Is there a handling fee for the return ticket affected by the epidemic? Buying a plane ticket can be regarded as signing a contract. If the consumer buys a certain seat in advance, it is equivalent to confirming this "contract" with the airline. If they don't take the bus on time, it is a disguised "breach of contract". Consumers buy air tickets in advance, which is equivalent to locking their seats in advance. There is one seat missing on the plane, and it is legally recognized that airlines charge refund fees.
Major airlines have different refund standards, and there are layers of agents in the refund process, so the refund fee is higher than the original fare.
According to the investigation of Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee on 20 18, the fare of an OTA platform from Nanjing to Hong Kong is 925 yuan, and the refund fee is 3,000 yuan 24 hours before departure and 3,800 yuan 24 hours later, which is more than four times the original fare.
In July of the same year, the Civil Aviation Administration issued the Notice on Improving Civil Aviation Ticketing Service, requiring airlines to reasonably determine the charging standard for ticket refund and change, stipulate that the refund fee should not be higher than the actual sales price of the ticket, and formulate a "ladder rate", which cannot simply stipulate that special fares cannot be refunded and changed. Under the guidance of the policy of the Civil Aviation Administration, airlines implement the "ladder rate" scheme of returning and changing visas.
Despite the unified guidance of the Civil Aviation Administration, due to the different objective conditions such as passenger plane standards and service levels, major airlines have the right to speak and negotiate on ticket refund and change.
By combing the refund policies of major airlines with high market awareness 10, we find that, first of all, the time division standards of ladder rates of major airlines are different, and the refund fees of the same cabin are also different.
From the time point of view, the airline's refund time period is basically divided into four. The time of returning and changing the visa and the duration of boarding day are divided into four time nodes: 7 days before departure, 7 days (inclusive) to 48 hours before departure, 48 hours (inclusive) to 4 hours before departure, and 4 hours (inclusive) before departure to after departure, and different charging ratios are determined. Although they are all four time periods, the time division is different because of different flights.
China International Airlines (hereinafter referred to as Air China) has the longest first-class flight schedule, which is 14 days before the flight takes off. Most other airlines start to stipulate from 7 days before the flight takes off. Although the time of the first gear is slightly different from that of the second gear and the third gear, the fourth gear of most airlines is within 4 hours before departure, that is to say, the last time for most airlines to allow customers to refund their tickets is limited to the last 4 hours before flight departure.
Same class, same time limit, but different airlines charge different fees. Take economy class as an example. If the ticket is refunded within 48 hours (excluding) to 4 hours (including) before the flight takes off, the highest handling fee of Xiamen Airlines accounts for 70% of the ticket price, and the lowest is 10%. China International Airlines has the highest proportion of 90%.
According to the "ladder rate" announced by major airlines in official website, it is not difficult to see that the refund fee basically follows two principles: the higher the cabin, the lower the refund fee rate, and the proportion of first-class refund fee to ticket price is much lower than that of economy class; The closer to the flight departure time, the higher the refund fee rate, that is, the earlier the refund, the smaller the loss.
Why is it so difficult to refund the epidemic ticket? Generally speaking, if passengers want to refund tickets, they need to follow the principle of "where to buy tickets, where to refund tickets", and the process involved is as follows:
Refund initiated by the user → reviewed by the airline and returned to the platform (or agent) → returned to the user by the platform (or agent).
This involves the multi-party circulation of platforms and airlines, and the efficiency of processing information will naturally decline. The person in charge of a platform explained that "it takes at least 46 steps to judge the cancellation of each ticket, involving the user's submission time, whether the airline has a policy, whether to change the visa, household registration and other aspects. A mistake will lead to the mistake of refunding money. "
Some international air tickets with multiple voyages may only meet the refund policy, and similar complex orders need manual review, and the process will be slow. As a result, in the theme of consumer complaints, besides airlines, various ticketing platforms are also impressive.
Affected by the epidemic, many airlines issued free refund and change regulations! China Airlines
China International Airlines announced that all passengers who bought air China's domestic inbound and outbound flights involving Xi 'an on or before 1 1 this morning (18) and on travel dates between today (18) and 1 can stay within the validity period of the tickets.
China Eastern Airlines
At present, China Eastern Airlines has formulated special regulations on the handling of tickets related to Xi, Yinchuan, Zhangye and Jiayuguan. Tickets purchased on or before today (18) and with flight dates between yesterday (17) and 1 1.7 can be returned and changed for free before the flight takes off.
HNA
HNA has issued a notice to give special treatment to domestic air tickets in Xi and Yinchuan. The travel date is from yesterday (17) to 1 1. Among them, if the ticket purchase date of Xi 'an route is on or before 65438+ 10/7, and the ticket purchase date of Yinchuan route is on or before today (18), passengers can return and change the ticket for free within the validity period of the ticket.