The group, which today published its looking into airline terms and conditions, claimed carriers had breached Australian Consumer Law by enforcing "excessive" cancellation fees, the use of 'no refund' signs and providing a lack of compensation for mistakes made by airlines.
The report, which claimed to "ensure that consumers are treated fairly", called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate airline practices to "provide clearer guidance to the industry".
Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey told SBS that airlines had the power to act "immediately" to change their "unfair" practices.
"We’d like to see the airlines act today, they can get rid of the ‘no refund’ signs immediately, they can end their excessive cancellation fees and of course they can bring in compensation for travellers when they make mistakes," he said.
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"All of these things are within the airline’s controls and can be fixed immediately, but unfortunately it’s going to take the intervention of the ACCC to bring them into line because this culture of denying people access to their basic consumer rights is unfortunately so systemic within the airline industry.
"There’s such a significant power imbalance between consumers and the airlines that it looks like regulatory intervention is what it’s going to take."
Mr Godfrey said the six-month Choice investigation came about after it received a "flood" of complaints from airline customers.
"Choice received many complaints over many months. Earlier in the year we launched the complaint campaign which was all about trying to improve the complaints handling practices and also to access to compensation for consumers when airlines delay or cancel within their control," he said.
"This led to a flood of people coming forward with other issues. When we dug into it, we found really poor practices in this industry.
"If you think of the electronics industry putting up ‘no refund’ signs at the point of sale, they would have the book thrown at them – no other industry can get away with what the airline industry has been getting away with. It’s high time they were brought into line.”
Choice's Director of Campaigns, Communications and Content, Matt Levey said: “The ACCC’s guidance to travel providers says cancellation fees should be reasonable and reflect the actual costs to the business, with fair deposits generally 10 per cent of the total cost. When a consumer can’t or chooses not to travel they can lose up to 100 per cent of the fare, even there is ample time to re-sell the seat.
“Particularly unfair are ‘no show’ clauses, that allow airlines to unilaterally cancel your tickets on multiple flights if you are unfortunate enough to miss a leg of your journey. These clauses have been banned in other countries such as Germany and Spain and it’s high time our domestic airlines put an end to the practice."
Qantas hit back at the advocacy group, claiming the report was "selective about facts and mischaracterises the law around refunds".
"As customers would expect, our Terms and Conditions are fully compliant with Australian Consumer Law and they are clearly disclosed on our website," the spokeperson said.
We understand life can get in the way of the best laid travel plans, which is why we do offer refunds under certain circumstances. By the same token, if we let people move between flights at will, it would be very difficult to run an efficient airline and that would have an impact on the cost of travel for everyone."
Jetstar also refuted the report's findings, claiming it showed "a complete misunderstanding of Australia’s consumer laws and how airlines work".
"While a supermarket or retailer can refund an item and then easily sell it again, airlines can never re-sell a seat after a flight has departed with empty seats and Jetstar’s fares and conditions reflect this," a spokesman said.
"That’s why our cheapest fares are non-refundable or customers can pay extra to have more flexibility to change their flights or get a refund. Choice seems to forget that it has never been cheaper to fly in Australia with millions of people travelling on Jetstar for under $100 in the past 12 months."
Read the entire report:
