strengthening consumer rights
Politicians are calling for the end of advance payment for plane tickets
The initiative: The airlines should only be able to debit the fare from the passenger’s customer account at check-in.
© Matej Kastelic / Imago Images
If the Lower Saxony state government has its way, prepayment when booking flights will soon be a thing of the past. It has decided on a Federal Council initiative.
The state government in Hanover decided on Tuesday a Federal Council initiative to abolish this principle, as announced by the Lower Saxony State Chancellery. “In the future, the fare will only be due when you board the flight.”
Currently, travelers usually have to pay for a flight directly when booking. This practice was recently criticized because the airlines canceled many flights due to a lack of staff at the airports and themselves – it often took a long time for customers to get their money back. The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) has also been calling for a move away from the prepayment regulation for a long time.
With the Federal Council initiative “we want to significantly improve consumer protection for travellers,” said Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Bernd Althusmann (CDU) on Tuesday. Among other things, the previous regulation means that travelers “usually go away empty-handed” if the airline goes bankrupt, he criticized.
In the Bundesrat initiative, the federal government is said to be asked to take care of changing national law. In addition, it should “work towards a comparable regulation at European level”.