It works like this. Book your plane tickets. Not even 48 hours later a warning arrives via email: “The flight has been canceled. You can book a new date starting next month, meanwhile we provide you with the voucher to replace airline tickets“. Almost all the companies are doing it. Alitalia included. It sells airline tickets from Linate despite the airport is closed.
The mechanism is at the limits of the diabolical. They collect money for airline tickets, then they cancel a flight that probably never existed, in return they give the traveler the usual voucher without any mention of the cash refund that the customer is required to ask for.
The farce of airline tickets, first sold and then canceled to make cash
They make cash, the truth is basically this. Also because once you find yourself with the voucher, the traveler, most of the time, he no longer knows what to do and how to behave. Because the risk is perhaps to reorganize to set holidays on another period. Book and then maybe receive another notice: “Flight canceled” because maybe the company has failed even to fill the plane for that date.
It is a sensation, but perhaps it is now something a little stronger than a simple sensation. There is no intention on the part of the airlines to definitively restart flights. Companies have to make cash. Fill your pockets of liquidity after the lockdown. And then, only then, will they be able to really think about reopening air traffic.
Air tickets sold and then canceled due to Covid emergency. But there is no emergency
Yet the latest decree is clear: from 3 June all restrictions for flights on a national basis and also in the Schenghen area have been eliminated, obviously with various exceptions for some countries that have reopened their borders at a later date, see Spain, last June 21. This means that airlines cannot arbitrarily cancel flights. And the problem lies right here:
“Is called blank sailing explains Edno Gargano, lawyer of the Gargano Law Firm-. Since they do not have full flights, they are deciding to cancel flights arbitrarily. But it is a one and only commercial choice, Covid has nothing to do with it because there are no more restrictionsthe. This is why the passenger must be careful, aware of the fact that he has the right to both the reimbursement of the air ticket and to compensation “.
There are no national restrictions. But the companies sell plane tickets and then cancel them
Therefore, when the airline company decides to cancel a flight arbitrarily, as in these cases, the traveler is also entitled to compensation. In the meantime, the reports are growing day by day and it is one of the reasons why ENAC, through the press release no.31 of 2020, reaffirming that from 3 June there are no longer national restrictions, has warned all carriers that in the event of cancellation without reason will have to refund ticket with a lot of compensation.
“The companies have allowed reservations since early June-continues the lawyer Gargano-. It happens that airline tickets are canceled even after a few hours, citing circumstances related to Covid. Read carefully why they canceled your trip. Attempts to make cash are now more and more frequent, obviously using the voucher tool “.
“Companies try.” Here are what they are
It happens with Alitalia. But it also happens with Emirates, through travelers’ reports. A user reported to the law firm Gargano that he had purchased a ticket with Turkish from Bali to Rome a week before June 10th. After 48 hours, the traveler received an email from the airline of the canceled flight, suggesting a relocation in August via voucher.
Another example comes from Flips, the airline that connects Abruzzo to Sicily from Pescara. Pescara airport will reopen on July 3, however, the company has already been selling tickets since mid-June, making travelers difficult.
The government allows companies not to refund air tickets
Then there is the problem of reimbursement. The passenger rights card, European legislation, provides for the reimbursement of 100% of the ticket if the traveler so wishes, but article 88 bis of the Cura Italia decree written by the government allows airlines to arbitrarily choose to offer as an alternative to reimbursement the voucher, with no choice for the customer. And so, Alitalia also sells flights to many destinations, cancels them, does not reimburse canceled flights, merely offering vouchers for the future. A bit like Ryanair has been doing for months, although several times in the past few weeks, the Irish company he promised and reiterated that anyone who is waiting for a refund will get it very soon.
The Linate question: Alitalia sells air tickets from an airport … closed
The question of Linate then, it is particular. Because it’s aboutairport closest to the city of Milan, the most comfortable for an urban center among the most active in Europe in air travel, as well as the favorite, compared to Malpensa and Orio al Serio, where distances (and costs) are much higher. The problem is that Linate has been closed since mid-March due to coronavirus.
And with the latest decree of the Ministers of Transport Paola De Micheli and Health Roberto Speranza the closure was extended until 14 July. Sea does not intend to reopen it for the summer, it expects traffic to increase. Minister De Micheli also said that “Linate has been closed due to a specific request from the Sea”, cited the problem of the ongoing renovation works and said that “the restructuring activities will end in late 2020-early 2021”.
Flight tickets do not exist. Why doesn’t Alitalia warn its customers?
A date for reopening therefore does not yet exist. Nonetheless, Alitalia sells airline tickets without informing passengers that flights may not existnor of uncertainty about the reopening of the airport. The company has already sold tickets from Linate for July for cash. And now there are flights to August. As for Palermo, at the beginning of the month while from 3 August it is possible to book airline tickets for Bari and for Naples. As of August 13, there are direct flights to Catania, going forward, from August 20 you can book a flight to Lamezia.
Then there is the mystery of airline tickets to the Sardinia, which disappeared suddenly after the reports for the routes on Olbia, starting from the first of August with a territorial continuity tariff reserved for residents in Sardinia and other categories. Finally, here are the international flights. Paris, first of all: departure at 7 in the morning and landing at 8.30. Expected date: 10 August. And then Londonthree days before, a flight to the city and two to Heathrow.
Why doesn’t Alitalia explain why it sells these tickets? Why doesn’t the government, which has allocated 3 billion to save the company, ask Alitalia why it is deceiving savers?
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