TAP Air Portugal No Refunds for Flights Cancelled Due to Covid-19 Class Action

This breach of contract class action brings suit against an airline based in Portugal, Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, SA, which does business as TAP Air Portugal. The complaint alleges that TAP, which offers flights to and from the US, cancelled flights but did not give refunds to the passengers who had paid to be on those flights.

The class for this action is all persons in the US who bought tickets for travel on a TAP flight that was scheduled to fly between March 1, 2020 and the date the class is certified in this case, whose flights were cancelled by TAP and who were not given a refund.

TAP has flights traveling in and out of Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. TAP’s agreement with its passengers is its Contract of Carriage, which the complaint alleges “is incorporated by reference in all ticket purchases.”

The contract requires that TAP must refund passengers for flights that have been cancelled, and the complaint alleges, if the passenger has not flown any leg of the reservation, the refund will include “an amount equal to the fare paid plus, subject to applicable law, the taxes, fees and charges paid.”

According to the complaint, “[t]he Contract’s terms include no exceptions or limitations based on the reason for TAP’s cancellation. Rather, passengers who bought tickets on the cancelled flight have the option of receiving re-accommodation on the next available flight or a later flight on a date convenient to the passenger, or a prompt refund.” The complaint claims that, before the Covid-19 pandemic, TAP did make refunds in full to passengers, but that after the start of the pandemic, “TAP’s usual practice has been to just hold onto its customers’ money after it cancelled their flights.”

The pandemic began in March 2020, and, because of the lower demand for travel, the complaint alleges TAP cancelled a large number of flights that month.

But customers did not receive refunds for these flights, the complaint alleges. It quotes a March 19, 2020 press release from TAP as saying, “Customers affected by flight cancellations in this period should go to the website refunds.flytap.com, to get a voucher in the amount paid for the purchase of the ticket, so that they can easily decide where and when they want to travel.”

But this is not what is required by its Contract, the complaint alleges, “and the Company appears to recognize as much because it has accrued a liability on its balance sheet related to ‘flight tickets issued and unused’ which ‘includes significant amounts relating to flights not completed by that data [which] the Group remains responsible for providing the service in the future or for refunds as [sic] the contractual terms.’”

According to a November 15, 2022 New York Times article, the complaint claims, the US Department of Transportation finally fined TAP a million dollars for not refunding passengers’ fare payments.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Contract
Tags: Airline TIckets, Breach of Contract, Failure To Pay For Refund