Small court claim procedures against an Airline for a refund ?

ally50

Hello, 

I am trying to draft a defence  against an Airline company for a refund.
The staff from airline company advised me to cancel my flight after I checked in and handed in my luggages.
This is because my child suddenly collapsed, became unwell and was not able to walk to the passport check.

I cancelled my flight and my luggages were returned. When I cancelled my flight, customer service advisor asked me to email them with a doctor letter so that they can reschedule  or issue a refund. 
I emailed them and when I had a letter from the doctor I sent to them.
They responded saying that they can only refund in more serious cases such as cancer etc.so they rejected my claim.

My ticket was flexible and had rights of changes and refunds. The terms and conditions state that it is not refundable in case of "no show".
The definition of "no show" is "no checked in" according  to the airlines website.
As I checked in the airline should not treat my claim under "no show" policy, am I right?

I would be very grateful for any help/advice.

eskbanker

ally50 said:

I am trying to draft a defence  against an Airline company for a refund

Firstly, just to be clear, you're presumably not actually defending anything here, i.e. you're looking to initiate action against them, rather than the other way round?

It'll probably be worth naming the airline on here so that posters can see the Ts & Cs themselves - it does sound more like a denied boarding scenario rather than a voluntary cancellation though.

A few thoughts ahead of embarking on court action....

Have you exhausted the airline's formal complaints process, and escalated to their ADR partner (if applicable)?

Did you pay for the tickets by credit or debit card?

Do you have travel insurance that'll cover this if the airline remains uncooperative and the court doesn't side with you?

ally50

eskbanker said:

ally50 said:

I am trying to draft a defence  against an Airline company for a refund

Firstly, just to be clear, you're presumably not actually defending anything here, i.e. you're looking to initiate action against them, rather than the other way round?

It'll probably be worth naming the airline on here so that posters can see the Ts & Cs themselves - it does sound more like a denied boarding scenario rather than a voluntary cancellation though.

A few thoughts ahead of embarking on court action....

Have you exhausted the airline's formal complaints process, and escalated to their ADR partner (if applicable)?

Did you pay for the tickets by credit or debit card?

Do you have travel insurance that'll cover this if the airline remains uncooperative and the court doesn't side with you?

Thank you for your input.

No travel insurance.  I paid with credit card but my credit  card account  was closed by the bank for no reason given. 

I have exhausted the airlines internal complain procedure. 

They had rejected my claim by stating that "the medical reason was not a serious condition such as cancer"!

At the court stage The airline defence has changed to a "no show" case, therefore no refund !

Throughout all our correspondences with the airline they never stated that. 

eskbanker

And which airline is it?

ally50

eskbanker said:

And which airline is it?

T urkish Airlines

eskbanker

ally50 said:

eskbanker said:

And which airline is it?

T urkish Airlines

I had a look through https://cdn.turkishairlines.com/m/4baa4c273c542032/original/General-conditions-of-carriage-Turkish-Airlines.pdf but can't see any references to "no show" within it - are these the Ts & Cs you're referring to, and which specific clauses are you and the airline citing?

ally50

No, this is not what I received after booking. However, it refers to "illness"

---3.2.1.3 When a Passenger, after having commenced his or her journey, is prevented from traveling within the period of validity of the ticket by reason of illness, the Carrier will extend (provided such extension is not precluded by the Carrier's Regulations applicable to the fare paid by the Passenger) the period of validity of said Passenger's Ticket until the date when the Passenger becomes fit to travel, supported by a medical certificate, or until the Carrier's first flight after such date from the point where journey is resumed on which space is available in the class of service for which the fare has been paid. When the Flight Coupons remaining in the ticket involve one or more Stopovers, the validity of such ticket, subject to the Carrier's Regulations, will be extended for not more than three months from the date shown on such certificate. In such circumstances, the Carrier will also extend the period of validity of tickets of other members of the Passenger's immediate family accompanying said incapacitated Passenger.---

eskbanker

I'd interpret the reference to "after having commenced his or her journey" in that clause as relating to illness occurring between an outbound and a return flight, is that the scenario here or were you just starting out?  It also envisages extending the validity of the ticket, rather than refunding it, but this will perhaps come back to the fare conditions applying to your ticket?

However, it's impossible to know what to say with such limited information - a single clause is no substitute for the full Ts & Cs under which you booked, and details of exactly what arguments are being made by each party would really be needed in order to offer any meaningful advice about how to play this.  It's still unclear to me why they advised you to 'cancel' your flight, when sudden illness would seem to be a reason to simply defer the journey, for example, so if they consider this to have weakened your position then that's undoubtedly worth pursuing....

ally50

This is a part of Ts&Cs I received  after booking.

CANCELLATIONS

TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE IN CASE OF NO-SHOW.

NOTE -

IN THE EVENT OF NO SHOW - WHEN REFUND IS

REQUESTED AFTER DEPARTURE OF THE ORIGINALLY

SCHEDULED FLIGHT-

NOT PERMITTED EVEN FOR MEDICAL REASON

FOR NON REFUNDABLE TICKETS THE -YR- SURCHARGE

WILL NOT BE REFUNDED.

Westin

Think carefully about the words and terminology used by the staff at check-in.

Are you 100% sure they told you to cancel the booking?  Instead, could they have suggested that you are off-loaded or that they would uncheck you and your child in?  This is more credible if someone is unable or unwilling to proceed with taking the flight after being checked in.  For a short period of time this would leave the original reservation live.   Leaving the reservation in this status while medical treatment was found, or even for the child to be calmed, would then allow the booking to be transferred to a later flight on one the following day.

The other element is the timing of the events. A reservation left after a passenger is offloaded will not be left open for more than about a day.  Enough time to perhaps go to seek medical attention, return or call to reschedule. If however you left a period of multiple days between the original flight and contacting them with a doctors letter then I think you might be out of luck. 

Next port of call might need to be your travel insurance.

eskbanker

Westin said:

Next port of call might need to be your travel insurance.

Unfortunately....

ally50 said:
No travel insurance.