U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
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Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#2if Earnings - Fine > 0:
print("Cost of buisness is " + Fine)
end
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#3if Earnings - Fine > 0: print("Cost of buisness is " + Fine) end
In this case, it sounds like the airlines are paying the fine AND the refunds.
> The department’s intervention contributed to the airlines’ issuing more than $600 million in refunds, it said.
> ...
> [United States Secretary of Transportation] Mr. Buttigieg said that, while the department was more focused on ensuring that refunds were paid than on collecting fines, he had nonetheless asked staff to look into whether the penalties were sufficient to prevent such behavior in the future.
> “This really shouldn’t be happening in the first place,” he said. “And we’ll continue ratcheting up the penalty side until we’re seeing less of this kind of behavior to begin with.”
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#4if Earnings - Fine > 0: print("Cost of buisness is " + Fine) end
In this case, it sounds like the airlines are paying the fine AND the refunds. > The department’s intervention contributed to the airlines’ issuing more than $600 million in refunds, it said. > ... > [United States Secretary of Transportation] Mr. Buttigieg said that, while the department was more focused on ensuring that refunds were paid than on collecting fines, he had nonetheless asked staff to look into whether…
If you look more closely that’s not the case. If they pay the refunds, they get to subtract a portion of that from the fine.
Dan has more detail and isn’t paywalled: https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/dot-issues-...
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#5What a bargain for the airlines. A 1% penalty and they probably saved at least 5% in financing costs.
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#6When COVID caused a trip I had planned to be cancelled, I had flights with Iceland Air, TAP Air, Easyjet, and Brussels Airlines...
- Iceland Air and Easyjet issued refunds quickly
- Brussels took a few months, but communicated proactively that they were working on it and provided updates without me reaching out
- TAP never picked up the phone and I ended up having to force a charge after every other airline had come through with a refund...
Not surprised, lol
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
In this case, it sounds like the airlines are paying the fine AND the refunds. > The department’s intervention contributed to the airlines’ issuing more than $600 million in refunds, it said. > ... > [United States Secretary of Transportation] Mr. Buttigieg said that, while the department was more focused on ensuring that refunds were paid than on collecting fines, he had nonetheless asked staff to look into whether…
If you look more closely that’s not the case. If they pay the refunds, they get to subtract a portion of that from the fine. Dan has more detail and isn’t paywalled: https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/dot-issues-...
It sounds like that's only the case for "good-will refunds" where the airline wasn't otherwise obligated to pay the refund.
> Frontier said it had issued about $100 million in what it described as “good-will refunds” that were not legally required. The airline will pay only $1 million of the $2.2 million fine because the Transportation Department credited it for providing refunds to passengers who canceled nonrefundable tickets early in the pandemic.
But, either way, the DOT's main focus is on getting people the refunds. I added a bit more context to my first message to clarify that, but also the fact that the fine is ~1% of the owed refunds makes it fairly clear IMO.
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#8What a bargain for the airlines. A 1% penalty and they probably saved at least 5% in financing costs.
No, it was an inconvenience. They actually had to take off the cushion from the couch in the CEO's office, to get that money.
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#9What a bargain for the airlines. A 1% penalty and they probably saved at least 5% in financing costs.
To be fair, it does say that the penalties will ratchet up if the airlines don't correct their behavior.
Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds
#10When COVID caused a trip I had planned to be cancelled, I had flights with Iceland Air, TAP Air, Easyjet, and Brussels Airlines... - Iceland Air and Easyjet issued refunds quickly - Brussels took a few months, but communicated proactively that they were working on it and provided updates without me reaching out - TAP never picked up the phone and I ended up having to force a charge after every other airline had come…
> TAP never picked up the phone and I ended up having to force a charge after every other airline had come through with a refund...
Same happened to me. And I even called an additional time and only dealt with them in Portuguese hoping I might get somewhere with that tactic. Nope. Called, emailed, tweeted, you name it. No luck.
Ryanair was pretty bad too. I spent a few weeks trying to book a short, direct flight between major cities and they kept cancelling the flights (3-4 in a row) and trying to give me credit. Their webchat helpline was quite poor, too.