Iberia Lineas Aereas Refusal to Refund Canceled Flights Class Action

Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA Operadora, the Iberian airline, normally offers thousands of flights each day to almost 120 destinations in forty-five countries. However, like many airlines, it has had to cancel flights because of travel restrictions and fears of coronavirus contagion. The complaint for this class action alleges that when Iberia cancels flights, it does not give passengers a full refund for their tickets but only credits for future trips.

Iberia operates in the US, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

The complaint claims, “As part of each ticket purchase, [Iberia] makes a promise and warranty to customers that they are entitled to fixed monetary refunds in accordance with the European Parliament and Council Regulation…. Fixed monetary refunds are guaranteed under Article 7 of EC No. 261 [and] are generally based on mileage of the scheduled flight.”

According to the complaint, the Department of Transportation has said that “refusing to refund a non-refundable fare when a flight is cancelled and the passenger wishes to cancel is a violation” of US law.

As the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US, Iberia cancelled flights, as did many other carriers, in order to avoid operating them at a loss. However, Iberia “discontinue[ed] monetary refunds for the cancelled and substantially rescheduled flights. Instead, at best, [Iberia] required passengers to accept only devalued and redeemable credits for future use on their own airline.”

These credits, the complaint says, had expiration dates that meant that many passengers would not be able to use them.

Although many passengers would have preferred to receive their money back, Iberia “erected bureaucratic barriers which prevented passengers from requesting and obtaining refunds or flight credits, ensuring a windfall” for Iberia. The complaint claims that customer service for the airline has been inaccessible, “with wait times of several hours frequently reported…”

On April 3, 2020, the DOT issued a reminder to airlines that “passengers should be refunded promptly when their scheduled flights are cancelled or significantly delayed.” Despite the fact that Covid-19 was not the fault of the airlines, “the airlines’ obligation to refund passengers for cancelled or significantly delayed flights remains unchanged.”

However, the complaint claims that Iberia still has not paid its passengers refunds.

The class for this action is all persons living in the US or its territories who bought tickets for passage on an Iberia flight, where the flight was to operate between March 1, 2020 and the date of the certification of the class in this case, and where the flight was canceled by Iberia and where Iberia did not provide a monetary refund, including charges and fees.

Excluded from the class are persons who specifically requested a coupon or voucher in place of a monetary refund or who received alternative air transportation in place of a monetary refund.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Air Travel Delays or Cancellations, Airline TIckets, Airlines, Covid-19 Related, Failure To Pay For Refund