Can I get compensation for a cancelled Australia flight?
Q My sister-in-law recently had a direct flight from Perth to London cancelled two days before flying. The next direct flight was two days later. Qantas have told her they don’t do compensation for cancelled flights and that she should apply for compensation through travel insurance. Is that true?
A Well, where to begin? I imagine it was infuriating for your sister-in-law. Perth to Heathrow on flight QF9 is the only nonstop link between Australia and the UK. Passengers pay a premium for getting from the Western Australian capital to London in a single overnight flight.
Passengers travelling in the opposite direction, on QF10 from Heathrow to Perth, may well have been entitled to £520 in cash compensation each. Under European air passengers’ rights rules, which apply to all airlines flying from the UK or EU, travellers hit by short-notice cancellations are due compensation unless the carrier can demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible.
They are also entitled to be flown as soon as possible on any airline that can get them to their destination – which, for example, might involve Qantas paying Singapore Airlines or Emirates to carry passengers via their hubs to Perth. The Australian carrier is also obliged to pay for hotels and meals until the travellers can get on their way.
The obligations also apply to UK and European airlines flying from anywhere in the world – such as British Airways from Sydney via Singapore to Heathrow. But as a non-European airline, Qantas is not bound by the passenger rights rules when flying from its home country.
As your sister-in-law found out, consumer law in Australia (in common with many other countries) gives few rights to passengers. It seems to me that Europe’s rules are rather too generous while those of other nations are inadequate. Let us hope that some kind of global framework of consumer care can be agreed upon. Meanwhile, the suggestion she could claim compensation from travel insurance is fanciful – in some circumstances, she might get recompense for hotels and other expenses while she waited to fly home.
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