Tiger Airways Loses VCAT case - T&C's breach Australia Consumer Law (breach own T&C's also)

[Melburnian1]

Cases in Tribunals or Courts can be overturned on appeal, and may later be distinguished by other justices/judges/Tribunal members if the facts differ.

This case from 2017 and 2018 where a Mr Wells (flying from CNS to MEL) successfully obtained compensation through Victoria's VCAT against Tigerair is interesting, even if a little dated:

Wells v Tiger Airways Australia Pty Ltd (Civil Claims) [2018] VCAT 934 - BarNet Jade

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This is the case citation if one can't locate it via the link:

VICTORIAN CIVIL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL

CIVIL DIVISION

CIVIL CLAIMS LIST	VCAT REFERENCE NO.C7545/2017​
CATCHWORDS​
Contract for the provision of services; cancellation of flight by airline; failure to comply with conditions of the contract; failure to remedy within a reasonable time; consequential losses to the passenger; Australian Consumer Law sections 60-62 and 267.

APPLICANT	Joseph Wells
RESPONDENT	Tiger Airways Australia Pty Ltd
WHERE HELD	Dromana
BEFORE	Senior Member S. Burdon-Smith
HEARING TYPE	Hearing
DATE OF HEARING	21 February 2018
DATE OF ORDER AND REASONS	19 June 2018
CITATION	Wells v Tiger Airways Australia Pty Ltd (Civil Claims) [2018] VCAT 934

Airlines love to settle these matters at the Court's or Tribunal's door/steps.

I haven't checked non-Victorian jurisdictions but the paucity of such reported cases is likely to be similar around Australia.

 

[straitman]

An interesting read.

 

[Melburnian1]

straitman, what isn't explained is why Tigerair (part of the VA group) didn't settle prior to the Member hearing the case, because that decision sets a precedent that other hearings can consider.

 

[straitman]

straitman, what isn't explained is why Tigerair (part of the VA group) didn't settle prior to the Member hearing the case, because that decision sets a precedent that other hearings can consider.

They obviously (though wrongly) believed that they could not lose.

 

[ozfflyer]

why don't Tiger when they have a cancellation, simply put as many passengers as possible on Virgin ? Similarly with Jetstar/Qantas ? Would save a lot of agro & bad PR later at almost no cost !!!

 

[Melburnian1]

why don't Tiger when they have a cancellation, simply put as many passengers as possible on Virgin ? Similarly with Jetstar/Qantas ? Would save a lot of agro & bad PR later at almost no cost !!!

Fair point, but one reason may be a perception by VA and QF management respectively that if passengers book on TT/JQ and instead end up on VA/QF, the message will get out to the travelling public that they can 'get more for less' if there are any problems with the low cost airlines and so overall each group's revenue would be lower (assuming the 'low cost airline' fares on any given flight at similar times to a VA/QF one are always cheaper.)

Plus VA/QF passengers may perceive their higher expenditure per flight is not valued by the airline.

Of course, there aren't always sufficient spare seats available on the legacy airlines route by route...it depends.

 

[ozfflyer]

Fair point, but one reason may be a perception by VA and QF management respectively that if passengers book on TT/JQ and instead end up on VA/QF, the message will get out to the travelling public that they can 'get more for less' and so overall each group's revenue would be lower (assuming the 'low cost airline' fares on any given flight at similar times to a VA/QF one are always cheaper.)

Plus VA/QF passengers may perceive their higher expenditure per flight is not valued by the airline.

Of course, there aren't always sufficient spare seats available on the legacy airlines route by route...it depends.

have heard of quite a few cases where TT & JQ flights cancelled & VA & QF respectively had dozens of seats on flights on same route, but passengers were told to go home & come back tomorrow, even when their home, was at other end of cancelled flight.

 

[Melburnian1]

have heard of quite a few cases where TT & JQ flights cancelled & VA & QF respectively had dozens of seats on flights on same route, but passengers were told to go home & come back tomorrow, even when their home, was at other end of cancelled flight.

I agree it's bad business practice, but airlines are not altruists and are interested in revenue maximisation.

