Refund/ compenastion for cancelled Air China international flight

score:6

Accepted answer

To summarise: you bought CPH-MEL-CPH on Air China for AUD$1550. After flying the outbound, Air China made unsuitable schedule changes and you cancelled the return flight.

Air China calculated the refund as AUD$345.

You looked up the cost of a one-way flight from MEL-ARN (they no longer fly to CPH) and found it to be AUD$1135 so believe their refund offer is insufficient.

Update: @EdC poitns out in the comments that IATA has a conflicting conditions of carriage that does indeed state you are due the cost of a one-way flight in the case of involuntary refund. I found a second conditions of carriage on Air China's site that states the same as IATA:

11.3 Involuntary Refunds
If the Carrier cancels a flight, fails to operate a flight reasonably according to schedule, fails to stop at a point to which the Passenger is destined or ticketed to stopover, is unable to provide previously confirmed space or causes the Passenger to miss a Connecting Flight on which the Passenger holds a reservation, the amount of the refund shall be:
11.3.1 if no portion of the Ticket has been used, an amount equal to the Fare paid;
11.3.2 if a portion of the Ticket has been used, the refund will be the higher of:
11.3.2.1 the one way Fare (less applicable discounts and charges) from point of interruption to destination or point of next stopover, or
11.3.2.2 the difference between the Fare paid and the Fare for the transportation used;

In Air China's case it looks like they have repriced your return ticket to the cost of a one-way ticket, which is indeed cheaper on Air China. Although I'm not looking at the prices of tickets that you bought since I don't have enough detail, I'm seeing a fare difference of AUD$200-$500 for flights a month from now.

An airline would usually reprice flights to the price of a one-way ticket if you asked for a voluntary refund, which perhaps explains the refund offered. If I were you I would call them again and say you are asking for a refund due to an unsuitable schedule change that they made, not one that you voluntarily asked for. Ask for 50% of the fare to be refunded. Do not mention the cost of one way flights from Melbourne to Stockholm; it is not helpful.

To save money, I recommend you call using a service such as Skype where you can call toll free numbers in other countries for free, or non-toll free numbers for the price of a local call.

Other version of CoC: I located Air China's Conditions of Carriage for refunds

10.2 Involuntary Refunds
10.2.1 If we cancel a flight, fail to operate a flight reasonably according to schedule, fail to stop at your destination or Stopover, or cause you to miss a connecting flight on which you hold a reservation, the amount of the refund shall be:
10.2.1.1 if no portion of the Ticket has been used, an amount equal to the fare paid;
10.2.1.2 if a portion of the Ticket has been used, the refund will be not less than the difference between the fare paid and the applicable fare for travel between the points for which the Ticket has been used, provided that the refund shall not exceed the total fare paid.

It does indeed look like they have repriced it as the cost of a one-way ticket. Your only hope is that it says not less than the difference.

More post

Search Posts

Related post