed to fly BNE to MEL last night on TT539 departing at 2010. At 1640 I recieved an SMS and email from Tiger advising the flight was cancelled due to weather, and they had rebooked us on a VA flight the following morning (today).

I only booked Tiger, as at the time of booking, all other options were vastly more expensive. I paid $120/each (my wife and I) on TT, but everyone else at the time was at least double that.

My issue/concern here is that Tiger said the flight was cancelled due to weather - which means they do not have to offer a refund, but merely a credit with them. BUT - literally no other flights into MEL were cancelled due to weather last night - including other TT services which arrived within minutes of my cancelled flight.

I spoke to their offshore call center who (falsely) advised they could not move me to any other service yesterday (Including the TT service from OOL which ran, and we could have made), as other flights were being cancelled too - also due to weather.

We needed to get home yesterday - and ended up paying a rather obscene amount for the last two seats on the last VA flight out of BNE to MEL last night. No other airline could even sell us a ticket.

I'm probably not going to get anything at all from TT now, as I did not have time among the chaos of trying to get home last night (and they crashed) before my 'rebooked' flight this morning to call them and advise I would not be on it - but I want to follow up on this 'cancelled due to weather' line, as it seems highly suspicious.

Are they calling it 'weather' to get out of their obligation to refund/compensate passengers for a flight they opted not to operate for other reasons? The fact this was literally the only flight impacted by this 'weather' does not pass the pub test for me.

Any suggestions?
 
Maybe look for compensation from them and when that in all likelihood fails, try the airline consumer advocate.
 
We were supposed to fly BNE to MEL last night on TT539 departing at 2010. At 1640 I recieved an SMS and email from Tiger advising the flight was cancelled due to weather, and they had rebooked us on a VA flight the following morning (today).
If the airline notified you 3.5 hours before scheduled departure that the flight was cancelled, then that implies to me that the inbound flight before your did not make it to Brisbane, so there was no aircraft available to operate your booked flight. So while your flight may not have been directly impacted by weather, it is possible that earlier weather conditions somewhere else had a ripple effect on your flight.

Once you make your own arrangements for an alternate flight, your chances of assistance/compensation from the airline are reduced. Best option at that point is a claim on your travel insurance policy.
 
If the airline notified you 3.5 hours before scheduled departure that the flight was cancelled, then that implies to me that the inbound flight before your did not make it to Brisbane, so there was no aircraft available to operate your booked flight. So while your flight may not have been directly impacted by weather, it is possible that earlier weather conditions somewhere else had a ripple effect on your flight.

Hmmm, yes - looks like TT536 from MEL was also cancelled, which would have been the inbound. Does the airline still get to call this a cancellation 'outside of their control'? Where can you draw a line between outside of their control and the flow on effects of choosing to run so lean? If a single cancellation affects 5 other flights? 10?

Once you make your own arrangements for an alternate flight, your chances of assistance/compensation from the airline are reduced. Best option at that point is a claim on your travel insurance policy.

They don't (need to) know I made other arrangements. Just that I couldn't take the alternative flight they offered - it did not work for me. Their policy says that if it's beyond their control I can't have a refund, but if they could control it, I can. I would contest that even if the prior flight was weather affected, other arrangements could have been made to cater for the flight following. Except that, like my flight - the TT flight was the only flight out of MEL around that time that was cancelled. Seems inconceivable that 'weather' would only impact a single flight out of a busy airport.
 
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Hmmm, yes - looks like TT536 from MEL was also cancelled, which would have been the inbound. Does the airline still get to call this a cancellation 'outside of their control'? Where can you draw a line between outside of their control and the flow on effects of choosing to run so lean? If a single cancellation affects 5 other flights? 10?



They don't (need to) know I made other arrangements. Just that I couldn't take the alternative flight they offered - it did not work for me. Their policy says that if it's beyond their control I can't have a refund, but if they could control it, I can. I would contest that even if the prior flight was weather affected, other arrangements could have been made to cater for the flight following. Except that, like my flight - the TT flight was the only flight out of MEL around that time that was cancelled. Seems inconceivable that 'weather' would only impact a single flight out of a busy airport.
I think you raise good points which could be put to the obudsman / consumer advocate. Did you have cancelltion/ travel insurance covering this?
 
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