It’s time we fixed consumer protection laws surrounding travel cancellations.
The past three years have been the ultimate stress test of our travel rules and regulations, as tens of thousands of trips have been ruined – first by government lockdowns and then, this winter, by labor shortages – and our consumer laws have been found wanting.
A Choice survey found one-quarter of all pandemic-related travel vouchers expired before they could be used.Credit:
It is not that consumer protections don’t exist, but multiple laws are operating in tandem, creating a seemingly impenetrable legal minefield for many travellers.
The overarching Australian Consumer Law sets out rights called consumer guarantees. These include your rights to a repair, replacement or refund, as well as compensation for damages and loss, and being able to cancel a faulty service.
The law also guarantees that services, including airfares and accommodation, must be provided “within a reasonable time”. So, if an airline cancels your flight and cannot put you on another within a reasonable period of time, you are probably entitled to a refund.
You might even be entitled to compensation for “consequential loss” – if you are out of pocket because you have missed bookings made at your destination.
However, a big problem is that there is no set definition of “reasonable time:” What if you think one hour is reasonable while the airline thinks six hours is reasonable?
The next problem is: There is no clear definition of what entitles you to compensation. Nowhere is it written down. Consumers are simply told it depends “on the individual circumstances” of their booking and cancellation.
So, we are expected to contact the airline (if we can get through on the phone, which can sometimes take hours), and then to know enough about consumer law to negotiate a refund from a large, sophisticated business.