Under the Montreal Convention, which most countries belong to, passengers may be entitled to up to $6,400 in compensation for long flight delays on international trips, but most U.S. passengers who might be entitled to it don’t know that—and the effect of a Federal appeals court ruling is to keep it that way.
The court, in Washington, D.C., ruled against a suit brought by FlyersRights.org, which had asked the court to order the Department of Transportation to require that airlines inform passengers of their rights; now the only notice they get is buried in pages-long small type in airlines’ Contract of Carriage.
Paul Hudson, President of FlyersRights.org, explained, “The airlines only inform you that compensation may be limited, without disclosing the amount of delay compensation (up to $6400), how to obtain compensation, or that the treaty overrides any contrary provisions in an airline’s contract of carriage. The airlines bury the information in dense legalese in lengthy contracts of carriage on their websites, so that the overwhelming majority of passengers are unaware of their delay compensation rights on international trips.”
Federal law requires the DOT to prohibit unfair or deceptive airline practices, but told the court it didn’t have enough evidence of passenger confusion to issue a rule. Possibly because most passengers didn’t know there was something to be confused about.
FlyersRights is now calling on Congress for legislation requiring plain-language notices.
