Recently, many consumers posted on social platforms asking for help, saying Iceland play airline collapse caused the flight ticket refund difficulty. Many netizens said that their original travel plans were also forced to cancel my August purchase ticket, September notice the order was cancelled, and now the airline ticket money has not been refunded to me. "Angel Mr. Wu is one of the affected consumers, he said he has communicated with the app on this issue with the ticket purchase platform, but the problem has not been solved. On October 20, Red Star News learned from many parties that at present there are some platforms in a row to refund to consumers, but travelers said that there is still in check with Airbus, there is no update progress.

Order of Mr. Lee.

In this regard, some lawyers said that the incident was a cross-border consumer dispute. Currently, the law does not explicitly require ticketing platforms to pay first when an airline goes bankrupt. Platforms generally need to communicate and coordinate with the airline company and follow the airline's bankruptcy handling plan to handle consumer refunds."If the platform clearly stipulates in the service agreement that compensation will be paid first under similar circumstances, or its behavior meets the above-mentioned needs to bear joint and several liability, Then the platform should first compensate consumers for their losses."

An Icelandic airline suddenly went bankrupt

Consumers face problems with flight ticket refunds

Mr. Wu told Red Star News that he originally planned to travel abroad at the end of this year. Because one of the trips involved Iceland to Spain, he purchased a ticket from Reykjavik to Barcelona in advance on the Ctrip App on August 17. The value is 1551 yuan. By September 30, Mr. Wu received a text message from Ctrip informing him that the flight was cancelled.

Mr. Wu said, after receiving a text message notification, the carrier also called him, telling him that there are two options, one is to change the ticket, the other is to withdraw the ticket, "I didn't think how serious the situation would be, I chose to change the signature, let the customer service help me operate."

In the process of waiting for the change of ticket, Mr. Wu broke out foreign news, found that the previous flight air carrier "Iceland Play Airlines" has announced bankruptcy, and it appears that no other airline will take over the same price of the previous flight, "plus the change of ticket has not been backed up, I rushed to the carrier service to ask what to do.

Details of Mr. Lee's ticket.

In order to avoid delaying the whole trip, Mr. Wu had to re-book the tickets of other airlines. To rebook the plane ticket, he not only spent more money, but also had to transit to Milan, which increased the time-consuming journey. Mr. Wu said that afterwards, he communicated with Ctrip on the refund issue many times, but it was always fruitless. "All replies are to communicate with the airline (Iceland play Airlines) and see the policy there." Mr. Wu said that up to now, the background of his App still shows that "Ctrip is processing the refund application".

Red Star News noted that on social platforms, and Mr. Wu has the same encounter with consumers and a lot. One of the netizens also posted that he bought "Iceland play airlines" tickets to Amsterdam for Reykjavik, on September 29 that day she had shipped luggage after the flight, and had passed the security inspection, when she went to the airport but was temporarily told that the bankruptcy of the airline could not take off, "the airline has failed, if you want to go to Iceland, please buy other airlines tickets."

Some platforms have been refunded

Some netizens posted a screenshot of the full refund

On October 18, Red Star News called Ctrip's customer service hotline and took Mr. Wu's order information as an example to make a refund inquiry. The wiring customer service told the reporter that Mr. Wu did reflect the refund problem many times before, but there is no update progress at present. When the reporter asked why there was no progress, the customer service said that according to its understanding, there is currently no clear policy regarding the bankruptcy and suspension of airlines, and it is being verified with the airline company. "If there is the latest policy, we will synchronize it in time."

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The reporter also noticed that many consumers recently posted on social platforms, saying that after encountering difficulties in refunding the bankruptcy of "Iceland Play Airlines", some ticketing platforms have successively refunded money. Among them, a netizen posted a screenshot of his refund on Qunar. com, saying that the 1739 yuan ticket he had previously purchased from Paris to Reykjavik on October 2 had been fully refunded. Some netizens said in the message area that it was also a refund issue for "Iceland Play Airlines". Feizhu, Qunar, and Ctrip Business Travel basically received refund feedback.

