A tourist from Germany wears a protective mask as she waits for a flight back home at Tribhuvan ... [+]
When I start, in late March, looking around for a flight back to Paris from Sydney, I face all the COVID-19 flying demons. First of all, the difficulty of getting a flight, among the very slim pickings, due to the Australian and global travel bans.
Then the increasing uncertainty as to the likelihood of my flight leaving, if I do go ahead and purchase. Worse, in the process of searching a fare, I encounter huge nebulous clouds of doubt as to the actual validity of some of the tickets being offered.
On Google flights, I find fares with Qatar, Etihad, British Airways and United. The latter is quickly ruled out: the 55 hour 20 minute flight goes via San Francisco (SFO), Dulles International Airport (IAD) in Washington, and Frankfurt (FRA).
The other possibility, ostensibly, is a range of flights with Etihad. I go onto Etihad’s website, and several times come so close to hitting the purchase button for a very reasonably priced return ticket to Sydney. The fare is just under $1500 AUD ($1100). “As cheap as chips,” as one Sydney travel agent quips. Making the prospect even more attractive, is a free 2-day stopover in Abu Dhabi on the November return.
But hang about? Etihad is not flying right now. They suspended all international flights in and out of Abu Dhabi on March 26. So how is it that they are offering early April flights to Paris on their website? I reach out to Etihad asking for them to clarify: Do they plan to be in the skies again by then? And what will happen if I purchase that ticket, but the flight is cancelled?
My precise email was: “I simply don’t understand how Etihad can be offering these flights when right now you are not flying at all, and when there are no transits allowed in Abu Dhabi ... Will Etihad organise an alternative flight date for me if they cancel this flight? Nowhere is this information clear to me or I imagine many other flyers.” No response.
My confidence in airlines takes a major tumble with that, and what appears to be a total lack of transparency, or customer accountability. I also have serious doubts about the honesty of airlines to be offering seemingly phantom tickets on phantom flights. What would have happened if I had decided to purchase that ticket for a flight that had no chance of leaving? British Airways too at the time was selling fares well into April, despite the fact it halted London-Sydney services on April 6.
Despite being grounded in coronavirus lockdown, many airlines including Ryanair and EasyJet are ... [+]
Customers Stuck Like Flies On Phantom Fare Traps
I get the feeling that some airlines, desperate for cash injections, have been waiting for customers to get stuck like insects on sticky traps, then having them waggle their wings around frantically, fighting for a refund. For flights that were never going to take off. As one upset traveler notes on an Inside Flyer forum: “Dizzying prodigious frauds-airlines outdoing themselves: This time Alaska sells ticket on flight 2 days ago, cancels flight, no notification, requires call to cancel; are these phantom flights just a cash grab?”
My hunches apparently are not unfounded. Thousands of consumers have found themselves duped by treacherous booking experiences. “Major airlines keep taking money for flights that will never fly,” reports The Telegraph. “Britons stuck abroad are buying multiple tickets with EasyJet, Ryanair and British Airways–only to see them repeatedly cancelled.”
Leading airlines, the report says, are continuing to sell tickets for flights that are highly unlikely to operate. (Make that totally unlikely in some cases). Consumer experts describe the phantom ticket fiasco as “fundamental misrepresentation” with apparently desperate airlines milking desperate passengers.
This comes amid warnings that many of the world’s airlines are on the brink of bankruptcy, due to the coronavirus travel bans, with global losses estimated at $314 billion in 2020.
“Entire fleets have been grounded across Europe since most countries imposed a lockdown,” The Telegraph report continues. “However, airlines are still taking money from people desperate to get home.”
BA is no angel either. It’s not just the low-costs the paper points out: “British Airways has reduced the number of flights it is selling, but is advertising one flight a day on many routes, despite Government restrictions on travel.
Ryanair is one of the airlines accused of selling tickets on flights that will never take off, ... [+]
“EasyJet has listed all flights until May 17 as ‘sold out”, protecting customers from purchasing tickets. However, it advertises a full schedule of flights from that date onwards.” That is, before they are sure to be flying again, lining up consumers for more travel nightmares.
Air China too is apparently guilty of the practice. Despite the UAE suspending all passenger flights in and out of the country, it’s reportedly been offering sale fares for Beijing to Dubai services, for flights on May 7.
“But hold on, Emirates and Etihad – the UAE’s two major airlines – have suggested UAE flights would not resume any earlier than mid-May,” notes Hayley Skirka in an article in The National. So why is Air China selling tickets on a flight that almost certainly will not operate?”
Skirka then realizes it’s unfair to single out Air China. “Several airlines continue to sell tickets on flights that are unlikely to operate... It’s clearly a bid to stay afloat. Airlines are trying to increase revenue by selling tickets for future flights because they are in crisis right now.”
Which of course is totally reprehensible, because everyone is in a crisis right now. And in many cases, it winds up with drawn out consumer battles with airlines for refunds on cancelled flights. Social media channels are full of angry comments from flyers accusing airlines of robbing them outright with their flight-cancellation charades.
In India, the government has ordered several airlines to stop selling domestic tickets, for a period when there is no certainty they will be flying. “Airlines around the world are using ticket sales to generate cash flow as the pandemic brings travel to a standstill, drying up revenue sources,” Bloomberg reports.
The phenomenon sparked outrage from the country’s aviation analyst site, Bangalore Aviation, and Aviation consultancy CAPA who described the practice as “unfair”.
The airlines typically ignore calls for clarification from baffled and anxious customers on social media, and have done so for weeks.
“I get a whiff of dishonesty when I think about airlines selling hundreds of tickets for flights they are not confident will operate,” Skirka writes.
I get more than a whiff, I get a very bad smell. Thankfully I had my wits about me and didn’t fall in the trap. But it is totally understandable how thousands of others have, given the confusing misinformation, and apparent lack of answerability.
So far none of the airlines mentioned in the story from whom I have sought clarity on the issue, have responded.
