The U.S. Department of Transportation denied a Delta Air Lines passenger’s petition for a change in federal airline rules governing airline change fees.
Delta passenger Donald Pevsner in July filed a petition for a change in federal airline rules so passengers would be entitled to a full refund of their tickets or a waiver of change fees if their airline attempts to change their flight schedule after purchase.
The DOT in an order this week denied the petition and dismissed the complaint, saying flight schedules are not part of an airline’s contract of carriage, and “it would not be feasible to operate an airline if carriers could not make minor adjustments in schedules after publication without breaching their contract of carriage with each passenger who had already bought a ticket.”
Requiring carriers to offer full refunds or to waive change fees “would represent an unwarranted intrusion into the operational decisions of air carriers,” the DOT said in the order.
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