Rights When Airline Stops Flying To My Destination

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bfls

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Oct 27, 2005
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What are your rights if an airline stops flying to your destination after you have bought tickets from them?

A friend (truly) was due to fly to Broome next week on Virgin Blue only to be told they don't fly there anymore, sorry. They offered him a refund but that isn't enough to buy a seat to Broome on another airline at this late date. There are seats on Qantas flights on the days he wants to travel. Can he insist that Virgin gets him tickets for these flights?

If they refuse, who should he complain to?
 
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PER-BME-PER flights have been cancelled due to staff shortages.

I have heard of passengers being given refunds and that DJ are unable or not willing to rebook on other airlines (Skywest/Qantas/QantasLink).

I believe Alliance will operate 1 or 2 flights on behalf on DJ within the next 2 weeks, but it's obviously not on the day your friend is travelling.

I'm surprised DJ aren't using OzJet to operate BME flights.

DJ - Terms and Conditions of Carriage


8. The Guest acknowledges that the Carrier may need to cancel or delay and reschedule flights or services due to industrial action, landing restrictions, airport loading restrictions, unsuitable weather conditions, technical problems or any event beyond the Carrier's reasonable control, and scheduled flight times or destinations are not guaranteed. In no circumstances will the Carrier be liable for any Losses which a Guest may incur as a result of any such delayed or rescheduled flight or service.

I am not sure what your rights are here (never had to deal with this before; never had service complete cancelled) - I'm sure someone else can help.

Perhaps our resident DJ member, Crazydave98 may be able to assit!

Rgds and good luck to your friend.
 
Unfortunatley a cancellation of a service falls under the same banner as a reschedule. Basically, you have the choice of a refund or if available a booking on the next available flight with the same carrier (obviously, in this case that's not an option).

Same thing happened with a member here in regards to a Jetstar flight from Singapore to India. Only difference being Jetstar refused to offer a refund without a bit of a fight, so to DJ's credit at least their following their rules.
 
I am sorry but this is totally unacceptable.

I am glad that my Velocity FF account still has zero balance and will continue to remain that way until Virgin learns to become a customer focused airline! This is what I would expect from Jetstar!
 
JohnK said:
I am sorry but this is totally unacceptable.

I am glad that my Velocity FF account still has zero balance and will continue to remain that way until Virgin learns to become a customer focused airline! This is what I would expect from Jetstar!
I think you will find most (if not all) airlines will have the same response. Now it would be different if you had already commenced the trip and found you had not way home. But if the first sector has not been flown, I would expect most airlines will take the same approach.
 
You know, I would get onto consumer protection and get their take on the situation. I would not like to predict the outcome, but would like to think there is some remedy for the breaking of the contract by DJ.

FWIW Qantas will book onto alternate carriers.
 
NM said:
I think you will find most (if not all) airlines will have the same response. Now it would be different if you had already commenced the trip and found you had not way home. But if the first sector has not been flown, I would expect most airlines will take the same approach.
I am sorry but I do not subscribe to all this airline hullabaloo. Hullabaloo? :confused:

Virgin was quite happy to accept the money to take a person from A->B and at N-1 hour they decide they cannot do it. Do not care that Virgin has a clause 1202.1.2.3 that says they are only obliged to refund your money in case of issues. My clause says that they need to get me from A->B as promised. Very simple.

I am sorry but we need to stop defending the airlines and all their possible get out clauses. Virgin is just a two bit airline, like Jetstar, and anyone that books or flies with them deserves the treatment they ultimately receive.
 
JohnK said:
Virgin was quite happy to accept the money to take a person from A->B and at N-1 hour they decide they cannot do it. Do not care that Virgin has a clause 1202.1.2.3 that says they are only obliged to refund your money in case of issues. My clause says that they need to get me from A->B as promised. Very simple.

It is for this reason that I suggest the remedy may be found in consumer law. This does afford protections and businesses cannot override those protections by notices, clauses and so on. Generally, I would think that the wronged party has rights in cases such as this where there has been a break of the contract by the other.

(Of course I could be wrong as well)
 
oz_mark said:
(Of course I could be wrong as well)
We are probably all wrong as business will always protect business.

I can't help but feel sorry for people who have paid money up front for a service but this service can lawfully get cancelled because of clauses in place in contracts. Most clauses in contracts cover the company providing the service not the consumer.

We all know how difficult it is to get alternate transportation at the last minute.
 
