Flights and holidays FAQs
Q1. I booked a flight to Rome but am no longer able to go. Am I entitled to a refund?
This depends on the terms and conditions of your ticket, which can differ from airline to airline. Many airline tickets are non-refundable.
Other airlines allow you to make changes to your ticket provided you meet certain criteria and pay a change fee.
If you cannot travel and your ticket is non-refundable, you may apply for a refund of relevant taxes, fees and charges. However, the airline may charge you a fee to cover the administration involved. No refund will be issued, where this fee is more than the value of any refund due.
If you have travel insurance you should read the terms and conditions of your policy to see if you could possibly make a claim with your insurance provider.
The NCA is currently examining certain business practices in the airline sector in Ireland, including the issue of refunds, and, in particular, the administration fees for refunds.
We have raised this matter with the major airlines operating in Ireland and hope to achieve compliance on this issue.
Q2. I recently went to purchase a flight advertised at €49 return. However by the time all the taxes and charges were added in it came close to €100. Is this misleading advertising?
When purchasing airline tickets, you may be subject to additional taxes, fees and charges.
The NCA view is that all non-variable, unavoidable taxes, fees and charges (such as government taxes, airport charges) should be displayed in every advertisement and/or price indication of an airfare and that the variable and/or optional costs (such as baggage charges, credit card charges) should be displayed prior to completion of the transaction.
We have raised this matter with airlines operating in the Irish market and hope to achieve compliance on this issue.
Under existing consumer protection legislation, the airlines' current method of advertising is not in breach of any piece of consumer protection legislation enforced by the NCA.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has signalled his intention to review the area of airline advertising and investigate whether or not there is a need for new legislation in this area.
The NCA is also monitoring developments in the European Commission which is debating new regulations that would introduce greater transparency in ticket pricing by forcing airlines to include all taxes and charges when advertising air fares.
It is expected that these two developments will introduce new legislation and will make the pricing of airfares clearer for all consumers.
Q3. What are my rights in relation to denied board/cancellation or flight delays?
Your rights in this area are governed by EU Regulation 261/2004 on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights" came into effect on 17 February 2005
The Commission for Aviation Regulation has been designated as the body responsible for the enforcement of this regulation in Ireland.
Further information on your rights under this regulation is available on the Commission's website
Q4. A week before we were due to go on a package holiday the tour operator stated that we would be staying in different accommodation to the one we originally booked. The quality of the accommodation is not as good. What can we do?
The Package Holidays and Travel Trade Act states that should the organiser be compelled before departure to cancel or to make a significant alteration to an essential part of the contract you should be offered the choice of:
- A replacement package of equivalent or superior quality if the organiser is able to provide this or
- A replacement package of lower quality if the organiser is able to provide this. In this case, you are also entitled to recover the difference in price between that of the package purchased and the replacement package
- A refund of all money paid under the contract.
It should be noted that the Act does not specify what a "significant alteration to an essential term of the contract" would involve. However, it may include instances such a significant change in the departure time (most contracts define this as more than 18 hours), changes to the resort or location, a change to the type of accommodation or some other change which significantly alters the holiday.
Q5. I booked a flight three months back for €259 return. I went on the website today and the same flight is €159. Are airlines allowed to change their prices like this?
In Ireland there is no price control, and for the most part airlines can increase or decrease their prices in accordance with market conditions. Therefore an airline would be entitled to reduce the price before a departure date in an effort to entice others to fly, i.e. buy the company's tickets.
Of course this will not always be the case. In the case where a flight is in high demand the price could increase, as it gets closer to the departure date.
Q6. I was booking flights for four people online. The website allowed me to book the first two flights for €180. However, when I increased the number to four the price jumped to €230 for each ticket. How can this be the case when the first two tickets were clearly €180?
Airlines sell different seats at different prices, and when the batch of lower priced tickets sells out, a new batch of tickets then goes on sale at the next price level.
What would appear to happen in these cases is that if a consumer wishes to purchase four tickets for a flight and there are only two tickets available at the lower price, all four tickets will be priced at the higher price. This is how the airlines’ booking and IT systems work, and it is not a breach of any piece of consumer protection legislation enforced by this office.
Once the consumer is made aware of the total price payable, before deciding whether or not to complete their transaction, airlines have met their obligations to the consumer.
Q7. When booking my flight online the website automatically included insurance which I did not want or need. Are they allowed to automatically opt me in for this additional cost?
The website must provide the option for consumers to opt out of the insurance.
Once the consumer has the option to accept or reject the service before completing the flight booking, then there is no breach of any legislation enforceable by this office.
Most airlines state that no refunds will be made for these services should the consumer not chose to opt out, except under the cooling off period (14 days) allowable on travel insurance policies.
In general the policy on refunds is formulated as a condition of carriage, and consequently becomes part of your contract with them when you buy a ticket.
Q8. I recently went to buy online flights in response to a newspaper ad which stated a particular airline was offering a sale and had seats to Rome for €23. However, when I went to book online I could not get any seats for this price. I believe this is misleading advertising, is this correct?
When an airline advertises a flight from €23 inc. taxes and charges, the airline is not legally obliged to offer this price for all flights within the stated period.
Once there is one or more flights offered at this price for each of the destinations stated in the advertisements, inclusive of taxes and charges, the airline satisfies the criteria for the offer to be deemed legitimate, as they have offered €23 flights inc. taxes and charges, to consumers as intimated in the advertisements.
It should be noted that all sale flights are subject to availability, as stated on the advertisement.
Q9. At what point does an online airline booking become a binding contract entered into by a consumer?
There are two main methods by which an airline contract can be concluded electronically. The first is where the message is put into the sender's outbox and collected by the mail server and deposited into the receiver's inbox. The second is by the "click-wrap" method, where the person is invited to click on an icon in a web page, which indicates agreement.
The terms and conditions of the contract stipulate where the contract is formed. However, it is common practice that airlines state that the contract is only agreed when the confirmation is received.
Q10. Is there a specified time limit for airlines to provide notice of booking confirmation?
Section 20 of the E-Commerce Act 2000 generally states that if the airline indicated that receipt of an electronic communication was required to complete the contract within either a "specified" or "reasonable" period of time and the consumer fails to receive this, then the contract cannot be considered to be completed.
Therefore official completion of the contract is either determined by the terms and conditions of the operator or else by what a court would consider reasonable – the circumstances may differ from case to case.
Related links
Read the full NCA guide to consumer law and travel
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