Airlines will be prohibited from canceling return tickets for late passengers
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Airlines may be prohibited from canceling return tickets. State Duma deputies and social activists approached the Ministry of Transport with such an initiative. Currently, passengers who have paid for a round trip flight with one booking and miss the first flight cannot use the second. As a result, they are forced to buy a round-trip ticket again, and the carriers earn twice as much. As experts note, latecomers usually purchase only one ticket, assuming that they already have a return ticket. The airline does not inform about the cancellation, and the passenger learns about it after the fact.
In order to avoid such situations, it is necessary to clarify the timing of notifying the carrier about a non-flight on a specific flight, says Deputy Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport Ilya Zotov: “From an economic point of view, the story of preserving tickets is not always advisable. Let’s say you have a non-refundable ticket, you were late and decided not to fly anywhere at all, since your ticket is non-refundable anyway, then why would you even try to cancel something and ask to cancel the second ticket.
By keeping these tickets, airlines will be able to sell fewer extra seats, which will either end up with more expensive tickets or, more likely, with airlines doing more overbooking. For example, now it exists due to the fact that some passengers, according to statistics, do not show up for the flight, and now the airlines will be forced to keep these reservations, then there will be dissatisfied passengers who, because of this, at some point will not go anywhere they can fly away.”
Pobeda, Utair and Red Wings ask passengers to indicate their intention to keep their return ticket even before completing check-in for the first flight. If the client applies later or does not do so at all, the company will cancel the flight. Such an initiative is unprofitable for both airlines and travelers, says Ilya Shatilin, editor-in-chief of the portal for air passengers frequentflyers.ru:
“Under federal aviation regulations, a passenger has the opportunity to retain a return ticket if he notifies the airline. But since it does not indicate the time during which the passenger must notify her, it is logical that the airlines came up with the rules in their own way.
Some companies can be notified an hour before the first flight departs, 40 minutes, and so on. Therefore, we, as the All-Russian Association of Passengers, understand the lack of regulatory regulation in terms of time limits and propose to introduce a limit of 24 hours into the rules. This is enough time for the passenger to notify the airline that he is not flying. But, of course, you need to understand that we should not be talking about flights during the day, if there is a flight in the morning and back in the evening, of course, the norm does not apply here.”
From April 1, airlines were required to pay passengers 100 rubles. per hour for flight and baggage delays. Corresponding changes have been made to the Air Code. To receive compensation, the customer must submit a claim to the carrier in writing. In this case, the fine cannot exceed half the cost of the ticket. It is separately stipulated that if the reasons for the delay were weather conditions or a threat to flight safety, such cases are not covered by payments.
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