What could an airline possibly gain by not posting its contract online?
The Cayman Airways Web site is a slick, gorgeous online brochure for one of the world’s best diving destinations. There’s information about everything from snorkeling in Stingray City to attending the island’s famous Pirates Week. But if you want to know what your rights are on a Cayman Airways flight, you’re out of luck.
The carrier doesn’t publish a contract of carriage — the legal agreement between you and the airline — on its site. I can’t remember the last time I ran across an airline that didn’t disclose its contract on the Web.
Reader Janet Iadanza tipped me off to this omission:
I have a flight booked on Cayman Airways (with non-refundable tickets). They have changed the flight time twice (first from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m., now from 10 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.). I was planning on traveling with my elderly mother, and 8:30 is simply too early for her. Legally, what are my options? I read somewhere that if the the airline changes a departure time by a certain number of hours, I am entitled to a full refund. Is this accurate? Thank you in advance.
The answer is: yes, usually you’re entitled to a full refund when an airline changes its schedule. But some airlines don’t allow you to invoke the refund rule when it’s a minor change (say, less than two hours). So my advice to her would have been to check the contract.
But there is no contract. Under federal law, Cayman Airways must provide you with a copy of its contract at one of its ticket counters. But who has time to drive to the airport to find out if you can get a refund?
Needless to say, Cayman Airways should post its contract to its site immediately.
But this missing document raises a more troubling question: What could an airline possibly gain by withholding this information?
I don’t mean to single out Cayman Airways. Other, bigger airlines make it almost impossible to find their contracts online. They either bury them on their sites or make them difficult to access by encoding them as .PDF files.
Why conceal your term and conditions?
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10 Responses to “What could an airline possibly gain by not posting its contract online?”
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Here’s another question:
WHY DOES UNITED YELL AT ME IN THEIR CONTRACT OF CARRIAGE?
http://www.united.com/ual/asset/COC10dec07final.pdf
Answer:
To make reading less pleasant.
I just don’t understand. First, they force you into a contract that basically takes away all your rights to a decent treatment, and even then they pretend that *their own contract* is a burden to them.
8.30a too early for the elderly? you kidding me? Every elderly person I know is up at 5.30a every morning cause they can’t sleep. Give me a break here. You are going on vacation to the CAYMAN’s - she can lose a hour of sleep - and gain two on the plane.
As for the answer to the question Chris - well - it lets the airlines change the terms between the time you buy the ticket and the time you fly - and most times those changes are not in your benefit. . . . why - lets add a provision allowing us to retrocharge the fuel surcharge. Ooops, your fare did not include the new executive bonuses we approved. $8 more please. Wait, wait, we forget the new employee health care plan increases, that’ll be another $2 before we let you fly. Oh, and it now costs you $5 to book a seat in advance - we added that one too. You want AIR? At least 51% of the booked passengers need to pay $2 for cabin pressurization. We know that unconscious passengers are much easier on our flight attendants, so feel free not to accept this charge.
Why is putting the contract into .PDF format a way the airlines are making the contract “difficult to access?” .PDF is one of the most common formats available, and one which can be read through a free reader that anyone can download.
How is that bad?
It’s bad because it requires users to download a reader and then download a file. PDFs are generally for documents with particular formatting (like a magazine article with photos). Putting a contract in a PDF format just adds two roadblocks to getting the information.
If I download Continental (or any other carrier’s CoC) to keep on my computer, is it applicable to their Regional carriers too??
Thanks for writing this Chris- I’m hoping that Cayman Airways is not completely unreasonable in this matter. I have already done a bit of research and have contact info for the head of Customer Relations and the CEO. I’ll be heading to JFK Airport in the next few days to do battle (fortunately it’s only a 5 minute drive for me).
If need be, I’ll go to Cayman newspapers and spread a bit of negative publicity. I’ll keep you posted.
Janet, you’re really going to cancel a trip to the Caymans because of a couple of hours? Really? I don’t think you’re going to get any publicity at all in the Cayman newspapers about this. I’m not trying to belittle you but sometimes you need to pick your battles. I just don’t see this as one.
Cayman Airways has proven itself, through my research, to be notoriously bad in changing its flight schedules. If I had been aware of this prior to booking, I never would have made the travel plans. This is the second time they changed the outgoing departure schedule, and the third time they’ve changed the incoming schedule. I’m traveling with my 84 year old mother, and this was probably the last vacation she would physically be able to take. That time difference is a big deal for her (getting to the airport at 9, like we originally planned, is quite different from getting to the airport at 6:30) and at this point, I don’t trust what the airline will do. I have to consider her best interests, and Cayman Airways screwed up.
Janet - then the decision is made. Your mothers best interests dictate a refund. Right? I’m certain they will give you a refund. That seems pretty standard.
Its not like Cayman is going to reschedule their flight to take your mother’s needs into account. You bought on price instead of service and reliability and you got what you paid for.
You cannot expect the airline to rebook you on someone else simply because of a schedule change. Sorry, but that is the real world, not the world according to how you may like it to be. I am not sure that Cayman Airways ’screwed up.’ How did that happen? They changed THEIR schedule of THEIR aircraft to best suit their operations. I’m sorry, but I’m not seeing that as a screwup on their part.
Cayman has a few aircraft capable of flying from the east coast to their Island. They schedule them for maximum utilization. If they had a schedule irregularity due to maintenance or weather you are gonna be stuck - since they do not have the ability to shuffle flights or crew around.
I think the idea of going into someone’s home country and raising a stink about their airline is a pretty bad decision - it might be against the law in the Caymans to bad mouth the government . . . I’m sure spending a $200 more is better than ending up for 5 days in a Caymans jail. Give us all a break here . . .
Also - next time - think about all the facts -what if your elderly mother was unable to take the trip - did you buy refundable tickets? Probably not - or else they’d refund them, right? I am not sure what you were thinking there - but that seems to speak of a willingness to take a risk with your money.
I’m trying to find American’s contract of carriage. I couldn’t find it on their site. Where is it, please?