This class action takes up an issue that has become familiar over the past year: airline flight cancellations due to fewer flights due to Covid-19 conditions that do not result in a full refund to the canceled customers. The complaint brings suit against Philippine Airlines (PAL) for not issuing refunds to passengers whose flights it cancelled as a result of conditions due to the coronavirus, alleging breach of contract.
The class for this action is all persons in the US who bought tickets for travel on a Philippines Airlines flight operating to, from, or within the US, where the flight was canceled or was subject to a significant schedule change and not refunded.
On March 4, 2020, plaintiff Juvy Ann Lopez booked to round trip tickets on a flight leaving San Francisco, California for Manila, the Philippines.
On April 5, 2020, PAL canceled that flight. Lopez then tried to get a refund for her tickets.
According to the complaint, “On July 15, 2020, [Lopez] was informed by ‘Relyn,’ a PAL representative, that her refund ‘ha[d] already processed.’ [Lopez was instructed to ‘[p]lease allow 5 months from the date the refund was processed (or an average of 5 billing cycles) for the amount to be credit[ed] back to the account used.’”
Lopez waited for five months, then e-mailed PAL on December 29, 2020, asking about her refund. A PAL representative answered, saying that “[w]e have sent a follow[-]up to our Support Desk and we are still awaiting feedback…”
Lopez sent a follow-up e-mail on January 10, 2021 with her ticket number and booking reference number, reminding PAL that she had waited nearly a year for her refund. A PAL representative answered, acknowledging the e-mail and promising to look into the matter.” Lopez followed up again two days later, but did not receive another response.
Lopez has also telephoned PAL more then twenty times, the complaint says, but was placed on hold each time, for as much as two or three hours, still without giving her the required refund.
The complaint alleges that, due to Covid-19, “PAL has cancelled a vast percentage of its internal and US flights. However, PAL has refused to issue refunds for flights that it cancelled or significantly altered. PAL’s inexplicable and continues withholding of passengers’ refunds stands in direct contravention of its Contract of Carriage as well as other representations made to passengers…”
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) also published a statement “in the context of” the Covid-19 pandemic that US and foreign airlines “remain obligated to provide a prompt refund to passengers for flights to, within, or from the United States when the carrier cancels the passenger’s scheduled flight or makes a significant schedule change and the passenger chooses not to accept the alternative offered by the carrier.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
No Refunds for Philippine Airlines-Cancelled Flights Complaint
May 20, 2021
This class action takes up an issue that has become familiar over the past year: airline flight cancellations due to fewer flights due to Covid-19 conditions that do not result in a full refund to the canceled customers. The complaint brings suit against Philippine Airlines (PAL) for not issuing refunds to passengers whose flights it cancelled as a result of conditions due to the coronavirus, alleging breach of contract.
No Refunds for Philippine Airlines-Cancelled Flights ComplaintCase Event History
No Refunds for Philippine Airlines-Cancelled Flights Complaint
May 20, 2021
This class action takes up an issue that has become familiar over the past year: airline flight cancellations due to fewer flights due to Covid-19 conditions that do not result in a full refund to the canceled customers. The complaint brings suit against Philippine Airlines (PAL) for not issuing refunds to passengers whose flights it cancelled as a result of conditions due to the coronavirus, alleging breach of contract.
No Refunds for Philippine Airlines-Cancelled Flights Complaint