Airline cancelling confirmed bookings
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Airline cancelling confirmed bookings
Last week I made some reservatione on an airline website for 2010 for travel entirely within the EU, and received emails from the airline confirming the bookings had been made. It appears that the airline website had been showing me the wrong price (the price was changed a few hours subsequently) and the airline has cancelled all my bookings - although it hasn't bothered to send me an email to say so !
I suspect that complaining to the airline will result in a "You should have known the price quoted on the website was incorrect, so it's your fault"
Assuming the flights actually go ahead on the same dates, time and routes, do I have any ability to hold the airline to the reservations I made ?
I suspect that complaining to the airline will result in a "You should have known the price quoted on the website was incorrect, so it's your fault"
Assuming the flights actually go ahead on the same dates, time and routes, do I have any ability to hold the airline to the reservations I made ?
It depends on the airline's terms and conditions. Some do reserve the right to say that they can cancel your flight in the event of any manifest error in their booking systems - for example, if you'd booked a flight to Sao Paulo for £5 then they would claim that this was a manifest error. However, if you had booked a flight to Nice for £25 then it is not clear that it would be an error.
Best bet is to contact the Air Transport Users' Council or your local Trading Standards people. If the airline has nothing in its T+Cs, then yes, you should be able to force them to honour the original booking at the original price. You had entered into a contract for travel and can reasonably expect the airline to honour its side of that contract unless it has a built-in get-out clause to its advantage.
Best bet is to contact the Air Transport Users' Council or your local Trading Standards people. If the airline has nothing in its T+Cs, then yes, you should be able to force them to honour the original booking at the original price. You had entered into a contract for travel and can reasonably expect the airline to honour its side of that contract unless it has a built-in get-out clause to its advantage.
Airline Ts&Cs are not the be all and end all of conditions. If they put anything in there that is found to be in breach of the Unfair Contract Terms Act then it is unlawful and will be set aside in court, plus they will have to pay all the costs. Your local Trading Standards Office will advise you further, and if necessary take it up on your behalf.
In an industry where carriers are openly advertising fares for 1p, no fare can any longer be considered "obviously wrong". Even before that, if they advertise the fare and also take you money for it as full payment, that is generally held in law to be a firm contract. The "obvious mistake" was more to cover advertising something, then saying when you go to buy it that the ad was a mistake.
In an industry where carriers are openly advertising fares for 1p, no fare can any longer be considered "obviously wrong". Even before that, if they advertise the fare and also take you money for it as full payment, that is generally held in law to be a firm contract. The "obvious mistake" was more to cover advertising something, then saying when you go to buy it that the ad was a mistake.
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I suspect that complaining to the airline will result in a "You should have known the price quoted on the website was incorrect, so it's your fault"
As WHBM has said, if they took your money, they are on the hook. So you need to find out what the airline intends to do. If they intend to not carry you you need to get them to acknowledge that, cancelling your reservation is probably enough, I would say. Refunding your bank account would also be a cast iron indication of an anticipatory breach.
Then you can just buy another ticket on the same flight at the new price and invoice them for the difference, plus a bit more for your bother.
The airline can then take that up with the person who made the mistake.
