Canceled & Overbooked Flight Compensation

When the Department of Transportation wrote its tarmac delay rule, it probably didn’t mean it to be taken quite so literally. According to research from Dartmouth College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the rule — which was established in 2010 to cut down on lengthy passenger delays — may actually contribute to an increase in passenger delays. The study shows that the airlines have become more likely to cancel flights that are delayed, rather than being fined by the DOT for violating the rules regarding tarmac delays.

Terminal 2 of Mumbai airport ground handling agency blames staff crunch for mixing up baggage of passengers flying to Singapore, Shanghai and Abu Dhabi

Travelling abroad anytime soon? You might have a reason to worry. A ground handling agency mixed up check-in baggage of passengers of Air China, Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airways flights, thus delaying the three international flights by up to two hours early on Sunday morning.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Nationwide flight delays left travelers in the lurch Wednesday, including hundreds at Birmingham Shuttlesworth International airport.

Many Alabamians were headed to Dallas in time for Thursday’s Cotton Bowl.

While some Dallas-bound flights were impacted by delays, most were on time, and everyone eventually made it to Texas by Wednesday night.

The University of Alabama’s mascot, Big Al, did miss a national television appearance in New York City due to a canceled flight.

MORE than 300 flights were cancelled at two airports in Chicago leaving thousands of passengers stranded and sleeping in airports due to storms in the US.

O’Hare and Midway airports were hit on Tuesday and thousands of ComEd customers remained without power after a wintry mix of sleet, freezing rain, snow and high winds pommeled the Chicago area.

For the second day in a row, O’Hare was the US epicentre for flight cancellations.

As of 3:50pm (US time), more than 290 flights had been cancelled at O’Hare and delays were reported of 30 minutes or more, the city’s Department of Aviation said.

As of 8:30 p.m., more than 1,360 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport and more than 300 flights were canceled at Midway Airport

More than 1,000 flights were canceled Monday as a winter storm pelted the Chicago area with ice, sleet and snow.

As of 8:30 p.m., more than 1,360 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport and more than 300 flights were canceled at Midway Airport. Delays of up to two hours were also reported at O’Hare Airport, while flights were being delayed up to 15 minutes at Midway, officials said.

For Melbourne university student Ella Ingram, it was never about the money.

When she took on the travel insurance giant, QBE, over a denied claim due to her depression, she wanted to call them out for discrimination.

On Friday, VCAT awarded Ms Ingram more than $20,000 and found QBE had breached the Equal Opportunity Act.

The insurer has to reimburse Ms Ingram, 21, nearly $4300 for her cancelled air ticket, plus $15,000 for hurt and humiliation. Costs were also awarded to Ms Ingram for her appearance at VCAT.

Jonathan Arthurs writes On February 23, I was due to travel to Thailand with my wife and two children to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. I had to cancel the holiday with just eight hours’ notice as I was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism from which I was lucky to survive.

We have travel insurance through my Lloyds TBS Gold bank account, so I made a claim for £2,566.76 for the total cost of the flights booked through Travelpack. Its cancellation invoice broke down the return fares into three charges: basic flight cost £1,074; airport taxes £1,474.76 and fees and levies £18.

AXA, which administers the Lloyds TSB policy, repaid £1,074 and said I should reclaim the taxes element from Qantas through Travelpack.

I have now received £478.76 (a £40 service charge has been deducted) from Travelpack, which says this is the actual taxes element of the fares. Apparently, most airlines don’t refund the fuel surcharge and other smaller airport charges that comprise part of the “airport taxes” total. (Source : recorderjournal.com)

National carrier Air India has suffered loss or incurred expenses to the tune of Rs 215.24 crore between April 2012 and November 15 this year because of delay or cancellation of flights, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Loss or expenses incurred by Air India on account of delayed and cancelled flights for 2012-13 stood at Rs 43.97 crore while the same for 2013-14 were 63.64 crore, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said in response to a question.

In 2014-15, loss or expenses incurred by the national carrier on this account stood at Rs 77.44 crore, and till November this year the same was Rs 30.19 crore, the minister said.

He said that all possible steps have been taken to ensure on-time performance of Air India flights.

The OTP is being monitored at the highest level within Air India on daily basis, he said, adding a video conference is anchored by Integrated Operation Control Centre to review the previous day's performance and process improvements wherever possible.

