**: China Consumer Daily.
Picture: There is an itinerary reminder on the Air China app, and invalid tickets are displayed as 0. Information**.
At the beginning of this year, a number of domestic airlines successively announced adjustments to the ticket refund and change rules, including expanding the scope of free ticket refunds and changes, and relaxing the rules for cancellations and changes due to illness, which have attracted much attention from the society. However, in early February, the Jiangxi reporter station of China Consumer Daily received a complaint from Mr. Chen from Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, saying that "Air China's cancellation and change rules were not clear and the charging policy was unreasonable, which caused unnecessary losses and troubles to him and his children."
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Mr. Chen's daughter, Xiao Chen, is studying in Germany. On August 19, 2023, she spent 5,922 yuan to buy a round-trip ticket from Frankfurt to Shanghai (ticket number: 999-2435808482), with flight numbers CA936 (departing on December 21, 2023 local time) and CA935 (departing on January 20, 2024 local time) respectively.
At the end of November 2023, Mr. Chen's father passed away suddenly, and his granddaughter Xiao Chen, who was far away from home, urgently needed to return to China early for the funeral, so she called Air China's customer service on November 29 to inquire about the refund of the round-trip ticket. Mr. Chen told reporters that Air China's customer service staff did not inform him that he could not continue to use the return flight even though he knew that the child would not use the first flight. Therefore, the child bought a separate one-way ticket back to China, and was ready to take the second flight he had booked when he returned to Germany.
On January 18, 2024, just two days before Xiao Chen was about to return to Germany to continue her studies, she also received a notification from the Air China app: "You can check in for your flight on January 20." Surprisingly, after receiving the reminder, Xiao Chen immediately logged in to the app to operate, but found that he could not check in, so he called Air China's customer service for consultation. It was only then that she was told that "she could not use the second flight, and she needed to change the round-trip ticket to a one-way ticket, and pay the ticket price difference and change handling fee totaling 3,260 yuan."
In a hurry to return to Germany to continue his studies, Xiao Chen reluctantly paid 3,260 yuan. But in a complaint letter to China Consumer Daily, she strongly questioned the reasonableness of the fee, which accounted for up to 55% of the total ticket price. Xiao Chen believes that Air China did not clearly inform her during the ticketing process that she could not use the second ticket (Shanghai-Frankfurt) if the first ticket (Frankfurt-Shanghai) was not used, and the customer service staff gave different answers, which caused her to have doubts about Air China's regulations and did not receive proper assistance in the refund and use of the round-trip ticket. In addition, before paying the change fee at 2:00 p.m. on January 18, 2024, she was still able to check her itinerary to Frankfurt on January 20 on the personal itinerary management page of the Air China app, and there was no display on the "invalid ticket" page, indicating that Air China did not notify her of the change in ticket status in time, causing her to mistakenly believe that the ticket was still valid, causing unnecessary losses.
Repeated negotiations with Air China to no avail.
Mr. Chen told reporters that after the incident, he and his children contacted Air China's customer service several times, but Air China always refused to admit its mistake, resulting in their reasonable demands never being met.
On November 29, 2023, Xiao Chen called Air China's customer service for the first time to inquire about refunds, and the male customer service who spoke with him said: "You can refund the first flight and continue to use the second flight, which can be operated through the Air China app." After that, Xiao Chen found that he could not complete the operation on the app and called again. The female customer service who picked up ** this time said that she could not refund the first flight and transferred to another customer service to answer ......In the end, Xiao Chen did not perform any operation on the ticket, nor was he told that he could not use the second flight if the first flight was not used.
On January 18, 2024, Xiao Chen received a check-in notification from the Air China app and found that he could not check in online, so he called Air China's customer service again. During the call, the customer service made it clear that Xiao Chen's second flight had expired, and he needed to pay the ticket price difference and change fees to continue to use it. Xiao Chen disagreed, and described the gist of the previous call with Air China's customer service. The customer service said that the call recording needs to be verified first. After the verification was completed, the customer service called back and said that the reason why the colleague said that the second trip could be continued during the call on November 29, 2023 was because the ticket information expressed by Xiao Chen was unclear and the customer service misunderstood, so Air China was not responsible for this, and Xiao Chen still had to pay the change fee.
