BA / Virgin 'should trace price-fix victims'
18.07.08
A travel agent has called on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to contact customers and travel agencies directly if they are entitled to compensation for the airlines’ price fixing, Travel Weekly reports.
Clive Green, of Clive Green Travel, said the airlines should be forced to use their records to identify the customers who travelled long haul between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006 the period for which the airlines were found to be colluding on fuel supplements. He says that the airlines could trace customers through the billing process and should contact them or the agency that made the booking.
Mr Green told the trade magazine: ‘The airlines have been caught out doing something wrong. They should be told to go through their records, trace all the transactions and pass on details of who is owed money. It’s obscene they are allowed to sit back and say to customers: if they want it, they will have to ask for it.’
BA and Virgin said they were following a process set down by the US court that ruled on the case which did not require them to contact customers or agencies. BA claims that it would not be ‘a simple process’ to retrieve customers’ information. Virgin said it was following the required process and had voluntarily given the US courts details of 20% of customers who booked direct.
Claim forms are now being sent to customers. To claim, passengers can register at www.airpassengerrefund.com
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