Originally published at: Biden wants the US to catch up to the EU: Flight delayed? Get paid. | Boing Boing
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For what it’s worth, Norway is not a member of the EU.
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Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, though not EU countries, are part of the reimbursement program.
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If this goes into effect - airlines will have to raise their rates - and traditionally the raise will be more than the extra costs. Just means higher airline prices for all.
Yeah, you’re right… better to let consumers continue to get screwed over… /s
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No, you are wrong.
Airlines will CHOOSE to raise the rates, instead of choosing to have a slightly lower profit margin.
They will pretend it was not their choice, but that’s called:
telling a lie
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Maybe, but I haven’t found that flight prices in the EU are more expensive than in the US. Hell, with ryanair and easyjet, sometimes the flight (if you don’t pick a seat and bring a bag) is cheaper than a taxi to the airport.
The refund program is great, though. There are loopholes and exemptions (like, extreme/unsafe weather isn’t the airline’s fault, etc), but I have gotten refunds. There are services where you can give your info and they’ll handle the paperwork/arguments with the airlines (for a percentage of the refund, but for me, it’s been worth it). I think it’s made the airlines a lot more careful about delays and overbooking, etc.
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Did some business travel in Germany a few years back and our train was nearly an hour late to arrive. It was then a 4+ hour ride to our destination, where we arrived even later. As I got off the train, they handed everyone a reimbursement paper, which my staff advised me is how it always works. You just fill out a few bits of info and not too long later you get a nice direct deposit of the fees. Having had many many delayed flights in the US (once over 6 hours, while traveling with a 1 year old, which was super fun) and not getting anything more than a terse “I’m very sorry sir”, I was flummoxed. Shocked. Downright dumbstruck by the process.
Yeah, remind me again how we’re the best.
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No they wont price competitive is a thing in the EU as well, The last year i Paid £28 each way for 2 people to fly to Berlin from Manchester, The flight home was cancelled at 1Am on the day of the flight and rebooked for the next day and then that was cancelled at 2am, so we rebooked there and then to fly to London and got trains home from gatewick to Manchester at the cost of £100 each.
Easyjet had to pay for the extra night in a hotel, a days extra food and the 2 £100 train tickets and the £800 in compensation (£200 per person per flight, for short haul) for not one but 2 cancelled flights.
Easyjet is still cheap and you can still fly to Berlin for super cheap if you book the day tickets come out. This idea that prices will have to rise, is just false information from the airlines, to try and get you on their side, and stop looking at the EU and how much better our lives our than those in America.
This socialist hell i live in is killing me softly but o so sweetly…
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If airlines could raise their rates without driving away enough customers to cost them money…then why wouldn’t they do it regardless of this? Don’t they like maximizing profit?
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Anyone thinking this will not cause ticket prices to go up is not living in reality. It will. Period.
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Ryanair would happily charge you for the oxygen you breathe if they could figure out a way to measure it.
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I will repeat myself, since you did not pay attention:
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That’s…not how markets work. There’s only so much price elasticity for plane tickets before people use some other form of transportation or just don’t travel.
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Using Ryanair as an example:
I really don’t understand this idea that companies simply pass all costs on to consumers, as if they could have easily been charging you more this whole time but then just didn’t.
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I’m sure they’ll perform a cost-benefit analysis of boarding the passengers, letting them sit on the runway for six or eight hours, and getting fined for that, rather than having to pay out to the passengers directly.
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