Choice (ACA) survey and petition on travel cancellations

[PineappleSkip]

Australian Consumers Association (Choice) have released the results of their survey into travel cancellation experiences.

Travel cancellations leave thousands out-of-pocket and out of patience

The full report is here (1.2mb PDF). there is a "sign the petition" link but it's not entirely clear what the text of the petition is. Deduct 10 points for that.

There were 4,295 responses. The survey was self selection and because of that respondents who had bad experiences are likely to be disproportionately large.

Only 17% of respondents received a full refund. Lots of unhappiness at being forced into a travel credit rather than a refund. Refunds had as much as 50% deducted. Lots of buck passing between airlines and travel agents.

They will be launching a petition and you can sign up for updates on progress. Choice is calling on Governments to implement

• easier travel refunds
• minimum voucher/credit rights
• a mandatory industry code for all airlines and large travel providers
• a travel and tourism industry ombudsman
• a mandatory information standard at time of booking
• an ACCC market study into the travel and tourism sector
• a national travel restrictions website.

Cheers skip

 

[Seat0B]

These reforms were long overdue in my opinion even before the bloody COVID. Seat son lived in the Netherlands and pre-Brexit UK and was astonished at how great their traveller protections were compared to ours.

 

[AIRwin]

Rex has issued a media release today especially to endorse calls for a change to Australian consumer laws to make it easier for airline passengers to get COVID-related refunds:

https://www.rex.com.au/BlobViewer/BlobViewer.aspx?attachtype=MR&filename=52696B4D4C3379446E4D626A4B324873364F75546E55756878324D6F74576A55503361736A7546722B45376B70433159477170386C49574B51416531456E39576A6537716A55716959524E326C554F395550736B5749477659655970646C7536

 

[AFF Editor]

I interviewed the author of this report on the latest episode of the AFF on Air podcast:

Podcast Episode #64: CHOICE’s Plan to Fix the Travel Cancellation Chaos

Listen now! This episode was released on 10 July, 2021.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

I think the thing that surprised me the most is just how ineffective the Airline Customer Advocate has been throughout COVID-19. Alison made quite a strong case for having the Airline Customer Advocate disbanded and replaced with a proper ombudsman that is not funded by the airline industry and actually carries some weight.

 

[bernardblack]

It's only legitimate to consider something like this if the government has accountability for not making the problem worse for travel providers. If some clown in some state decides the border is closed, that shouldn't impose undue costs on airlines who have no control over it.