On October 20, Red Star News contacted the relevant person in charge of the flying pig platform, which told reporters that the "Iceland play airline" consumer refund problem, flying pig has initiated emergency response for the first time, notified the affected passenger flights have been cancelled, and the full refund for it was handled, "the refund was paid by flying pig, the last application submitted by the user was on October 10, at 01:39 pm.

Lawyer interpretation:

It is difficult to protect rights in cross-border consumer disputes

The law does not mandate booking platforms to pay in advance

In response to the above incident, Zhao Liangshan, a lawyer of Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm, said that there is a network service contract relationship between consumers and Ctrip. When consumers purchase air tickets through Ctrip platform, Ctrip is obliged to provide accurate flight information and assist in handling services such as refund and change. According to Article 44 of the Consumer Protection Law, if the online trading platform provider cannot provide the real name, address and effective contact information of the seller or service provider, consumers can also claim compensation from the online trading platform provider.

Zhao Xiaobo said that while consumers buy tickets through the platform, the ultimate service provider is the airline, and the airline has the obligation to transport consumers safely to the destination in accordance with the agreement. When the airline fails to fulfill its transport obligations, consumers have the right to demand that the airline refund the ticket, "Simply put, the journey belongs to an intermediary, whose obligation is to provide the medium of information, the subject of the rights and obligations of the ultimate transport obligations, or consumers and airlines."

At the same time, attorney Tammini Taoyu, a law firm in Beijing, explained to the Red Star News that ¡°for such a purchase of overseas flight tickets, it should be consumers pay the platform, the platform will pay the money to the airline, the consumer will eventually pay the ticket fee to the airline. Now the airline can not provide services to consumers, consumers should demand that the airline bear the corresponding responsibility, between consumers and the airline, is a consumer contract relationship. If the platform does not pay the money to the airline, consumers can demand the platform refund.¡±

As for whether the platform can pay in advance, Zhao Liangshan said that at present, the law does not explicitly force the ticketing platform to pay in advance when the airline goes bankrupt. Generally, the platform needs to communicate and coordinate with the airline, and then deal with the refund of consumers according to the bankruptcy treatment plan of the airline. "But if Ctrip clearly stipulates in its platform service agreement that it will pay in advance under similar circumstances, or its behavior meets the above-mentioned situation that requires joint and several liability, then Ctrip should pay the consumer's loss in advance."

¡°The most effective practice at the moment is to directly declare credit to Iceland Play Airlines¡¯ bankruptcy administrator.¡± Tamminghai told reporters that in addition to this, Mr. Wu and other consumers who have not yet refunded should continue to urge the booking platform to communicate with the airline, asking the platform to provide the bankruptcy administrator¡¯s contact method, credit declaration guidance, etc. assistance, and retain evidence of its failure to act. In addition, in addition to waiting, Tamminghai also said that consumers can complain to the market regulator or the consumer association of the place where the non-refunded booking platform is located, accusing it of failing to meet reasonable platform regulatory responsibilities, such as whether Airways is aware of business misconduct, etc., asking the booking platform to help resolve the

When it comes to whether consumers can take legal proceedings for reimbursement, Tammingtao said that Iceland¡¯s play airline collapse leads to cross-border consumer disputes, and that Iceland¡¯s law should apply, ¡°because Airbus¡¯s bankruptcy proceedings are carried out in Iceland, and Airbus¡¯s regular residence (main business) is also in Iceland. But the application of foreign laws will significantly increase consumer defence difficulties and costs. Consumers need to understand Iceland¡¯s bankruptcy laws, debt reporting procedures, etc., and may need to hire local lawyers, and face barriers such as language, time gap, cross-border communication.¡±

Red Star Reporters Interview

Editor Pan Li

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