The Ministry also regularly monitors the OTP of Air India, he added.

Responding to another question on the national carrier, Sharma said that Air India has carried out recruitment exercise to fill up posts of cabin crew and a total of 533 cabin crew have been selected on put on training.

These recruitments have been made on a five-year fixed terms contracts, which is extendable up to another five years depending upon certain conditions.

To a question on Air India's financial performance, the minister said that Air india is targeting an operating profit of Rs 6.20 crore as per the budget estimates for the current fiscal.

Budget carrier AirAsia was hit by multiple flight delays and cancellations on Monday and yesterday after 13 of its pilots were allegedly grounded by flu.

The havoc caused to flight scheduling left hundreds of passengers fuming as many were forced to endure multiple lengthy delays and cancellations.

Some had no choice but to spend the night on airport floors.

The delays affected not only local flights but also to and from international destinations, including flights from Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport.

Passengers on flight AK6130 bound for Kota Baru from klia2, scheduled for 7.05pm on Monday, were initially told their flight was delayed, then moved to another flight, which was cancelled.

A reader, who contacted the New Straits Times, said the passengers were given food packs at 11.30pm shortly after being told their flight was cancelled due to technical requirements by AirAsia ground staff.

Another reader confirmed that a flight from klia2 to Penang on the same day was also cancelled, with some passengers left to sleep on the airport floor as accommodation was not provided.

AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes confirmed in a text message that the problem was due to a number of the airline’s pilots being down with flu.

“There was a flu epidemic in AirAsia and 12 captains were sick. So, no choice,” he said.

Efforts to contact AirAsia chief executive officer Aireen Omar for more details proved futile, but the airline’s corporate communications department later confirmed that by yesterday evening the number of their pilots struck by flu was 13.

“We do not have the official data yet, but several flights were delayed or cancelled.

“As of now, 13 of our pilots are down with flu,” a spokesman said.

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said they had not received any official complaints, but the matter seemed like an operational issue which would usually not involve his department.

Every airfare consists of some taxes, and of these taxes, some are refundable (in most cases) even a non-refundable airfare. Thus next time you cancel any non-refundable ticket, don’t forget to ask for the tax breakup and don’t forget to file your tax refund claim. Also, if you are flying from the United States, you can take a full refund even on your non-refundable airfare if you cancel the ticket within 24 hours of reservation.

The US DOT regulation gives the privilege to the customers to take back a whole refund of their airfare under 24 Hour free cancellation policy, which is however applicable only to those tickets booked at least 7 days prior to the departure date. If you want to get some more information on how you could save more on your air tickets, just read on to our blog post:

The global airline industry make billion dollar business every year from unused or partially used flight tickets. Many travelers either can’t make their flights, don’t show up or decide to change travel plans due to some unanticipated circumstances, and surprisingly a good portion of such travelers don’t apply for a refund as they either find the policies too complicated or the procedure to get the refund too time consuming....

Low-cost carrier easyJet said it had made the decision to continue its flight suspension to and from the resort until January 6 to provide certainty for customers planning their Christmas holidays.

It said customers with tickets booked to the resort would be able to receive a full refund, fly to another destination within the easyJet network or choose to have a voucher for use on future flights.

Any customers in Sharm el-Sheikh wishing to fly back to the UK are asked to contact the airline's customer service team.

British Airways also confirmed they have cancelled all flights to and from the resort up to and including January 14. It said it would be offering customers a full refund on tickets or the chance to use the value of their ticket towards another trip.

Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook said its flights remain cancelled up to December this year.

Thomson Airways said flights to the resort have been cancelled up to and including December 9, while Thomas Cook said its flights were cancelled up to December 10.

French flag carrier Air France canceled all scheduled on Friday flights to and from Mali's capital Bamako, according to the airline's online arrival and departure board.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Flight AF3852 that was scheduled to leave for Bamako at 4:20 p.m. Paris time (15:20 GMT) as well as return flight AF3873 scheduled to fly to Paris at 11:50 p.m. local time (23:50 GMT) have been canceled.

Earlier in the day, several gunmen took 170 people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali's capital. According to French media, at least three people have been killed by the terrorists, including a French national.

