Can i take international airline to small claims?

kayej

I recently flew Qantas but was given wrong information and whilst admitting liability, are refusing to pay me back the extra money I paid out. How can I take them to small claims when I booked online & they are an Australia Airline. Does anyone know? I went to visit my ill Mother who passed away & when I went to change my flights, I was told that I couldn't have a stop over (which was wrong) and also the sales rep added a really upsetting comment in my booking. They confirmed that the rep had made a mistake but only paid me a part payment and not what the extra flights cost me and refuse to pay more

Caz3121

what do the fare rules say on the ticket, if the only evidence you have is that you believe you were told something on the phone, have you asked for the recordings?
I am confused on the events, do you mean you ended up buying a ticket on another airline or did they charge you a change fee that you are disputing? a stopover would generally incur additional airport taxes.
What was the extra money you had to pay out?



You should not duplicate post
here is your original post from yesterday https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4995075
and here is the one from less than an hour before this one
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4995505

hopefully someone will remove 2 of them

kayej

I didn't think the other threads were going on unfortunately! The extra costs that I incurred were extra flights. Their sales rep advised that I wasn't allowed to stop over however I was. I therefore bought extra tickets to be able to do what I wanted. They have admitted that their sales rep gave me wrong information but refusing to pay the difference. I also ended up paying extra accommodation - all because the sales rep gave me totally wrong information.

unholyangel

Whats the choice of law/jurisdiction for qantas contracts? Do they have a registered office here in the uk?

Why did you incur extra accommodation charges?

kayej

Thank you for replying as this was an extremely upsetting experience for me. Firstly to be told that I would be able to return to the UK & then told I couldn't stop over for the 5 days I wanted to and be judged when I has lost my Mother a week prior was devastating. I requested Qantas to pay me the 2 extra flights that I had bought to enable me to take a break plus 2 night accommodation as I was forced to stay longer (by about a week) due to my not doing what I requested in the first place and stop 5 days. As they are refusing to pay this I will now also ask for an amount due to my luggage not comng in for about 36 hours after I arrived. I am guessing that I can still take them even though they have paid me half of what I requested. They put me in a position where I felt pressured into accepting and you would think that if someone was on the end of the phone crying, that you would be given a chance to think about things but No Qantas didn't have the decency to do that either.

unholyangel

kayej wrote: »

Thank you for replying as this was an extremely upsetting experience for me. Firstly to be told that I would be able to return to the UK & then told I couldn't stop over for the 5 days I wanted to and be judged when I has lost my Mother a week prior was devastating. I requested Qantas to pay me the 2 extra flights that I had bought to enable me to take a break plus 2 night accommodation as I was forced to stay longer (by about a week) due to my not doing what I requested in the first place and stop 5 days. As they are refusing to pay this I will now also ask for an amount due to my luggage not comng in for about 36 hours after I arrived. I am guessing that I can still take them even though they have paid me half of what I requested. They put me in a position where I felt pressured into accepting and you would think that if someone was on the end of the phone crying, that you would be given a chance to think about things but No Qantas didn't have the decency to do that either.

Who "judged" you and for what?

Can you please provide a clear itinerary of what you wanted to book, what you were provided with and what you ended up booking yourself. At present I still have no clue why the 2 nights extra was mandatory.

Have you found out the choice of law/jurisdiction yet? If oz courts have jurisdiction, you wont be able to take them to small claims. If oz law is the choice of law, you would need to research into Australian law in order to find out what your rights are.

bod1467

Were you in the UK when you made the booking, or in Australia?

kayej

I booked Qantas online from UK. Return ticket to NZ to return in Jan. After my Mother passed away I rang to change my ticket and asked to stop in Dubai. Was told that I couldn't have a stop over. As I desperately needed a break I booked 2 separate tickets and was then in a position where I couldn't fly back for extra days due to flights being full. None of these expenses I would have incurred had the sales rep not advised me incorrectly that I couldn't have stopover. Qantas admitted that she had made an error & I was allowed a stopover. They also admitted that she had made offensive comments in booking.

agrinnall

I would expect any claim to be a complicated process. It might be worth contacting the CAA first to see if they can help.

Passenger Complaints Unit, Civil Aviation Authority
CAA House
45-59 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6TE
Tel: +44 20 7453 6888
Fax: +44 20 7240 7071
e-mail: [EMAIL="passengercomplaints@caa.co.uk"]passengercomplaints@caa.co.uk[/EMAIL]