Consumer group Choice chipped the Australian Government this week over its promise to deliver “the strongest ever protection” for travellers in its new aviation consumer rights charter.
It turns out airlines will not automatically be required to provide refunds for weather-related flight delays or cancellations, with Choice senior campaigns and policy adviser Bea Sherwood noting that under the draft charter refunds for flight delays or cancellations would be limited to events within the airline’s control, excluding weather.
“When a flight is cancelled or delayed, the consumer should be able to receive a refund regardless of the reason for the cancellation, and the charter should go a step further to make sure that’s there,” she said.
When severe weather caused my flight to Melbourne to be cancelled in January I was furious that I was given a flight credit instead of a refund by the airline.
I thought it was outrageous that my money wasn’t returned when a service was not provided.
But I figured I would find a way to use the flight credit voucher at some point in the next 12 months.
That moment came this week when I tried to redeem my voucher on a new flight.
It took – literally – hours.
I tried twice on Monday night, inputting the endless details required to secure a seat on the plane. When I got to the payment section and tried to apply my flight credit number, the booking stalled and wouldn’t progress.
I managed to track down a phone number to call for assistance – no mean feat – and waited on hold for 30 minutes before being cut off.
I inputted all my details again on Tuesday night, tried to apply my flight credit number and the booking stalled again.
I used live chat this time and, about an hour later, after five-minute delays between a gazillion back and forth questions and responses, a nice woman at the call centre (who was obviously juggling numerous other enquiries at the same time) had to book the flights for me .
FFS.
I think we have a bit of a problem here with both the refund and voucher systems.
Airlines shouldn’t get to keep our money and earn interest on it and then make it SO BLOODY DIFFICULT to redeem vouchers.
It’s beyond infuriating.
But then, at least I live in a country where the government isn’t dismantling democracy, so on a scale of one to 10 things aren’t too bad.
I soothed my fury last night by drinking Pineapple Negronis with my sister at Capella Sydney.
The hotel is stunningly beautiful and housed inside a former Department of Education building dating back to 1912. It has the most gorgeous lights in the lobby that open and close like flowers or sea creatures.
We settled into a table at the swish McRae Bar, where the team from award-winning Maybe Sammy were shaking up Pineapple Negronis crafted sustainably from offcuts of pineapple sourced from Capella’s Brasserie 1930.
The cocktails will be served at the bar for a limited time before being stocked exclusively in hotel room mini bars.
The Pineapple Negronis were delicious, but a bit lethal when only served with little bowls of nuts. Apparently there were also Sundown Aperitivos and Eucalyptus Gimlets on offer at the launch, but they didn’t come our way so I can’t comment on them.
The upsides were that we got to have a lovely sisterly chat as we crunched on our almonds and sipped our cocktails … and were able to have a much earlier night than we expected.
PS have a great weekend, catch you next week.
Song of the day: The Flying Lizards “Money”
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