Recently, Ms. Hua encountered an annoyance, she originally booked 2 business class tickets, but the day before departure, she was suddenly told that due to the change of aircraft type, business class was gone, only economy class, and only the difference in price was refunded for downgrading, without any room for negotiation, which made Ms. Hua very "unhappy".
Ms. Hua said that due to the company's business relationship, she helped the two guests order two business class tickets of China Southern Airlines on Ctrip, which flew from Chongqing to Shanghai on May 9, and the ticket price was 2,180 yuan per ticket. However, on May 8, China Southern Airlines suddenly informed that due to the "aircraft type change", this flight does not have business class, and it needs to downgrade the business class purchased by Ms. Hua to economy class, and refund the difference between the two classes of 1,030 yuan/person. However, Ms. Hua found that the economy class price on the same flight on Ctrip that day was 735 yuan per ticket, and Ms. Hua immediately expressed her disagreement with the refund plan provided by China Southern Airlines, and chose to purchase an economy class ticket for the same flight on Ctrip again.
However, what I did not expect was that under the premise that the result of the processing of business class tickets was not reached, and when there was no business class on the operated flight, the check-in counter of China Southern Airlines actually wrote off the business class ticket that was still disputed through downgrade processing, and the economy class ticket repurchased by Ms. Hua was not used. How did Ms. Hua's clear rejection of the plan be "forced" to be implemented? It stands to reason that the check-in counter of China Southern Airlines should have been able to see the information of Ms. Hua's subsequent purchase of economy class tickets, so why would she rather downgrade her cabin than cancel her business class tickets? Has China Southern Airlines asked passengers in advance which one they want to write?
In addition, in the certificate of "involuntary downgrade" given to passengers by China Southern Airlines provided by Ms. Hua, China Southern Airlines only stated the objective situation and did not mention how to deal with it.
The reporter inquired about the regulations on the official website of China Southern Airlines on "involuntary downgrade" and found that there was no compensation standard.
Air China and China Eastern Airlines both have compensation standards for involuntary downgrades.
Air China's compensation standards for involuntary downgrades
CEA's compensation standard for involuntary downgrades
In fact, Ms. Hua purchased business class, fulfilled her payment obligation, and the electronic passenger contract with the airline was established. According to Articles 299 and 300 of the Contract Law, this obligation specifically includes: First, the carrier shall transport passengers according to the time and frequency indicated on the ticket. Second, if the carrier changes the means of transport without authorization and lowers the service standard, it shall refund or reduce the fare at the request of the passenger; If the service standard is raised, no additional fare shall be charged.
We would like to know what is the standard of the downgrade compensation plan given by China Southern Airlines? If there is a significant price difference, should it compensate for the loss of consumers? Why has Ms. Hua's reasonable appeal not been responded to for a long time?
Unfortunately, for so many days, China Southern Airlines' plan is still to refund the cabin difference at 1,030 yuan per person, and at the same time said that it can give more points, while Ms. Hua is unacceptable to the "mandatory" verification of high-priced tickets and the partial refund of low-cost economy class tickets that have not been written off.
Although air transport is highly dependent on natural factors such as weather and climate, as well as scientific means and technical instruments, the relevant elements in the subject matter of the contract, such as the take-off and departure time of the aircraft, the flight route, the arrival time and place, may be changed in the performance of the contract, but it does not affect the formation and effectiveness of the air passenger transport contract.
If China Southern Airlines can give a reasonable plan at the same time as downgrading, Ms. Hua will not have to buy another ticket! Moreover, in a limited time, in order to prevent the price of air tickets from rising, Ms. Hua's actions should not be blamed, should China Southern Airlines give an explanation?
Regarding Ms. Hua's question, China Southern Airlines' 95539 customer service [72065] said that the only thing that the front desk customer service could reply to was:
Such a "hasty" answer obviously could not solve Ms. Hua's doubts. In accordance with China Southern Airlines' request for media interviews, the reporter sent the above questions to the official email address of China Southern Airlines, but has not yet received a response. We will continue to pay attention to this.
Have you ever had a similar experience?
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