High hopes for the high season

AN AIRFARE cannot
be unbundled to
determine a reasonable
cancellation fee, says
the National Consumer
Commission.
Trevor Hattingh,
media liaison officer and
spokesperson for the NCC,
says the fairness of a
cancellation fee must be
determined in relation to
the total price of the airfare
by looking at the full set
of parameters set out in
regulation five of Section 17
of the Consumer Protection
Act (CPA). This portion of the
Act deals with consumers’
right to cancel advance
reservations, bookings or
orders (see TNW August 17).
This does not change the
fact that there is still no such
thing as a non-refundable
ticket, according to the NCC.
Agents are also questioning
why governing authorities
have not insisted that
airlines submit an industry
code detailing acceptable
treatment of the consumer
in relation to refunds and
cancellation fees.
Agents recently took to
eTNW to express their
frustration about airlines’
non-refundable ticket
policies, which fly in the
face of the CPA.
In particular, some airlines’
refusal to refund the fuel
surcharge or carrier-imposed
surcharge on top of not
refunding the base fare is
viewed by a number of agents
as unethical behaviour.
As previously reported in
TNW, suppliers are allowed
to charge a reasonable
cancellation fee, but many
agents dispute whether it is
reasonable to include the
fuel surcharge in the
cancellation fee when it is
not bundled as part of the
airline’s operating cost, but
rather a separate tax.
In response to TNW’s
questions about why a set
of consumer-focused codes
for the airline industry simply
does not exist, the NCC said
it came down to a need to
prioritise other industries
first. Trevor says, ultimately,
every industry should have a
code of conduct and ombuds
institution or alternative
dispute resolution agency. It
is the mandate of the NCC to
put in place and maintain a
consumer protection system
for South Africa, he says.
However, the Commission
is first tackling those
industries it deems most
urgent in terms of numbers
of complaints. “When it
comes to the airline
industry, the NCC rarely gets
complaints from consumers,”
Trevor says.
The airline industry will,
however, at some point
have to institute a dispute
resolution platform and,
interestingly, once an ombuds
institution has been launched
within the industry, should
that institution receive even
one complaint in relation to
the issue of unbundling fares,
the ombudsman would be
required to look into it.