Colorado’s attorney general asked the U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday to investigate issues which Frontier Airlines failed to refund the price of flights canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak and made it virtually impossible for folks to apply vouchers for various other flights during the pandemic.
In a sales copy to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Attorney General Phil Weiser stated his office had gotten above hundred complaints from Colorado and 29 various other states regarding the Denver-based very low cost carrier since March, more than every other business.
People said Frontier refused to issue them your money back when flights had been canceled because of the pandemic, that Weiser mentioned violated department regulations that refunds are due also when cancellations are actually thanks to situations beyond airlines’ management. Other people who received vouchers for using on succeeding flights after voluntarily canceling their travel plans have been unable to redeem them. Some were rejected by the airline’s site and were unable to extend the 90-day time limit for using them or perhaps were confined to employing the vouchers on just one flight, he wrote. Still other people who sought assistance through the airline’s customer care line had been written on hold for several hours and were disconnected regularly, he said.
Weiser believed that the Department of Transportation was at the most effective position to explore the complaints and said it must issue fines of up to $2,500 per violation when appropriate.
Persistent problem? DOT warns airlines? yet again? to issue refunds for canceled flights after receiving 25,000 complaints
Businesses cannot be allowed to take advantage of customers during the time and should be held responsible for unfair and deceptive conduct, he mentioned in a statement.
Frontier said it’s stayed in detailed compliance with department rules as well as regulations regarding flight modifications, cancellations and refunds.
Throughout the pandemic, Frontier Airlines has acted in great faith to take care of our passengers fairly and compassionately, the business said in a statement.
Complaints about getting refunds from airlines surged this spring. In May, Chao requested airlines to be as considerate and flexible as you possibly can to the needs of passengers who face economic difficulty.
In the department’s May air traveling consumer report, the most recent offered, Frontier had the third highest rate of overall complaints, trailing Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines. The report counts just complaints from customers who go through the trouble of filing a criticism with the department, not people who just grumble to an airline.