Should Australia have EU style passenger rights? Yes, and there’s two key reasons why such protections are useful:
First, EU passenger rights help keep fares low by forcing airlines to achieve operational performance. No longer can they get away with paying pilots, crew and other staff overtime when they delay your flight since now it’s not just a couple hundred bucks on the line but many thousands in customer compensation they must provide for long delays in terms of things like hotels, meals and cash compensation. This is precisely why low cost budget airlines like RyanAir, EasyJet and Wizz Air thrive in markets like the EU with their strict passenger protections. Second, amongst the less seasoned travellers who aren’t used to irregular operations and don’t have premium travel credit cards to insure such delays, they provide a layer of protection for them, offering hotels and cash to take the sting out of what was supposed to be a once a year getaway.
Having now travelled in Canada, which has similar travel protections to the EU, I can say that I did notice in a difference. When my connecting flight from Toronto to Saint John was cancelled, I was provided with meals and a hotel voucher no questions asked. Of course they didn’t tell me about APPR (which they were supposed to) but someone blurted that out loud and I ended up claiming that compensation online. They disagreed that they owed me compensation but provided a $500 eVoucher as a sorry. I’m still fighting them on appeal and hopefully within the next few months I’ll get the $1000 CAD owed to me in compensation. That being said, consumer protection in Canada for air travel is fairly new having been de facto introduced within the last 6 months. There are still kinks in the system including airlines who claim that COVID is an excusable reason for cancelling a flight (it isn’t we’ve had tools for >2 years now to prevent catching it).
Obviously Qantas, Virgin and the other airlines will fight any consumer protection legislation since they want to keep overpaying their employees and don’t see the benefits from running an excellent operation given the costs associated with investing in people, technology and infrastructure to support it all of which cut into Uncle Alan’s bonus. Speaking of OneWorld in general and Qantas specifically there needs to a passenger’s bill of rights for elite members. This is something Star Alliance has whereby if you have mid to top tier status and your flight gets cancelled you get hotels and meal vouchers from the airline for virtually any reason including weather.
-RooFlyer88
www.choice.com.au
