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Refund?? What someone paid for their ticket is not relevant. To be made whole someone needs to be given the current market value of their flight. If I purchase

Refund?? What someone paid for their ticket is not relevant. To be made whole someone needs to be given the current market value of their flight. If I purchased a ticket for $399 but a comparable ticket now costs $799, I can't buy a new ticket with that refund.

dghlsakjg 2y ago
A lot better than what was happening before, which is issuing airline specific expiring vouchers
paxys 2y ago
They already offer to rebook you. Refund is for the cases where you don't want the flight at all.
- elhudy 2y ago
  They only offer to rebook you on a flight in their own fleet though. E.g. i have been canceled on united due to “bad weather” halfway through a segment and was made to wait 4 days until the next united flight (there was a huge backlog). Instead, since i was stranded and absolutely needed to get to my destination, i had to buy a delta flight leaving that same night for $700 more than market value. United refused to compensate me for this. It’s bullshit. Edit: oh by the way, i didn’t get refunded for the segment that flew me across the nation just to stand me in denver. The refund was prorated And only counted for the second segment. Anyone who doesn’t think airlines need more regulations on cancellations and refunds clearly hasn’t flown regularly.
  - schrodinger 2y ago
    If you complain hard enough and get lucky you can get rebooked on a different airline, but it's certainly consistent or mandated. I think I've only had it once as someone who flies quite a bit.
alkonaut 2y ago
If you choose a refund that would be because you opted not to take the flight at all. Assuming it was your outbound flight, that can be reasonable. If it's a return or connecting flight you might have to re-route, in which case a refund might not cover your alternative. This sort of thing really needs a lot of interpretive guidelines. E.g. the EC 261 guidelines are excellent in clarifying this. re-routing should be offered at no additional cost to the passenger, even where passengers are re-routed with another air carrier or on a different transport mode or in a higher class or at a higher fare(...) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016XC0615(01) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52... In practice I believe this is usually applied like "If there is availability on the same day on the original airline then book that, else the first available flight on a different airline". Of course in the first case the airline is also on the line for the hotel costs etc. I don't think the US regulation has the same sort of teeth (yet) but it should at least be made clear. For flights, booking an alternative flight is invariably going to be a lot more expensive than the original one. And regulation that only reimburses the original fare, allows rerouting on the same airline, or doesn't offer cash compensation in addition to sorting out the journey, is pretty bad even if it's a step in the right direction.

dghlsakjg 2y ago

A lot better than what was happening before, which is issuing airline specific expiring vouchers

paxys 2y ago

They already offer to rebook you. Refund is for the cases where you don't want the flight at all.

elhudy 2y ago
They only offer to rebook you on a flight in their own fleet though. E.g. i have been canceled on united due to “bad weather” halfway through a segment and was made to wait 4 days until the next united flight (there was a huge backlog). Instead, since i was stranded and absolutely needed to get to my destination, i had to buy a delta flight leaving that same night for $700 more than market value. United refused to compensate me for this. It’s bullshit. Edit: oh by the way, i didn’t get refunded for the segment that flew me across the nation just to stand me in denver. The refund was prorated And only counted for the second segment. Anyone who doesn’t think airlines need more regulations on cancellations and refunds clearly hasn’t flown regularly.
- schrodinger 2y ago
  If you complain hard enough and get lucky you can get rebooked on a different airline, but it's certainly consistent or mandated. I think I've only had it once as someone who flies quite a bit.

alkonaut 2y ago

If you choose a refund that would be because you opted not to take the flight at all. Assuming it was your outbound flight, that can be reasonable. If it's a return or connecting flight you might have to re-route, in which case a refund might not cover your alternative. This sort of thing really needs a lot of interpretive guidelines. E.g. the EC 261 guidelines are excellent in clarifying this. re-routing should be offered at no additional cost to the passenger, even where passengers are re-routed with another air carrier or on a different transport mode or in a higher class or at a higher fare(...) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016XC0615(01) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52... In practice I believe this is usually applied like "If there is availability on the same day on the original airline then book that, else the first available flight on a different airline". Of course in the first case the airline is also on the line for the hotel costs etc. I don't think the US regulation has the same sort of teeth (yet) but it should at least be made clear. For flights, booking an alternative flight is invariably going to be a lot more expensive than the original one. And regulation that only reimburses the original fare, allows rerouting on the same airline, or doesn't offer cash compensation in addition to sorting out the journey, is pretty bad even if it's a step in the right direction.