OTAs Rack Up Complaints over COVID-19 Travel Cancellations
经过杰西卡·蒙特瓦哥/
由于必须取消数百万的旅行计划,因此消费者遇到了一个额外的问题,即通过在线旅行社(OTA)获得退款。
Those who made a reservation through a third-party site, including online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia or Priceline, are finding just how difficult it can be to get their cash back.
这在向美国运输部提出正式投诉的消费者提升中很明显。OTA,包括Expedia,Cheapoair和Justfly在内,从1月至2020年12月收到了14,604项投诉。其中94%的人是获得未使用或丢失的门票,票价调整或破产的退款。
Expedia在2020年12月收到最多的投诉,是集体诉讼的主题,该诉讼拒绝去年冠状病毒疫情取消的航班退款。
数据已在上个月的航空旅行消费者报告,其中包含有关投诉数量的信息。总体而言,去年对航空公司,旅行社和旅行社的DOT收到了102,550起投诉,而2019年为15,342,增长了500%以上。
丹尼尔·马奥尼(Daniel Mahoney)在7月对Expedia提起诉讼,声称旅行预订服务违反了《华盛顿消费者保护法》,拒绝退还其航空公司票价。
"Despite its role as middleman or broker in its customers’ purchase of air travel on these airlines, Expedia did not intervene or take steps to ensure that its customers were given the right to receive a refund on pandemic canceled flights,"诉讼阅读。
This underscores why travel advisors are the unsung heroes of the pandemic, who fought on behalf of their clients to secure those refunds, spending hours on hold to do so. It’s also why travel advisors are going to be in higher demand as travel recovers. Consumers burned are going to make sure they have an advocate on their behalf, and time and time again, advisors have proved they’re the ones to so do.
消费者报告敦促由秘书皮特·巴特吉格(Pete Buttigieg)领导的新DOT官员更好地保护消费者在退款政策方面。
“政府应加强和扩大有关客运退款的现有DOT规则,尤其是在'部队不可抗力的情况下,例如全球大流行,”消费者报告说上个月给该机构的一封信。“此外,DOT必须与美国航空公司,外国航空公司和其他售票员一起大力执行这些退款法规,包括自2020年3月以来在某些情况下解决未解决的未解决的索赔。”