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Our FareCompare Santa is on his way to Boston, but his flight from Boston to Newark has been canceled along with Newark to Charleston, South Carolina. Continental who in the blink of a credit card button press extracted “it’s” cash is graciously noting on their website:
Ok, everyone — lets grab our Continental Contract of Carriage and see what we do next … |
So the plane is canceled due to “weather” (Force Majeure for the legal beagles).
Hmm … no rule 240, well at least its rule 24 (and 5 in our case) …
Force Majeure Event
In the event of a Force Majeure Event, CO without notice, may cancel, terminate, divert, postpone, or delay any flight, right of carriage or reservations (whether or not confirmed) and determine if any departure or landing should be made, without any liability on the part of CO. CO may reschedule passenger on another available CO flight or refund any unused portions of the ticket in the form of a travel certificate.
Ok, so Santa has no rights (nothing new, travelers have dealt with this all year) and Continental “who didn’t get us airborne” and whisked away our our cash in the speed of a credit card button press — won’t refund our money, just give us a certificate or put us on another flight — maybe (Not picking on Continental per se, most airlines are pretty much the same) … (We’ll sort this refund issue shortly depending on what happens next.)
Grumpy Santa is lucky - he has a support team behind him and most travelers don’t — but the first step for us - since we found out his flight was canceled earlier was to call Continental and send a BlackBerry message to Santa to hi-tail-it to the nearest Continental counter (he and 800 others probably) to see if he can get some “love” from an airport agent — because it would be love — legally he has no right to anything other than “reschedule” and “certificate”.
If we/he were elite status on Continental maybe we could call those numbers and maybe get some “love”, bet we aren’t and I for one want to see how this drama plays out 
Now the first thing we did on the support team was to call Continental — 800-525-0280 — say “Domestic” — “No” — “No” — in that order, …”We are now connecting you … to a busy signal” — guess step 1 is being taken by more than a few people — Shouldn’t a billion dollar company be able to at least give me some Enya in the background and make we wait 2 hours …
We need to get to New York today no matter what for some Times Square fun, so the backup plan is deployed.
Assuming they can get a local airport agent in Boston (in our lifetime) or even if they cant — having the backup flight schedules is handy for Santa, for us behind the scenes working the phones, and for the airport agent to expedite the situation:
Options Boston to New York from noon on:
Delta
- DL 1921 1:30p LGA
- DL 1929 5:30p LGA
US Airways
- US 2127 noon LGA
- US 2129 1p LGA
- US 2131 2p LGA
- US 2133 3p LGA
- US 4978 3:50p HPN
- US 2137 5p LGA
American Airlines
- AA 4816 11:55a LGA
- AA 4818 1:15p LGA
- AA 4662 2:40p JFK
- AA 4820 3:20p LGA
- AA 4619 5:15p JFK
- AA 4806 6p LGA
Amtrak (Boston South) to Penn Station
- 1:40p
- 3:20p
- others sold out
Now we are armed, we will continue to call in the background while Santa works the counter… more later
Fear not, Santa. You are still eligible for a refund per Rule 27. That’s an odd clause (no pun intended) that you cited about force majeure in section 24 D. I’m not sure why they’ve included that, because 24 C still applies.
Of course, that doesn’t actually help get you to Newark . . .
Comment by Cranky Flier — December 13, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
Hi Cranky,
Contracts of Carriage are very “Tricky”, thankfully so in certain cases because the agent’s don’t necessarily know the “legality” and go with their gut.
If you’ll notice in the Continental Contract of Carriage 24C applies to “Change in Schedule”, which is defined as follows
So likely 24D or 24E would apply.
Now this is all a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, the bottom line of which is unclear to the passenger, the airport agent — intentionally so in my opinion — that’s what lawyers do.
Yes, Santa would be due a refund (not in cash) but in a certificate that expires and may never be used — although as it turns out being prepared allowed Santa to be re-routed on US Airways by an airport agent as though it was “Schedule Change” (see the follow on post) — but the agent didn’t have to do that — in theory — and BTW the agent is the Judge, Jury and Hangman.
Basically it doesn’t matter because the airline is the court of justice in these cases — they decided to call it a “Force Majeure”, They decide to call it a “Schedule Irregularity” or not.
Bottom Line: be nice to the airport agent and you’ll have a better chance and getting the best out of a bad situation — be prepared as well — knowing your rights is important but remember who the judge is ….
Comment by Rick Seaney — December 13, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Oops, sorry. I meant to type 24 E. Somehow my finger went the wrong way on the keyboard.
Anyway, from what I can tell, it doesn’t look like Force Majeure events are excluded from Schedule Irregularity with the exception of of section 2 which specifically states “. . . Schedule Irregularity caused by CO . . . ” Section 3 should still apply.
But I agree. None of this matters unless you have to take them to court. Just find someone who can help you and be extremely nice to them!
Comment by Cranky Flier — December 13, 2007 @ 2:35 pm