Lawsuit Filed Against Delta Over Refunds for Canceled Flights
A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against Delta Air Lines over its refusal to give refunds for flights it canceled. The passenger, Elliot Daniels, filed the suit in federal court U.S. District Court in Atlanta on Friday. A similar lawsuit was filed against United Airlines a week earlier.
Elliot Daniels, who lives in Maryland, asked for a refund from Delta for four tickets booked via OneTravel.com. The total price for the tickets was around $3,000. After Delta canceled the flights, he filed a request for a refund via Delta’s own website on March 18, which Delta denied on April 15, according to the complaint.
AJC reports that the airline said that it did not receive a refund request from the plaintiff until April 15. But Delta’s website says it may take up to 30 business days to process refund requests due to extremely high volume.
The Department of Transportation has clarified that airlines must give customers refunds when flights are canceled or significantly delayed during the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit claims that “Delta refuses to issue monetary refunds to passengers with canceled flights. Instead, Delta represents it will only rebook and/or provide travel vouchers.”
These vouchers “provide little security in this public crisis, particularly where many individual Americans need money now to pay for basics like food and rent, not restrictive, temporary credits towards future travel.”
The lawsuit alleges that was unfair and deceptive conduct by Delta. It also adds that the airline breached its contract of carriage and made a fraudulent misrepresentation to customers regarding their rights to a refund on Delta-canceled flights. The complaint also mentions that Delta is receiving billions in federal aid, “but despite the faucet of taxpayer money that will flow its way, Delta refuses to comply with the law or operate in the interests of its customers.”
Delta said this week it is providing refunds to eligible passengers requesting them after the airline cancels a flight or makes a significant schedule change, and said it processed more than 1 million refunds in March totaling more than $500 million.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
I checked my flight today. It hadn’t officially been cancelled. I was able to message Delta. They responded in about 10 min, said they could see that my flight was cancelled and OFFERED me a full refund before I even asked!! She did it right away! I have no issues with Delta!