Author: Mao Xin, reporter of this newspaper.
During this year's Spring Festival, civil aviation passenger traffic is expected to reach 80 million. Recently, a number of airlines have adjusted the ticket refund and change rules, including expanding the scope of free ticket refund and change, relaxing the refund and change rules due to illness, etc., which have attracted much attention from the society.
For a long time, the problem of difficult and expensive ticket refunds and changes has been criticized, and the introduction of relevant regulations has made many passengers look forward to less "troubles" and better experience of ticket refunds. However, an investigation by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters found that the stubborn problem of difficulty in refunding and changing air tickets for free still exists.
Taking China Southern Airlines as an example, on the Black Cat complaint platform, the number of complaints in the past month was 912, many of which involved high refund fees for wrongly purchased tickets, and some "company regulations" with the final right of interpretation are still blocking many people's Spring Festival transportation.
I found out that I bought the wrong ticket within two hours.
How many people can do it".
A passenger complained that she bought a ticket from Beijing to Jieyang on February 20 on the China Southern Airlines app, and repurchased a ticket for February 19 after discovering that she had bought the wrong date. After that, the appeal was reflected through the manual customer service of the China Southern Airlines app and the official **, requesting a refund of the ticket on February 20 without handling fees. However, the customer service replied that it was not eligible for a free refund.
After repeated negotiations, the customer service said that the free refund "must be applied for within two hours after the purchase of the ticket", which is "the company's regulations", and finally China Southern Airlines charged a refund fee of 340 yuan "according to the company's regulations".
In 2018, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice on improving civil aviation ticketing services, which clarified that airlines should provide free remedies for passengers who have purchased tickets incorrectly (e.g., wrong name writing, duplicate ticket purchases, etc.). When defining the circumstances of a passenger's mispurchase, the principle of reasonableness and inclusiveness should be grasped, and if the airline cannot prove that the passenger did not make a mistake, it shall be deemed to have made a mistaken purchase and provide free refunds and other services.
According to the passenger, the airline did not implement the principle of "reasonableness and tolerance" when defining the wrong purchase. Moreover, the airline did not have evidence that she had not purchased the ticket by mistake, but it did not regard it as a mistake. All these practices are contrary to the spirit of the Civil Aviation Authority's document.
The customer service said that the free refund "must be applied for within two hours after the purchase of the ticket", which is a "company regulation", but there is no channel to find this regulation, the passenger questioned, "Why is this regulation not open to the public?" How many people can find out in that short time that you bought the wrong ticket? ”
On the Black Cat complaint platform, there are many complaints about the difficulty of refunding tickets for mispurchased tickets.
"The ticket is 1800 yuan, and the refund fee is 1500 yuan"!
A passenger complained that she was going to buy a China Southern Airlines ticket from Melbourne to Shanghai on January 13, but because she read the wrong time, she mistakenly bought the ticket for January 30. She discovered the mistake on January 1 and immediately contacted the airline to request a refund. A full month in advance of January 30, it will not affect ticket sales, but the airline still has to charge her a refund fee of about 1,500 yuan, and the full amount of her ticket is only 1,800 yuan. Subsequently, she chose to change, and after many communications, she still made up a high change fee of 960 yuan.
The Civil Aviation Administration's "Notice on Improving Civil Aviation Ticketing Services" clearly states that airlines should reasonably determine the charging standards for ticket refunds and changes, and formulate "tiered rates" for ticket refunds and changes, that is, set reasonable echelon charging standards according to different fare levels and time nodes, etc., and cannot simply stipulate that ** tickets are not allowed to be refunded or changed.
Relevant experts said that the "reasonable echelon charging standard" in the Civil Aviation Administration regulations has not been refined, so that airlines often follow the rule of "the higher the ticket discount, the higher the proportion of refund and change fees" for their own economic interests, and formulate unreasonable and unfair charging standards.
certain conditions are met".
Most of them became "definitely not eligible".
A passenger complained that on the morning of January 19, he purchased a China Southern Airlines connecting ticket through a WeChat mini-program to fly from Shenzhen to Beijing to Daqing. But after 3 hours, I found that the date and passengers were wrong, so I quickly called the airline's customer service**, but I couldn't get through, indicating that the agent was busy.
On January 20, he hurriedly drove more than 80 kilometers to the China Southern Airlines counter at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport to deal with the refund, but the customer service attitude was tough, saying that according to the company's regulations, he did not meet the conditions for free refunds, and the 2,200 yuan ticket could only be refunded more than 900 yuan, "eating more than 1,200 yuan for no reason". The two sides argued for an hour, but it was not resolved.
The recently released "Announcement on Adjusting the Refund and Change Rules of China Southern Airlines" clarifies that the scope of free refund and change for misuse will be further expanded. In the event that the name, certificate, itinerary, date, class and other information are filled in incorrectly when purchasing a ticket, as well as the repeated ticket purchase caused by misoperation, a refund of the wrong ticket can be granted free of charge if certain conditions are met. The new rules will apply from 10 January 2024.
Many complaints from travellers have reported that the new regulations are ambiguous about "meeting certain conditions". The airline did not announce what the "certain conditions" were, and the "final interpretation right" protected the interests of the company, but did not consider the rights and interests of passengers.
On February 2, China Southern Airlines replied to the reporter in writing that it would make timely improvements in response to the problem of the lack of detail in the terms of cancellation and change.
The interviewed experts said that the airline "can be refunded free of charge if it meets certain conditions" should specify what the conditions are, otherwise the next time a passenger buys the wrong ticket, there are still no rules to follow, and finally the contract becomes "according to the trouble", who complains will be solved to whom, and who will solve the problem quickly.
Industry insiders believe that civil aviation serves the general public, and the rules for ticket refunds cannot be unilaterally decided by airlines. The competent departments of the industry should strengthen the supervision of the refund and change fees, and the industry associations should strengthen the self-discipline and guidance of the industry, jointly improve the civil aviation ticketing service, protect the rights and interests of consumers, and maintain market order.
*: Xinhua Daily Telegraph).