Summer holidays: canceled flights, late reimbursements… customers on edge

After the big blockage, the big bazaar! Cancellation of serial flights, very late reimbursement of tickets, airlines with absent subscribers, the airline world is playing on travelers' nerves. If the Covid-19 grounded thousands of planes in just a few hours, the resumption of commercial flights is slipping. And don't bother trying to find the right students. In low cost as in traditional companies, the relaunch is done in pain.

Exasperated travelers

As proof, Véronique, who booked a plane ticket on Lufthansa in February to go to Poland in July. Four months later and after hours on the phone trying to reach the German company, the ticket was canceled five times. "When I changed the schedule or the date, the same evening the flight no longer existed and I received a new cancellation," says this consultant, who is currently in Poland. I remain very stressed for the return. My flights can be canceled at any time. "

For Patrick, the bad news fell on July 8, when he discovered, by chance, that his EasyJet flight of July 30 from Bordeaux (Gironde) for the ancient Sicilian city Catania is canceled. Result, a new ticket bought three times more expensive at Air France, with a connection in Paris…

Complicated to travel, therefore, especially when you do not have the chance to find an alternative flight and you have to get started in the reimbursement request. "For Ryanair, it's hell," says this client. We have the impression that everything is done to discourage us. Especially since for some travelers you must first find the right contact between the intermediary who sold the ticket, such as Expedia or Opodo, and the airline that performs the service. "Everyone is passing the buck," notes Camille Bertrand, lawyer at the European Consumer Center (CEC). These disputes with intermediaries concern a good half of the 2,000 disputes currently handled. "

Refunds replaced by assets

Finally, there remains the thorny problem of reimbursement methods. Regulation No. 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 is unambiguous: in the event of cancellation, the air carrier must offer passengers the choice between re-routing or reimbursement.

However, to preserve the treasury of the companies and the professionals of tourism, dry up by two and a half months of confinement, the government signed on March 25 an ordinance which authorizes the tour operators and the travel agencies to propose a valid credit 18 months instead of a cash refund. An illegal text and disputed by Brussels which launched last week an infringement procedure against France and against nine other countries of the European Union. Requested on this point, the Ministry of Transport did not respond to us on Thursday.

In the process, the consumer defense associations UFC Que Choisir and CLCV filed an appeal before the Council of State to contest this same order. No question that customers fill the cash holes of the companies: "There are people who have lost their jobs and others who have fallen into precariousness because of partial unemployment," lists the CEC. There are also elderly people who are not sure they will be able to travel in six months. All of these people need these refunds. "

Companies are trying to adapt

At Air France-KLM, we claim to have put the means to reimburse the tens of thousands of canceled flights. "In June, the teams in charge of reimbursement increased tenfold to reach 600 people," says the group. Since mid-March, 60% of the requests in progress have been processed ”. At Ryanair, we assure that “more than 90% of passengers who booked directly with Ryanair and requested a cash refund for a trip made between March and June will receive their refund before the end of July. Easyjet does not provide "no figures" but vows to try to process refunds "within 30 days".

“It pays me” newsletter

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more

Another major challenge, in June, when Europe began to deconfinate, the companies had to rewrite their flight schedules for the summer season, established a year in advance. "You have to constantly readjust to the demand and restrictions in force in certain countries," explains EasyJet to justify the cancellations. So, when the European Union announced on June 30 the reopening of its air borders with Algeria, the latter brutally closed them. As a result, for Air France, thousands of tickets already sold had to be managed.

"Everything is not yet perfect, there may still be litigation cases," recognizes Alain Battisti, president of the National Federation of Commercial Aviation (FNAM). But we are improving. ”

Thus, last week, sources at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) were surprised to see Air France sell on its website certain destinations when these flights did not exist. "In the flow of flights that we had to reorganize, there were hiccups at the start," admits Amel Hammouda, deputy general manager of transformation and network for Air France. Thefts, very minority, whose cancellation had been reported to customers, remained for sale two or three days. But it's now settled. "