| In October of 2011 I booked six people on a flight from Louisville to Miami during the busy spring break season. In December someone left a message on my answering machine that the flight was being cancelled. A few days later I got an e-mail to disregard phone calls about flight cancellation. A few days after that I got a call that the flight was cancelled and they would issue a refund. I objected. I wrote several e-mails to customer service requesting that they schedule us on a different Vision flight or on an alternate carrier. I pointed out to them that booking a flight for six at that point was $2200 more than it was in October when I booked their flight. They deny responsibility for booking alternate passage for us to Florida even though their flight contract indicates that they will. IX. Delayed and Canceled Flights “Vision Airlines undertakes to use its best efforts to transport the customer and baggage with reasonable dispatch,†and, “Vision Airlines may substitute alternate carriers or aircraft…†This clearly indicates that an effort is going to be made to rebook us, including on alternate carriers.
Further, under the heading Rebooking I found as follows, “When a ticketed customer holding confirmed reservations on a flight will be delayed because of a schedule irregularity (flight cancellation, omission of a scheduled stop, a substitution of equipment, or schedule change) Vision Airlines will rebook the customer on its next available flight to the customer’s ticketed destination without additional charge.†Again, it is clear that Vision accepts responsibility for rebooking us on an alternate flight, including alternate carriers’ flights. Further, under the heading, Alternate Transportation, it adds, “If Vision Airlines is not able to reroute customers on its flights or other airlines’ flights, Vision Airlines may offer the customer ground transportation to the destination.â€
Vision makes numerous direct, written promises and additional implications that it will make reasonable and best efforts to honor confirmed reservations either by rebooking within its own scheduled flights or by using other carriers, and as a last resort offering ground transportation.
It is clear that Vision Airlines portrays to customers that an attempt will be made to secure a similar booking. Vision Airlines should have no trouble rebooking us either on its own or another airline carrier if it truly employs the “best efforts†promised in the policy description. It is unlikely that Vision is unable to rebook these flights for us when I can go online right now and book them for a cost of $2200. It is more plausible to believe that Vision does not want to bear the cost of doing so, but would prefer that their customer bear the burden of cost – not for a reason beyond the airlines’ control, but for a corporate cost-driven decision. It is unfair and unethical for Vision Airlines not to include the cost of ethical treatment of customers when making cost-driven decisions about operations.
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