The German Federal Court of Justice ruled today that airlines are entitled to refuse carriage to passengers if they only want to use the return flight when booking a return flight (cross ticketing).
In such a case of denied boarding by the airline, passengers are not entitled to any compensation payments. The judgment of the Federal Court of Justice leads to uncertainty among many of those affected and thus weakens the rights of consumers in the long term.
“This case shows again the audacity with which airlines sometimes try to circumvent passengers’ rights. Denied boarding by the airline is only permitted under particular circumstances.
An extension of these exceptions by the airline will hand over air travelers without protection. Unfortunately, the Federal Court of Justice did not recognize this. This weakened the rights of airline passengers in Germany. Passengers are so much less flexible,” says Claudia Brosche, a passenger rights expert.
The case against Germany’s Star Alliance national airline Lufthansa. The issue was if LH should transport a passenger from Antalya to Munich.
The passenger had booked a return flight as part of a package tour. The passenger did not take the outbound flight from Munich to Antalya because he had previously flown to Antalya with Lufthansa.
Since the passenger did not take the first flight, Lufthansa canceled his return flight. The airline says this was outlined in its general terms and conditions.
Lufthansa failed to inform the passenger. The passenger was refused check-in when getting to Antalya airport in Turkey.
The issue was not overbooking but it was to collect more money. Lufthansa demanded a surcharge for the flight that was not taken.
The passenger could only check in after paying for the ticket for a second time.
The passenger was therefore denied to board the aircraft against his will.
Flightright representing the passenger in the trial, argued there was also no substitute transport within the meaning of the Air Passenger Rights Ordinance.
Refusing an airline passenger to board a booked flight should only be permitted in exceptional cases.
Whether there is a right to compensation depends on whether the airline can legitimately refuse the passenger access.
Denied boarding occurs if the airline subsequently cancels the original commitment to carry passengers on a specific route and refuses to board such passengers.
The Air Passenger Rights Ordinance regulates exceptions within a narrow framework in which a refusal of boarding can be permissible for justifiable reasons, such as health risks, safety risks, and missing travel documents.
Lufthansa took the view in court that a refusal to carry the passenger also pre-supposes that passengers were not carried on the flight at issue.
Because in this case, the passenger took exactly the planned flight but had to pay extra for it despite the existing tickets.
Flightright opposed this in court.
It is sufficient to receive a compensation payment if the airline refuses passengers boarding even though they have a confirmed booking and have arrived on time for check-in.
“In this case, the passenger was undisputedly denied boarding despite his confirmed booking. “
There is one way to eliminate this problem, the EU needs to prohibit bumping passengers who bought tickets. US airlines have generally eliminated this RT or return ticket difference, but still try to punish passengers for using hidden city tickets, ie getting off an intermediate stop (used to keep fares high at so called fortress hubs for local travelers).