YOU DON’T SEE THIS EVERY DAY: Airline Refunds and Apologizes for a Fee They Were Correct to Charge

by Gary Leff

Aer Lingus refunded a 214 euro charge for transporting a man’s child.

    (Photo from Wikipedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license, By Brian from Toronto, Canada (EI-DVH))

He booked travel for a child who was less than 2 during the outbound portion of the trip but turned 2 while gone and was no longer eligible for infant pricing.

Children under age 2 are generally eligible to fly in a parent’s lap without their own seat. Child aged 2 and over are not. That’s not a rule unique to Aer Lingus, but it is on the Aer Lingus website.

Nonetheless, the man was furious that he wasn’t hit over the head with this information during the booking process. He was forced to pay for his child’s seat on the way home, and he wants his money back.

The airline gave it to him.

This reminds me of the Saturday Night Live fake commercial for a personal injury law firm, narrated by Phil Hartman … Sure the sign said no trespassing, but how much did that really mean when you were as drunk as I was?

(HT: uggboy on Milepoint)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  2. It’s actually not that outrageous. Many airlines offer 2 year olds free seats if they turn 2 after departure (AA for example and I’m sure there are others).

  3. Hi Gary

    Why are you using my photo without proper attribution. If you took it from Wikicommons you need to attribute it this way:

    By Brian from Toronto, Canada (EI-DVH) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

    or if you got it from Flickr:

    EI-DVH by Brian, on Flickr with a link to the original.

    I give my photography for whatever use people want, and I enjoy seeing it use. I do not enjoy seeing the only thing I ask—attribution—stripped from photo.

  4. It’s not EI’s fault the guy didn’t read the website. They should’ve told him to pound sand.

  5. That’s twice this week you’ve belittled an airline for offering superior customer service. As a self-described consumer advocate it’d be nice if you cut them a break when they occasionally bend the rules in the customer’s favor.

Comments are closed.