Delay repay comes to domestic flights

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Delay - repay comes to airlines - from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

The new rules would mean travellers could claim for delays of more than an hour, whereas currently they have to have been held up for over three hours.

The plans would replace EU^» (European Union - about) compensation rules the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) retained after Brexit.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the proposals "aim to bolster airline consumer protections and rights".

Currently, domestic passengers on flights shorter than 1,500km (932 miles) can claim £220 for delays of more than three hours, but nothing for shorter waits.

But the government says that, as a result of powers gained after Brexit, it could replace this system with a model similar to the one used by rail and ferry operators, which links compensation to the cost of travel.


Under the new plan, which is under consultation, passengers would be entitled to:
25% of the ticket price for a delay of more than one hour but less than two hours
50% of the ticket price for a delay of more than two hours but less than three hours
100% of the ticket price for a delay of more than three hours.

[ChrisB]

That might help level up the price of the two!

[IndustryInsider]

All sounds much fairer to air passengers to me...

[stuving]

That might help level up the price of the two!

Maybe not, since as proposed cheap air fares only get cheap compensation. So that would put a stop to the kind of "windfall compensation" where I got €250 for the delay on a flight I paid for mostly with Avios. I had to wait for the end of the Jet2 court case, and then the supreme court's dismissive refusal to hear it, but BA^» (British Airways - about) did pay up.

[ChrisB]

Airlines don't have to pay anything currently for domestic flights, so trhey'll want to cover potential losses for this & one way will to increase their costs.

[Surrey 455]

Interesting. I've had several lengthy delays of up to 12 hours in the past which if the proposed plans were in force back then would have entitled me to a free flight.

A few years back I got £350 from Thomas Cook for a flight delayed by 24 hours under the EU^» (European Union - about) scheme. I was very happy because I paid a lot less than that for the entire package holiday! 

[broadgage]

Waiting to hear how the airlines wriggle out of this.
The obvious way is to reduce fares to say £1, thereby limiting the payout to a maximum of £1.
Obtain the rest of what was previously called "the fare" as some form of non-refundable booking fee or handling fee. One might hope that this possibility has already been considered and outlawed by those drawing up the regulations, but don't count on it !

[Surrey 455]

Interesting. I've had several lengthy delays of up to 12 hours in the past which if the proposed plans were in force back then would have entitled me to a free flight.

A few years back I got £350 from Thomas Cook for a flight delayed by 24 hours under the EU^» (European Union - about) scheme. I was very happy because I paid a lot less than that for the entire package holiday! 

Oops. I didn't read the source correctly. Those flights were not domestic ones so would not be covered.

[stuving]

Waiting to hear how the airlines wriggle out of this.
The obvious way is to reduce fares to say £1, thereby limiting the payout to a maximum of £1.
Obtain the rest of what was previously called "the fare" as some form of non-refundable booking fee or handling fee. One might hope that this possibility has already been considered and outlawed by those drawing up the regulations, but don't count on it !

I'm sure that's already covered by the rules about refunds, and in any case by general consumer legislation. For anyone who is still concerned, Q19 of the consultation is:

If compensation for delayed domestic UK^▸ (United Kingdom) flights is linked to ticket price, what should the definition of ticket price include?

There's no text with that question, so you wonder exactly what they were thinking it was about. Have people (like the industry) been complaining about the current rules?

I guess it's about the things that already accompany ticket prices: taxes, airport fees, etc. Note that my "free" flight cost a bunch of Avios (which were not exactly free of cost, and in any case partly paid for by Tesco Clubcard points, which themselves are sort of free) plus a cash amount of £17.50 in lieu of taxes and other charges. So the rules about refunds already need to cope with stuff like that.