Figure: The platform shows that pre-sales manual consulting services are not available for the time being.
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■Duke newspaper reporter Ren Zhenyu
"There are still 13 days before the flight departure date, and the refund of the ticket of 277 yuan will only give me a refund of 65 yuan!" Recently, many consumers reported that they were charged a high handling fee for refunding the ticket on the online platform.
A reporter from China Consumer Daily found that such issues have become a hotspot for complaints. The complainants involved platforms such as Zhixing Train Ticket, Tieyou Travel, Fliggy, Qunar, as well as Spring Airlines, Kunming Airlines, Jiangxi Airlines, Xiangpeng and other platforms. Airline, West Air, etc.
Zhixing train ticket platform: There are 13 days until the flight departure date, and the ticket of 277 yuan can only be refunded 65 yuan
On December 22, 2021, Ms. Liu purchased a Spring Airlines flight from Yangzhou to Nanchang on January 30 this year on the Zhixing train ticket app, with a total price of 277 yuan.
On January 16, due to a change in the itinerary, Ms. Liu applied for a refund on the platform, but the platform charged a handling fee of 212 yuan and could only refund 65 yuan.
Ms. Liu asked the customer service, and the smart housekeeper replied: "Different cabins and different discounts have different refund and modification fees. The higher the discount, the more severe the refund and modification fees. The specific product refund and modification rules shall prevail."
"The refund date is still 13 days away from the flight departure date. At this time, applying for a refund will not affect the airline's secondary sales, but it will charge a high handling fee of 76% of the ticket price. I don't understand. And the platform only has intelligent customer service. , there is no manual service, and the proportion of handling fees for refunds has not been found on the airline's official website." Ms. Liu said.
The reporter of "China Consumer News" asked the online customer service about the refund fee in the Zhixing train ticket APP, and the smart housekeeper replied, you need to click "refund" on the flight information inquiry interface and select "refund fee rules" to check, and reply: " We do not provide pre-sales manual consultation services for the time being." The reporter called the official customer service number of Zhixing train tickets, but the manual customer service has not been connected.
The official customer service of Spring Airlines said: "The refund fee is different at each stage, including the fee for refunding and changing the ticket price, and the maximum can reach 100%, that is, the total loss of the fare."
Tieyou train ticket platform: A high handling fee is charged for refunding the ticket, and the promised compensation has not been in place
Mr. Yang, a consumer from Changsha, Hunan, reported to the China Consumer News that on January 5, he purchased a ticket from Kunming Airlines from Changsha, Hunan to Yuncheng, Shanxi for 798.9 yuan through the Tieyou train ticket app on January 5. Due to the epidemic situation near the destination, on January 10, Mr. Yang consulted online customer service about the refund fee. The customer service replied that the refund fee was 493 yuan per person before 13:25 on January 13, and the later the refund fee, the higher the fee.
Mr. Yang called the airline's official customer service phone again to ask, and the customer service staff said, "Which channel did you buy from, you must refund the ticket from that channel".
Worried that the follow-up fee would continue to rise, Mr. Yang chose to apply for a refund and only received 276 yuan.
Mr. Yang believed that the refund was five days before the departure date, and the handling fee was too high, so he filed a complaint through the social network platform.
"On January 16, I received a call from the customer service staff of Tieyou train tickets, saying that part of the cost would be compensated, but I didn't say how much, and the compensation was not received for a long time." Mr. Yang told reporters.
The reporter asked the online customer service of the Tieyou train ticket platform to inquire about the refund fee. The intelligent customer service replied that it is necessary to click on the cancellation and correction on the flight information interface to view it, and pre-sale manual consultation is not provided.
Subsequently, the reporter called the customer service number of Tieyou Travel Network, but was prompted to provide the contact number in the order before consulting; in addition, the reporter called the customer service number of Kunming Airlines and tried to transfer the manual service, and it kept prompting "the seat is busy".