One wonders how many airline staff, including managements, privately regard passengers who seek onward carriage in these circumstances as pests. One can't definitively say that there's sarcasm also rearing its ugly head but it has crossed my mind. On the other hand, clearly some passengers get very abusive very quickly, and at times aren't honest about their personal circumstances.

 

[ozfflyer]

I agree it's bad business practice, but airlines are not altruists and are interested in revenue maximisation.

One wonders how many airline staff, including managements, privately regard passengers who seek onward carriage in these circumstances as pests. One can't definitively say that there's sarcasm also rearing its ugly head but it has crossed my mind. On the other hand, clearly some passengers get very abusive very quickly, and at times aren't honest about their personal circumstances.

cases I've heard about where from very calm individuals who had millions of ff pts, who only flew JQ cos, no Qantas ff seats at time they booked.

 

[Quickstatus]

Do JQ put their cancelled passengers onto QF?

 

[ozfflyer]

Do JQ put their cancelled passengers onto QF?

I think it depends on who you are. But do know that pax that were on JQ ff seats, only because no QF ff seats at time of booking, had to book QF ff seats at last min & then get QF to refund ff pts fro JQ flights. Pain in the cough, which should have been sorted fast at airport.

 

[AisleSeat]

Do JQ put their cancelled passengers onto QF?

We had a cancelled JQ flight KIX-xCNS-MEL. They changed it to KIX-xHND-MEL. HND-MEL was on QF metal.

 

[Melburnian1]

We had a cancelled JQ flight KIX-xCNS-MEL. They changed it to KIX-xHND-MEL. HND-MEL was on QF metal.

How recent was this?

 

[dajop]

Do JQ put their cancelled passengers onto QF?

Sister in law and her family were put on QF when their JQ SIN-MEL was cancelled. We were given option of QF when our JQ MEL-SIN was cancelled (but took refund instead as we were planning to change flights anyway). Also aware of pax being transferred to EK on MEL-SIN when JQ was cancelled (was told by EK check in when I asked why EK flight was suddenly so full).

I’m guessing they perform better at re-accommodating passengers when it’s outside school holidays (as services not so full).

 

[AIRwin]

They changed it to KIX-xHND-MEL. HND-MEL was on QF metal.

NRT instead of HND?

 

[AisleSeat]

How recent was this?

April 2017

 

[AisleSeat]

NRT instead of HND?

Oh, yeah, I think it was.

 

[serfty]

I was on QF NRT-MEL last year when the JQ flight was cancelled. The cabin filled up and my hope for a spare seat was dashed.

The young dude beside me was surprised they did not have to pay for F&B ...

 

[Melburnian1]

Below is part of a Tigerair review that I have lifted from TripAdvisor's airlines section.

It suggests that sometimes TT may indeed place a passenger incurring a cancellation on to a VA flight, but multiple options are not offered.

One cannot vouch that all this actually occurred but the review seems genuine enough from the way it is expressed:

Just bad service
Just plain bad service, as other reviewers have mentioned they will cancel flights on you if there's not enough passengers. We were supposed to fly Sydney to Brisbane on flight 358 at 09:15am but at 5:40am we received an email the flight has been cancelled, my wife called their customer service right away to see what our options were, and was told there must have been some issue because the flight is still there. We get to the airport at 07:10am only to be told that the flight was indeed cancelled. The only option was to fly out on Virgin Australia at 12:00pm, now on my daughter's birthday we're spending the time at the airport. We weren't given any options to change the flight either, even though Virgin had flights at 9:45am, 10:00am, and 11:00am but they wouldn't touch our tickets with a ten foot pole saying these are tickets booked on TigerAir and this is the ONLY option available to you, unless you buy a 300 dollar ticket for each of the persons. In conclusion, don't book TigerAir, just spend a bit more money up in advance and book a decent airline like VirginAir, or Qantas, stay away from this shoddy airline.

 

[moa999]

It's an interesting decision
(And they could have got more had the wife been an applicant).

I particularly find interesting the payment for leave taken and additional hotel expenses.
While the couple may not have wanted to take the extra 2 days holiday, I'm sure they did use it.

It's a different scenario imho to an outbound flight where you may be paying for accomodation/ tours etc that you aren't actually consuming