Cancellation of flight

[Flying mermaid]

Not sure if this is the right place, but I have a query on the EU passenger rights stuff. Daughter booked a flight some time ago LHR-SIN-BNE in J. Flight has been cancelled (as thousands are these days) and SQ are refusing to rebook her on a flight unless she pays more money. I know this has been happening to a lot of Y passengers where unless they upgrade to J they won’t book them, but she is already paid J they just want more. Does she have any rights? My feeling is she should just pay more then apply for a refund or something under the EU laws, but no idea whether she does have any rights or not. Help gratefully accepted.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Unfortunately flights to the EU are only covered by 261 for EU airlines.
Non-EU airlines are covered for flights from the EU.

This is from London to Brisbane?

 

[opusman]

Which flight was cancelled? If LHR-SIN then she should be covered I think. If SIN-BNE then EU.261 would not apply.

(sorry I misread message originally)

 

[Flying mermaid]

Which flight was cancelled? If LHR-SIN then she should be covered I think. If SIN-BNE then EU.261 would not apply.

(sorry Isread message originally)

That’s OK . I will find out - as I understand it they have just cancelled the whole flight - just heard from her that it’s $3,000 extra, so a 50% increase on what she paid initially.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not sure if this is the right place, but I have a query on the EU passenger rights stuff. Daughter booked a flight some time ago LHR-SIN-BNE in J. Flight has been cancelled (as thousands are these days) and SQ are refusing to rebook her on a flight unless she pays more money. I know this has been happening to a lot of Y passengers where unless they upgrade to J they won’t book them, but she is already paid J they just want more. Does she have any rights? My feeling is she should just pay more then apply for a refund or something under the EU laws, but no idea whether she does have any rights or not. Help gratefully accepted.

I believe it should be rerouting 'at the earliest opportunity' - whatever that means in today's covid world with arrival caps into Australia. Either that or a refund, but the choice should be up to the passenger. It will be interesting to see what SQ says on this one, but your daughter should be asking the question as to why they want to charge a fare difference.

 

[Mattg]

I also fail to see how SQ can get away with charging a fare difference for rebooking when they cancelled the original flight.

Is the issue that all the other flights are already fully booked due to the arrival caps into Australia, or is there something else going on here? Either way, it doesn't seem right.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I also fail to see how SQ can get away with charging a fare difference for rebooking when they cancelled the original flight.

Is the issue that all the other flights are already fully booked due to the arrival caps into Australia, or is there something else going on here? Either way, it doesn't seem right.

If the passenger wanted to upgrade to catch an earlier flight I think the airline should be able to charge. But here it's a case of like-for-like... SQ isn't offering F at the moment... so I dunno where the additional charge comes from. (I guess it could be the fare class, but for an involuntary rebooking that should be waived.)

 

[Flying mermaid]

Not sure - I asked her what happened. She said she received an email saying the flight was cancelled, phoned up office in London. Person was totally incompetent and said he couldn’t rebook her, but had to email someone else. Put her on hold for 20 minutes and then said they could rebook her on another flight, but only if she paid the fare difference between the fare she paid 3 months ago and the cost today.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not sure - I asked her what happened. She said she received an email saying the flight was cancelled, phoned up office in London. Person was totally incompetent and said he couldn’t rebook her, but had to email someone else. Put her on hold for 20 minutes and then said they could rebook her on another flight, but only if she paid the fare difference between the fare she paid 3 months ago and the cost today.

According to this page: Assistance Request due to COVID-19 Outbreak your daughter might be able to rebook herself via the manage booking function? Might be worth a shot?

Otherwise maybe call singapore? (reminding them of EU261 if necessary)

 

[Flying mermaid]

I believe it should be rerouting 'at the earliest opportunity' - whatever that means in today's covid world with arrival caps into Australia. Either that or a refund, but the choice should be up to the passenger. It will be interesting to see what SQ says on this one, but your daughter should be asking the question as to why they want to charge a fare difference.

This is the problem isn’t it - if they say they won’t book you on a flight fir two months unless you pay extra what choice fo you have?

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

According to this page: Assistance Request due to COVID-19 Outbreak your daughter might be able to rebook herself via the manage booking function? Might be worth a shot?

Otherwise maybe call singapore? (reminding them of EU261 if necessary)

Thanks will ask her to see f she can do that

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is the problem isn’t it - if they say they won’t book you on a flight fir two months unless you pay extra what choice fo you have?