JohnK said:
I am sorry but we need to stop defending the airlines and all their possible get out clauses. Virgin is just a two bit airline, like Jetstar, and anyone that books or flies with them deserves the treatment they ultimately receive.
I was in no way defending the airlines position regarding schedule changes and route drops. I was just pointing out that this is not an issue unique to DJ and JQ, but common with most (if not all) airlines. I make no comment about whether this policy is good or bad, justified or not, contractually enforcible or not.
 
JohnK said:
I am sorry but we need to stop defending the airlines and all their possible get out clauses. Virgin is just a two bit airline, like Jetstar, and anyone that books or flies with them deserves the treatment they ultimately receive.

I don't think NM was defending the airline. Rather pointing out that most airlines would do the same thing - it isn't just Virgin Blue that does this. At least my own experiences and those of others I know matches this. It's disappointing as a passenger, and morally wrong in my view, but airlines generally do have the right to do this (except in certain countries).
 
Well, my friend ended up with a successful outcome.

He talked to them again and they offered him the choices of
1. A refund
2. An alternative set of flights that would mean less time in Broome and spending the night in
Perth at his own expense.
When he asked to put it in writing that these were his only choices, they hastily back-pedalled and
discovered they could rebook him on Qantas flights on his chosen days after all.

Sounds as if they didn't think Clause 8 (we will take your money but don't promise to get you to any
particular place on any particular day) would hold up in court or just didn't want the bad publicity.

They've lost at least two potential customers with that stingy little stunt. I wonder how many people
meekly took the refund?
 
The problem is that the cost for a flight to Broome on 1 May 2008 is less than the cost of the first flight to Broome tomorrow. However, as May 2008 approaches, the cost of that particular commodity increases. It's effectively a loan to the airline - your friend subsidised Virgin's short term operations.
 
A good outcome, but a real shame the airline did not come to that conclusion during the original discussion.
 
DJ was not being altruistic; it's a money thing. On a case by case basis, say no until you know you can't say no then pay them off.

It would cost DJ a lot of $$$ to book the "BLFS's Friends" of the world on flights with other carriers.

I would expect more than half the people affected would simply end up taking the refund.
 
serfty said:
...it's a money thing. On a case by case basis, say no until you know you can't say no then pay them off...
I agree with Serfty, and as I have posted before, know what you want as a solution before you ring the airline. Don’t ask them to suggest “what they can do for a great customer like you”, put action plans before them. (And have fall back positions if you are asking for the moon.)

My experience with Jetstar has been exemplary… this story is mine and first hand (as JohnK is a fan of saying YMMV), when they cancelled daily service to a destination, on a booking that I had, at my request I was transferred to Cityflyer & QantasLink. I also note that last Mondays JQi service SYD-HKT was cancelled, and ALL passengers reaccommodated on other (connecting) airlines.
 
Hi, I came into this late, but thought I'd shre my experiences with DJ and 'route changes'

A couple of years ago my wife & I booked a trip home (to New Zealand) from Canberra. We originally booked on DJ to SYD and then to WLG return
DJ cancelled thier service to CBR and we were re-booked on REX (who I found to be great, and it was a pity when they pulled out of the CBR-SYD route)
Rex cancelled their services the day after we left on our holiday, and they arranged for us to return on QF

Virgin then told us a few weeks out that the flight we were booked on to WLG had been cancelled, and offered us a refund, which I declined (this was a Christmas break, so no comparable fares on QF or NZ, as we had beooked in April), and made some vague threats about never using them again, and they came back with another offer, of changed routing and/or days, at their cost, with some talk of additional travel vouchers. (I had already booked internal flights in NZ with NZ, so had a vested interest in keeping as close as I could to the original plan). DJ offered to get us to CHC on the same day as original, and NZ agreed to change our flights so we could depart CHC instead of WLG with only a rebooking fee. We were set, until the week before we left...
As Rex had stopped flying after our depature, we had been put on QF from SYD to CBR.
When I rechecked our return flight, (also out of CHC, part of the original deal), I found it had been subject to a time change, and was scheduled to leave 90 minutes later, creating a real posibility that we would miss our QF Flight. I had a 'friendly', and somewhat one sided, chat with various members of the DJ customer service centre, and eventually secured a re-routing to MEL, and then on to CBR with DJ. The person at DJ also arranged for our QF flights to be credited, so we could use them later on.
As I think, at the end of the day we got something that worked for us (we have family in CHC, so we got to see them twice)
As a result of this, we have continued to fly with DJ (as my wife prefers their service to QF, which we only fly with for business)

So, it would appear to me that you have 2 choices, meekly take it, which is the first option they offer, or request a rethink, in which case you can negotiate a better solution

YZ
 
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