The Air France airline is unsure when it will be able to restart the flights to the Malian capital of Bamako, having cancelled all flights Friday after a hotel was held hostage by extremists, a spokesman of the airline told Sputnik.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 Nov) – A total of 41 flights from Davao to Manila and vice versa have been cancelled from November 15 to 20 to give way for the arrival of heads of states attending the APEC Leaders’ Summit in Manila.

In an advisory issued on Tuesday by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the cancellations of flights started on Sunday, affecting passengers of Manila-Davao-Manila flights of Philippine Airlines (PAL).

On Tuesday, Cebu Pacific had six flights cancelled, Philippine Airlines (PAL) had eight, and AirAsia had two.

In an interview with MindaNews on Tuesday, Marican Batucan, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said she was scheduled to leave for Manila at 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday via Cebu Pacific but her flight was rebooked to 3:05 p.m. She was in the city for a vacation and was about to return to her work in Riyadh as a phlebotomist.

She said her flight for Riyadh was rebooked to November 23.

“I learned that my flight was cancelled only yesterday when Cebu Pacific sent me an email,” Batucan said, but added that she understands the cancellation because of the APEC Summit.

Garry Bilbar, who was traveling with his workmate Andres Rapada, said their flight to Manila set to leave at 2:05 p.m. on Tuesday was also cancelled

The two are both workers of Magna Diesel Trading based in Manila who were sent to Davao for a work-related project. They said they were informed of the cancellation by Cebu Pacific in the morning of the same day.

Bilbar said Cebu Pacific told them that they will be rescheduled for a flight on November 23 or catch the early morning flight on Wednesday as chance passengers.

He insisted that they instead be accommodated in a Davao-Clark flight on Tuesday and just take the bus ride going to Manila. “But the Davao-Clark flight is not sure yet,” he added.

On Wednesday, a Manila-Davao flight of Cebu Pacific was cancelled while PAL cancelled its Manila-Davao-Manila flights. For Thursday, Cebu Pacific has cancelled three flights while PAL will do the same for six of its flights.

For Friday, five Cebu Pacific flights and two PAL flights have been cancelled.

A PAL official, who refused to be named, told MindaNews that affected passengers have been informed ahead of the cancellations and were rescheduled already for the next available flights.

Lufthansa was forced to cancel 4,700 flights during a seven-day strike organized by unionized cabin crew.

Lufthansa planes standing on the tarmac during a strike at Munich’s global airport, Germany, yesterday.

The air carrier offered workers a deal on Monday that was equivalent to a 6% pay rise, but said it would have to cut costs in other areas and “re-evaluate” a few routes.

Lufthansa reiterated that it was open to a mediation process with the union, but said it must first halt the strikes.

Its first major setback came late Tuesday when the labour court of Darmstadt, which has jurisdiction for Frankfurt and Munich airports, approved the strike.

The Reuters report also cited Union chief Nicoley Baublies to say that the union plans to call all the Lufthansa employees for a demonstration at the Frankfurt airport from midday Friday.

The airline withdrew a request for an injunction against the walkouts at the last minute on Thursday after a German court indicated earlier it was unlikely to reverse a lower court ruling that flight attendants could continue their strike. It has said the strike is costing it at least 10 million euros ($10.7 million) a day.

Despite the massive disruptions, the airline seems no closer to an agreement with the cabin crew union UFO, which has suggested more walkouts could be coming.

The strategy centered around Eurowings is not what the cabin crew union is fighting, Baublies said, adding he was willing to help the unit expand if management stopped “running the company by fear”.

Flights operated by Lufthansa subsidiaries such as Germanwings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines won’t be affected.

It is also separate from another tussle between management and pilots over the company’s plans to change the early retirement arrangements for pilots.

Source : or-politics.com

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Airlines in Nepal have been forced to cancel more than half of their domestic flights because of an ongoing fuel shortage, an official said on Monday.

More than 70 per cent of domestic flights were cancelled on Sunday and about half were cancelled on Monday, said Utsav Raj Kharel, Kathmandu airport manager.

International flights were operating on a normal schedule because they are required to fill their tanks before flying to Nepal. Passengers were stranded by the cancelled flights in Kathmandu and other cities. About 2,000 passengers a day normally fly in and out of Kathmandu’s airport on domestic routes.

For weeks, members of the Madhesi ethnic community protesting Nepal’s new Constitution have blocked the southern border with India, preventing essentials from entering the country. – The Times of India