On the evening of January 18, Mr. Chen called Air China's customer service** to file a complaint. The operator said: "According to Air China's procedures, this can only be done." The next day, Mr. Chen called Civil Aviation of China 12326 to complain, and the reply was "10 working days to reply". On January 24, Air China officially replied to Mr. Chen, stating that it would not accept the complaint.
In desperation, in early February 2024, Mr. Chen complained to the Jiangxi reporter station of China Consumer Daily and the Beijing Consumers Association.
Air China insisted that it was "not responsible for the disposal".
In the official reply of Air China provided by Mr. Chen, the reporter saw that Air China said, "After verification, the passenger called our company on November 29, 2023, saying that he had bought two tickets, booked them together, and asked if he could operate a refund." The agent informed that it was okay and explained that because the passenger purchased an Air China round-trip ticket, if he submitted a refund, he needed to use the first segment and then return the second segment or submit a voluntary refund together, and could not refund any single segment of the itinerary without using it, and the agent explained that he was not responsible" "The agent of Chengdu Center will inform the passenger of the verification result that the passenger needs to change the ticket, and the fee can only be charged according to the voluntary fee. When the passenger complained that the Air China app did not prompt the ticket to be used in order, the agent explained that when checking 'Read', it was displayed in the General Regulations of Air China, and the passenger could check it by himself. In the end, the passenger voluntarily changes the ticket, and the seat will be informed of the use regulations orally, and the disposal will not be responsible."
Based on this, Air China came to the following conclusion: "On January 24, our company replied to the passenger's complaint, explaining again that the Air China app clearly displayed the total transportation when the passenger purchased the ticket, and the ticket must be used in order." However, when the passenger does not use the first leg of the itinerary, why does the airline not take the initiative to remind the passenger of the subsequent changes, but needs to contact the airline to confirm that the airline's service is not in place. The center seat has explained normally that the refund or change of the ticket within the validity period is the passenger's own will, and the airline will not interfere. If you have any request for refund or change, you can call the airline to confirm. The passenger did not accept it and insisted that the airline refund the change fee, but the request was politely refused. Failure to reach a settlement with the traveler. ”
Lawyer's point of view. Air China should be held responsible.
On February 20, Wang Xinhua, head of the lawyer group of Jiangxi Provincial Consumer Protection Committee and senior partner of Jiangxi Qiuzheng Ward Law Firm, was interviewed by a reporter from China Consumer Daily. Lawyer Wang Xinhua said that under normal circumstances, when consumers purchase tickets** or airlines purchase round-trip tickets, the fare page will generally have reminders such as "If you do not take the previous flight, there is a risk that the later flight will not be able to board" and "Please note that the ticket must be used in order", but these tips are sometimes not obvious. If the ticket seller fails to fulfill its obligation to inform and does not clarify the rules for the use of the ticket, nor does it clearly remind the ticket seller that if the outbound trip is not taken and the return journey will be invalid, then the ticket seller shall bear the responsibility arising therefrom. In this case, when the consumer called Air China's customer service to inquire about the refund or change of the round-trip ticket, the customer service's reply was appropriate, and the call recording should be verified. However, in any case, the consumer still received a check-in reminder from the Air China app on January 18, and was able to check the itinerary to Frankfurt on January 20, but there was no display on the "Invalid Ticket" page, which did mislead the consumer into believing that the ticket was still valid, causing unnecessary losses, and Air China must bear the losses caused thereby.
On the same day, Mr. Chen called this reporter and said that under the coordination of the Beijing Consumers Association and other departments, Air China had asked him to provide Chen's father's death certificate, saying that he could apply for a refund of the change fee on the grounds of "special circumstances".