Vademecum for canceled or delayed flights
Chaos in the airports. Here's what to do if your flight has been canceled. The article by Daniele Martini for Domani Quotidiano
And then they say that the low cost model has entered into crisis. Look at what Ryanair's policy is in this tragic moment for air transport, with thousands of flights canceled, crazy delays, airports becoming bivouacs and in some cases only accessible to a limited number and luggage stored in the lost and found hall, waiting in the vast majority of cases being declared lost.
Ryanair is not just any low cost, it is the epitome of low cost, the pioneering privateer company and one of the largest in the world, which has become the first in Italy for the number of passengers transported after beating without too much effort, in truth, the modest and inefficient resistance before Alitalia and now its heir, Ita Airways .
Asked by Domani about what Ryanair is doing to alleviate the inconvenience of its thousands upon thousands of customers due to flight delays or cancellations, Ryanair sent a one-line response. Here it is: "All passengers affected by these cancellations have been notified by e-mail and informed of their rights." It seems the ritual formula recited by the American policemen at the moment of the arrest of some criminal. From a formal or legal point of view it will also be an irreproachable answer, but it is of a chilling bureaucratic conciseness, certainly very unfriendly, an indication of a leonine relationship with customers where the customer is certainly not the lion.
THE ITA POLICY
This time, Ita makes a great impression: the Fiumicino company replied to the same question with a one-and-a-half page note in which it tries to explain what it is doing to make the very unpleasant unexpected event of the canceled flight less traumatic for customers. or the delay of hours and hours.
Probably the actions that Ita says to perform in favor of the customer in many cases will be only announcements, good intentions that break against the daily chaos and in practice things are perhaps different for the customers, forced to gobble the effects of a brothel that does not has precedents. But in situations like these even good intentions count, however they are the manifestation of attention, certainly better than nothing.
In the event of cancellation due to strikes, Ita sends an email to the customer or contacts him by phone and in any case "the full refund of the ticket is always granted without penalty at the price at which it was purchased". Ita claims that the system they use is looking for an alternative solution to the flight canceled on the same day or in the two following days.
Customers from both Italy and abroad can contact the Ita Airways Customer Center (800 936090 for Italy, +390685960020 from abroad). In the event that the flight is delayed by more than 5 hours, the customer can request a new ticket with the same destination without penalties and additional costs. If this solution is not appreciated, the passenger can request a refund of the ticket at the same toll-free numbers written above.
VADEMECUM CODACONS
Even Codacons, one of the most dynamic consumer defense associations, has drawn up a sort of handbook for passengers damaged by cancellations or delays. According to the Codacons which refers to a regulation of the European Community (number 261/04), if the cancellation of the flight has not been communicated with at least two weeks' notice, the passenger is entitled to a financial compensation equal to 250 euros for all routes flights of less than or equal to 1500 kilometers, 400 euros for intra-community flights exceeding 1500 kilometers, and for all other routes between 1500 and 3500 kilometers, and finally 600 euros for flights exceeding 3,500 kilometers outside the European Union.
Codacons recalls that these rights also apply in the event of a strike, as established by the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 6 October 2021. According to this ruling, the strike by air personnel is not to be considered an "exceptional circumstance", as can instead be an accident or the weather conditions suddenly become prohibitive, because it is "an event inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the employer concerned", and therefore "is neither unusual nor unpredictable". In short, the workers' right to strike cannot interfere with the right to compensation of passengers who are affected by the unrest.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/vademecum-per-voli-cancellati-o-in-ritardo/ on Sun, 14 Aug 2022 05:55:44 +0000.