Understand it is stressful, but your daughter needs to ask exactly why SQ believes EU261 won't apply in her case. A best maybe it's a misunderstanding and they didn't appreciate she was departing the UK. Maybe SQ only thinks they need to reroute in the same fare class. Again, your daughter would need to ask why this is the case. (Agree passengers shouldn't need to do this, but these are exceptional times!)

 

[Flying mermaid]

Understand it is stressful, but your daughter needs to ask exactly why SQ believes EU261 won't apply in her case. A best maybe it's a misunderstanding and they didn't appreciate she was departing the UK. Maybe SQ only thinks they need to reroute in the same fare class. Again, your daughter would need to ask why this is the case. (Agree passengers shouldn't need to do this, but these are exceptional times!)

I have been talking to Singapore Air on Facebook and their social media person has asked me to get her to contact them with her booking number and they will look at it. At least it will hopefully go to someone who can give her better information. I will get her to keep me in the loop so I can monitor what’s happening as she is even less across all the stuff than I am. Thanks everyone for input so far

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Is Brexit a red herring as to whether EU rules apply post 1/1/21? I’m assuming nothing gets agreed between UK and EU from now until then.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Understand it is stressful, but your daughter needs to ask exactly why SQ believes EU261 won't apply in her case. A best maybe it's a misunderstanding and they didn't appreciate she was departing the UK. Maybe SQ only thinks they need to reroute in the same fare class. Again, your daughter would need to ask why this is the case. (Agree passengers shouldn't need to do this, but these are exceptional times!)

I have been talking to Singapore Air on Facebook and their social media person has asked me to get her to contact them with her booking number and they will look at it. At ladt it will hopefully go to someone who can give her better information. I will get her to keep in the loop so I can monitor what’s happening as she is even less across al the stuff than I am. Thanks everyone for input so far

Is Brexit a red herring as to whether EU rules apply post 1/1/21? I’m assuming nothing gets agreed between UK and EU from now until then.

I was wondering that myself .

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is Brexit a red herring as to whether EU rules apply post 1/1/21? I’m assuming nothing gets agreed between UK and EU from now until then.

EU261 will carry over and continue to apply post Brexit until such time the UK government decides to change it (if they do at all).

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

EU261 will carry over and continue to apply post Brexit until such time the UK government decides to change it (if they do at all).

Thanks. I wasn’t sure that the UK Parliament passed the relevant law to keep this EU regulation in operation under UK law.

Question: how does this EU regulations apply to an early cancellation?

 

[Pushka]

Has this just happened as of last night? I think my niece encountered similar with SQ once the flights to Adelaide were cancelled last month (not SQ issue but SA) but then rebooking SQ offerings weren't good at all so when JAL from Paris opened up a couple of weeks ago she abandoned SQ and flew with JAL. No issues at all.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks. I wasn’t sure that the UK Parliament passed the relevant law to keep this EU regulation in operation under UK law.

Question: how does this EU regulations apply to an early cancellation?

It works in two ways: the right to a refund or re-routing, and the right to compensation. Compensation is dependent on the time the cancellation was notified (must be 14 days or less), and whether extraordinary circumstances apply.

In the case of covid, the EU has deemed it falls under extraordinary circumstances... so the no compensation is payable, regardless of when the cancellation happened.

At six weeks prior to departure, the OP's claim is subject to part 1, but would fail on part 2 on both legs (time and extraordinary circumstances).

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

It works in two ways: the right to a refund or re-routing, and the right to compensation. Compensation is dependent on the time the cancellation was notified (must be 14 days or less), and whether extraordinary circumstances apply.

In the case of covid, the EU has deemed it falls under extraordinary circumstances... so the no compensation is payable, regardless of when the cancellation happened.

At six weeks prior to departure, the OP's claim is subject to part 1, but would fail on part 2 on both legs (time and extraordinary circumstances).

Ok. Strange that the extraordinary circumstances exclusion applies to one type of consumer rights but not the other.

Based on what @Pushka says it seems easy to get the refund?! And find a suitable alternative seems easy enough.

 

[Pushka]

Ok. Strange that the extraordinary circumstances exclusion applies to one type of consumer rights but not the other.

Based on what @Pushka says it seems easy to get the refund?! And find a suitable alternative seems easy enough.

And given that SQ cancelled, then a chargeback to the credit card seems easy if SQ aren't going to play ball.