DynamicSpirit
Established Member
Wondering if anyone can shed any light on legal rights when flights are rescheduled....?
I booked with kiwi.com to fly to Tirana for 2 days soon, with a return flight leaving Tirana soon after 3pm in the afternoon.
kiwi.com have since informed me that the return flight has been rescheduled to leave Tirana at 7am. I told them this is not acceptable because (a) there's no way I can get to the airport in time for a 7am flight, and (b) since I'm only going for 2 days, that knocks out a huge chunk of my stay - enough to make it scarcely worth going, and (c) it turns a 1 hour wait for a connecting flight (Tirana - Milan - London) into a 9 hour wait. Accordingly, I have declined to accept the rescheduling.
By way of response, kiwi have offered me an alternative flight leaving late morning, but told me I have to pay them another £250 if I want that flight. They've also told me I can request a refund instead, but if I do, they'll charge a cancellation fee, and they'll only give me a refund if they, as the booking agent, can get the money back from the airlines. (Since there's a change of flight and a couple of different airlines involved, my suspicion is, that means no refund).
Morally, it seems to me that if kiwi.com can't put me on another flight at approximately the same time I booked, and at their expense, then there's no question I should have a full refund, since kiwi.com are refusing to provide me with what I paid them for - and legally I would have thought that consumer protection laws ought to have something to say about that. Another issue is that, even if I get a refund from them, because of the way ticket prices go up the nearer you get to the day of travel, it would now cost me massively more to book alternative flights than it would have originally cost me to book something different in the first place.
But I'm not sure if rules about flights might mean consumer rights are a bit more restricted here? Anyone have any thoughts/advice on what to do in this kind of situation?
I booked with kiwi.com to fly to Tirana for 2 days soon, with a return flight leaving Tirana soon after 3pm in the afternoon.
kiwi.com have since informed me that the return flight has been rescheduled to leave Tirana at 7am. I told them this is not acceptable because (a) there's no way I can get to the airport in time for a 7am flight, and (b) since I'm only going for 2 days, that knocks out a huge chunk of my stay - enough to make it scarcely worth going, and (c) it turns a 1 hour wait for a connecting flight (Tirana - Milan - London) into a 9 hour wait. Accordingly, I have declined to accept the rescheduling.
By way of response, kiwi have offered me an alternative flight leaving late morning, but told me I have to pay them another £250 if I want that flight. They've also told me I can request a refund instead, but if I do, they'll charge a cancellation fee, and they'll only give me a refund if they, as the booking agent, can get the money back from the airlines. (Since there's a change of flight and a couple of different airlines involved, my suspicion is, that means no refund).
Morally, it seems to me that if kiwi.com can't put me on another flight at approximately the same time I booked, and at their expense, then there's no question I should have a full refund, since kiwi.com are refusing to provide me with what I paid them for - and legally I would have thought that consumer protection laws ought to have something to say about that. Another issue is that, even if I get a refund from them, because of the way ticket prices go up the nearer you get to the day of travel, it would now cost me massively more to book alternative flights than it would have originally cost me to book something different in the first place.
But I'm not sure if rules about flights might mean consumer rights are a bit more restricted here? Anyone have any thoughts/advice on what to do in this kind of situation?
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