On March 7, reporters learned from the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Committee that in order to further improve airline service quality, the Airport Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation and the Airport Office of the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission took the lead in leading industry enterprises and Shanghai-based airline Oriental Six airlines, including Air China Shanghai Branch, China Southern Airlines Shanghai Branch, Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, and Jinpeng Airlines, jointly launched the "Mutual Recognition Mechanism for Non-destructive Refunds of Inter-Airline Non-Consecutive Tickets at Shanghai Airport".
According to reports, this mechanism refers to round-trip flights originating or arriving in Shanghai and domestic flights connecting in Shanghai. The same passenger purchases non-consecutive tickets on mutually recognized airlines under this mechanism, and the actual carriers are both mutually recognized airlines under this mechanism. If the previous flight is delayed or canceled due to weather or force majeure, the subsequent flight will enjoy a lossless refund.
Even if consumers choose to travel in segments, the impact of the upper segment flight on the lower segment flight can be eliminated through the mutual recognition mechanism.
In recent years, many consumers have reported that they purchased two round-trip tickets operated by different airlines. The first flight was delayed or canceled due to force majeure such as weather, while the second flight was still scheduled to take off. In this case, a certain percentage of handling fees will be deducted for the refund of the flight ticket, and a full refund cannot be made.
In particular, the problem of refunds for consecutive itineraries involving non-consecutive tickets from across airlines, such as winter rain and snow weather and summer typhoon weather, is more concentrated, and it is also a hotspot and congestion point in disputes over aviation consumer services.
The main reasons for the above problems are: first, one-way tickets from different airlines constitute round-trip or connecting flight tickets, which are actually two separate carrier contracts. Therefore, the force majeure of the first flight causes delays or cancellations, and the second flight cannot be fully refunded; second One-way tickets from different airlines form a round-trip or connecting flight ticket. Such non-consecutive tickets form an itinerary. The sales, reservations, and flight change information between airlines are out of sync and missing, so they can only be classified according to their respective flights. Air ticket refund regulations.
The launch of the "Mutual Recognition Mechanism for Non-destructive Refunds of Inter-Airline Non-Consecutive Tickets at Shanghai Airport" is to solve this congestion problem in aviation services, reduce consumer travel losses, and optimize the aviation consumption environment.
(Headquarters reporter Ning Wanting)