Sort flight time changes early
After an unwanted night in an airport motel, Josh Martin asks what to expect when your flight is rescheduled.
Dusseldorf, Germany. Is it on your bucket list? Because it certainly wasn’t on mine. I’m sure this rather bleak, industrial city along the Rhine River has some hidden charms, but bursting to get to Oktoberfest, I hadn’t the inclination or budget to go searching for them.
So why was I here, attempting to embrace German cuisine with a few early morning bites of something that resembled a reduced-to-clear Countdown raw meat patty for breakfast? Well, even if I wasn’t keen to spend the night in Dusseldorf, our airline Air Berlin had forced an embrace with the city: home of cartwheeling (invented here in the 1200s apparently), the setting of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and well, not much else.
I have to assume this is the reason, as we weren’t given anything more than ‘‘urgent operational requirements’’ as a reason why our morning flight between London and Munich with a 45-minute stop-off in Dusseldorf had been rescheduled into an evening take-off with a 12-hour overnight stay in this German B-list city.
Being based in Auckland at the time that the flight schedule was changed – four months in advance – speaking with an airline rep over the phone proved expensive, and ultimately, fruitless. No explanation on why ‘‘urgent’’ operational issues (read as: seats weren’t selling so they scrapped it altogether) led to us losing a day of our weekend break in Bavaria.
We were offered a refund. However, the lure of these nondirect
'Travel insurance does not cover instances where airlines choose to change flight times, so we are reliant on the airline to help if the changes don't work for our customers.' Brent Thomas House of Travel
flights in the first place was the exorbitant price of rival, direct routes so the refunded cash would only cover half of a substitute route. I mentioned our lost night in Munich. Any chance they would cover this unwanted airport motel room? Nein.
And they were quite within the law. Unlike the Montreal Convention and European Union law which (supposedly) sets rules over airlines when there are delays and cancellations, there is no such consumer protections for flight rescheduling. Just to make it trickier, each airline will have a different policy buried in their general ‘‘conditions of carriage’’ so sadly, it’s down to your own stellar negotiation skills if you’re after a refund or anything better.
But Sean Berenson, Flight Centre New Zealand’s general manager, said an airline is unlikely to offer any freebies: ‘‘Sweeteners are rarely offered or given. Definitely not upgrades. Sometimes additional accommodation expenses are covered, for example Hawaiian Airlines had some big changes recently and they offered passengers a set amount in US dollars to use towards additional accommodation in Hawaii if they were forced to have additional nights there.’’
Berenson also said that, in general, meal and accommodation vouchers are often given if layovers extend beyond six hours or overnight. But my inability to squeeze as much as an apple strudel out of Air Berlin shows you’re at the mercy of the airlines (or your travel agents’ schmoozing skills).
If you’re offered a refund and are ahead of the game, jumping onto another flight by the same carrier is generally accepted without much fuss particularly if you’re flying a busy route.
Berenson explains: ‘‘The contract between an airline and a customer is to get them from the ticketed origin to the ticketed destination, close to the schedule chosen. The route, aircraft type and timings can change subject to operational requirements.’’
So you’ve already signed away your rights when you purchased the original tickets. The Flight Centre rep also suggested travel insurance as a way to get peace of mind, even if the likelihood of an unpalatable flight reschedule is slim.
However, House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas disagreed that travel insurance policies would be able to get you on to a better flight, a refund or extra expenses covered.
‘‘Travel insurance does not cover instances where airlines choose to change flight times, so we are reliant on the airline to help if the changes don’t work for our customers,’’ he said.
Thomas said to raise a problem early if your idea of a holiday isn’t 12 hours extra in an airport.
‘‘If there is a planned schedule change that you know won’t suit you, get in touch with the airline or your travel agent as soon as possible. The more in advance you contact your airline or travel agent, the more likely it is the airlines will have the capacity to be able to help you.’’
Josh Martin is a London-based Kiwi journalist, who writes about travel, tourism, business, and consumer issues in between trips to places you’d rather be. Email josh.martin@fairfaxmedia.co.nz if you have a travel issue you’d like him to write about.