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CAA to investigate ‘gotcha’ airline terms and conditions
The Civil Aviation Authority is to investigate airline terms and conditions, saying it will ‘name and shame’ offenders that don’t clean up their act.
Speaking at this week’s Barclays Travel Forum, new CAA chief executive Richard Moriarty said: "We are intending to investigate other certain airline terms and conditions – ‘gotcha terms’ such as correcting a mis-spelt name."
The investigation follows the CAA’s recent announcement it is looking into the practice of allocated seating, which Moriarty admitted consumers ‘are not happy about’.
He told moderator Jeremy Skidmore: "Forty percent of people don’t read airline terms and those that do don’t understand them.
"We do tend to name and shame. Having said that I would prefer to be in a position where we give the industry the chance to get their house in order.
"If we are in a position where we can’t reach an agreement (with an airline) we will call them out."
Moriarty also said the CAA would give companies ‘three months to get their businesses in order’ after the July 1 2018 deadline for new Package Travel Regulations compliance.
He said: "We will take a proportionate and monitoring stance. I expect that not everyone is going to leave it to the end of September but I’m expecting that they will have to have a plan by July 1."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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