Fliggy Travel Platform: It took only 7 hours from booking to refund, and a ticket of 602 yuan can only be refunded 210 yuan
On January 21, Mr. Lai, who lives in Nanchang, Jiangxi, reported to the China Consumer News that it took only about 7 hours from the time he booked the ticket to the refund, and the ticket of 602 yuan was only refunded 210 yuan.
At around 18:00 on January 17, Mr. Lai purchased a ticket from Jiangxi Airlines from Nanchang to Chengdu at 14:55 on January 18 through the applet. Later, due to the change of the itinerary, it was after 1:00 on January 18. Mr. Lai applied for a refund, but only 210 yuan was returned.
"I asked Fliggy's online customer service why the handling fee was so high that it was more than 12 hours before the departure time. The customer service staff said that the handling fee was deducted according to the company's regulations, but did not tell the specific percentage or standard. I called Jiangxi several times that day. The airline's customer service phone has never been through." Mr. Lai told reporters that he also initiated a complaint through the social network platform, but the page always showed "merchant processing".
The reporter found that Mr. Lai's refund details page showed: "Fliggy does not charge any refund fee." On January 23, the reporter called the Fliggy customer service hotline to ask about the refund fee. The customer service staff said that the fee is the airline's If you have any questions about the fees, you can confirm with Fliggy and the airline respectively. If the fees charged by Fliggy are shown by the airline If the price is different, Fliggy can also apply for a refund for consumers.
Later, the reporter called the Jiangxi Airlines customer service hotline, but when transferring to the manual service, it kept prompting that "the seats are all busy".
●Expert opinion
Operators should not arbitrarily charge high refund fees. If it exceeds the actual loss, it is illegal
A reporter from "China Consumer News" searched for the keyword "air ticket + refund handling fee" on the Black Cat Complaint Platform, and there were 15,148 related complaints, most of which reflected the issue of high handling fees charged by the platform for refunds, and the complainants involved Zhixing trains Tickets, Tieyou Travel Network, Fliggy and other platforms, as well as Spring Airlines, West Air, etc.
On January 26, Su Haopeng, a professor at the School of Law of the University of International Business and Economics and director of the Consumer Protection Law Research Center, said in an interview with reporters that the proportion of cancellation and change fees announced by major domestic airlines is generally high. Online or offline, aviation sales agents often add a certain percentage of handling fees to the handling fees charged by airlines, and take advantage of information asymmetry to conceal the real situation from consumers and increase communication barriers. The problem of high handling fees for ticket refunds and changes has intensified.
Air transportation is a market behavior, and the relevant charging standards should not be clearly required by the state. Therefore, the "Public Air Transport Passenger Service Management Regulations" do not stipulate the proportion of ticket refund and change fees, but it does not mean that airlines or third-party platforms, air sales Agents are free to set standards and charge high fees.
The relevant provisions of the Civil Code should be abided by, and high refund fees should not be charged arbitrarily.
If the charging standard it sets is higher than its losses, or exceeds the possible losses due to breach of contract that the consumer foresees or should have foreseen at the time of entering into the contract, it is a violation of the law and should be corrected.
Therefore, when purchasing tickets, consumers should carefully read the relevant regulations of airlines, understand the refund procedures and the proportion of refund fees, and choose different types of air services, not just low prices.
When refunding a ticket, in accordance with the airline's regulations, if you find that there is an excess charge, you can promptly lodge a complaint, report or initiate arbitration through a third-party platform, airline, consumer association or administrative authority to safeguard your legal rights.
Su Haopeng also reminded operators that aviation companies should shoulder the legal obligations and social responsibilities of respecting the rights and interests of consumers, and reasonably determine the standard or amount of refund fees.
Airline sales agents shall operate in good faith and shall not charge refund fees on top of the refund fees charged by airlines.
The third-party platform should assume the responsibility of supervision in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and take measures to restrict the operation of air sales agents who defraud consumers and damage the interests of consumers.