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I Gambled on a New Budget Carrier for my Upcoming Trip to Europe & Lost!

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LEVEL Cancelled Flight
Jasmine, Ellie and I at the Eiffel Tower in 2019! Our return visit for Ellie’s 5th birthday is now in jeopardy.

LEVEL Cancelled Flight

One of the cool things about our travel this year has been the deals I was able to find. For example, we are traveling to Australia and New Zealand next month for 12K AAdvantage miles roundtrip! Another great deal I put together was a direct flight from Las Vegas to Paris Orly on budget carrier LEVEL in March for Ellie’s birthday. The cost for those tickets was only 99 Euro (one-way) each so I couldn’t pass them up.

LEVEL Cancelled Flight
An amazing price for 3 tickets LAS-ORY.

For those who don’t know, LEVEL is a budget carrier owned by International Airlines Group, the same owner as British Airways and Iberia. While I wasn’t all too excited about flying in economy on a budget carrier for 10 hours, the thought of a direct flight from my home airport was just too good to pass up at that price. And perhaps it was too good to be true too.

This morning I awoke to this LEVEL cancelled flight email:

LEVEL Cancelled Flight

Indeed I did a little more digging and it appears that LEVEL has killed off the LAS-ORY route as of the end of February, 2020. Thankfully I have a little time to figure out flights, but this is definitely an inconvenience. I understand airlines change routes often so I am not too upset with the exception of one thing.

Why Do I Have to Ask For A Refund?

LEVEL Airlines has cancelled my flight due to not operating the route anymore and I booked directly through them. Why should I have to call or email them to get a refund? This seems like a sneaky tactic designed to trick people into forgetting to ask for refunds. I could understand third party bookings needing to go through a travel agent, but I booked these flights directly with the airline and they should just refund the money.

Level Cancelled Flight Compensation?

If you are in the same situation as me perhaps you are seeking compensation for your LEVEL cancelled flight. While everyone’s situation is different, I don’t believe LEVEL legally owes me compensation here since they have informed me of the cancellation more than 14 days out. If you have a LEVEL flight cancelled last minute or for a different reason make sure to check your passenger rights and what you are due for compensation.

LEVEL Cancelled Flight – Bottom Line

My family and I are literally out in the cold right now for our flights to Paris in March. Luckily I have tons of miles/points so we’ll figure it out, but I don’t appreciate the airline being sneaky about refunds. I was actually excited to try LEVEL out from Las Vegas, but I guess this time it wasn’t meant to be.

Have you experience a last minute LEVEL cancelled flight, route change or other issue? Share your experiences with budget carrier LEVEL below!

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Shawn Coomer
Shawn Coomerhttps://milestomemories.com/
Shawn Coomer earns and burns millions of miles/points per year circling the globe with his family. An expert at accumulating travel rewards, he founded Miles to Memories to help others achieve their travel goals for pennies on the dollar. Shawn also runs a million dollar reselling business, knows Vegas better than most and loves to spend his time at the 12 Disney parks across the world.

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

25 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Everyone. I have good news for you. I just got off the phone with Level and they re-routed four of us with British Airways for the same dates, flying from Vegas thru London and connecting to Paris. At first, they only gave me the option to cancel and get the refund, then I told then that according to the EU261 we have the right to be re-routed with a different Airline, she putted on hold for 10 minutes and came back with the news that i have been re-routed. Got get yours 🙂

    • Same here. Already confirmed on British Airways webpage.
      BA 309 to HEATHROW => BA 275 to LV
      BA 274 to HEATHROW => BA 322 to Paris (CDG)

  2. Same thing happened to me, except Level refunded on part of my money, expecting that I wouldn’t notice. I’m taking them to task for it

    • We received a refund for the XL seat selection and baggage fees, our new reroute with BA has no fees for seat selection or checked bags, even though we originally purchased the $99 each way Level intro fare!

  3. Did anyone got the refund? It’s been 3 days and no word from them. I’m in Australia and we don’t have a number where we can call, the only option is email and they are not answering. I’ve already applied for the refund

  4. They have also suspended BOS-ORY before it even started to run. If anyone has suggestions for flights in September I’d love the help!

  5. Same issue out of Vegas. Rebooked through a reliable carrier at a significantly higher price, but at least I know we’re going. Unfortunately I have to carry the credit card balance until I get the refunds that I filed for. Shit happens, I get it. But I agree that the refund should be automatic. Also not looking for compensation because again, shit happens.

  6. The refund probably isn’t automatic in case you want to do something else with the ticket, such as change to a date that is operating, change the route, etc.

  7. How do we know in advance, i.e. a month before instead of 2 weeks before? I have a mid March flight SFO-BCN and the airBnB cancellation is a month before.

  8. I’m on the same boat also flying from LAS. I wish there was something that could be done since I have a hotel booked and everything (non refundable).

    • It is definitely frustrating. I am trying to reach someone higher up in the company to see if there are other options. I’ll make sure to post anything new I learn as a follow up.

  9. I was booked on this same flight! I contacted customer service and they offered to put me on a flight out of Newark two days later, but that doesn’t help me so I accepted the refund. I am coming from Phoenix so I had separately booked tickets from PHX to LAS on Allegiant and it appears I am on still the hook for those as my credit card’s trip insurance likely will not cover those under these circumstances. Very disappointing, I do not plan on flying with LEVEL again.

  10. I just got the cancellation email, but luckily booked a flight from SFO to CDG for $360 round trip. Not the $200 round trip I had before, but at least on a decent airline that I don’t have to worry about cancelling my flight. Frustrating, but I am happy because I already had separate flight plans to Tunisia from Paris that this put into jeopardy.

  11. Why not make them route you on another plane? e.g. they are part of oneworld. AA to JFK and then CDG? Or Iberia via Madrid? Wont be nonstop but they should open up better seats/airlines. I wouldnt take the refund. I’d want the flights.

  12. EU261 appears to only apply to cancellations with less than 14 days notice. If that’s true then nothing is due by Level in regards to EU261.

    • According to EU261 articles 5 and 8, passengers have the _choice_ between refund or re-routing – no matter when the cancellations occurs.

      However Level does not owe any compensation because notice was done far enough in advance.

  13. Surely worth using the EU261 regulations given this is a flight to the EU and requesting Level book you on an alternative flight to your destination with another carrier (as is your right) instead of requesting a refund and using points??

      • The 14 day rule is only applicable to compensation luckily… the airline still has to either put you on another airline to your final destination or give you a full refund. But that choice is left to the consumer

        • I am hearing different things from different people. Does the airline is obligated to accommodate us on a different airline or not?

          • Yes the airline is obligated to accommodate you on a different airline as long as you are either departing from Europe or arriving into Europe on an EU airline. Look for the UK’s Civil Aviation authorities website online as that has a good breakdown of the EU261 rules and how they apply to different situations

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