Consumers were only fully reimbursed for the flight price after filing a lawsuit. The VKI also warns future bookers.

The Association for Consumer Information (VKI) has successfully supported two consumers who wanted to cancel a flight booked by Austrian Airlines AG to the United States in 2019 due to the COVID-2020 pandemic. Consumers were only given the prospect of a refund of a small part of the airfare. Only after a lawsuit was filed did the AUA repay the travel price in full.

Two consumers had booked a flight with the Lufthansa subsidiary to the USA and back in autumn 2019. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the USA imposed an entry ban for non-US citizens from the Schengen area in March 2020, which remained unchanged during the planned travel period for consumers. During the planned travel period, the United States also received a travel warning from the Austrian Foreign Ministry. Consumers therefore canceled their flight in mid-August 2020. The agent through whom they had booked the flight informed them that, after consulting the AUA, only 65 euros per ticket would be refunded in the event of a cancellation, since the booked flight was not affected by any cancellation. The carrier wanted to keep the remaining almost 2.000 euros. Alternatively, the airline offered a one-time free rebooking until the end of January 2021.

Since Austrian Airlines did not make any repayment, the VKI sued on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs for consumers to repay the flight price in the amount of EUR 2.085 and argued, among other things, that the business basis for this contract had ceased to exist. A trip at the agreed time was unreasonable for the consumer. The AUA was probably also of that opinion. Because the airline did not object to the lawsuit and has now paid back the entire amount of money. "In order to successfully invoke the so-called loss of the business basis, the change in circumstances at the time the contract was concluded must have been unforeseeable. If consumers book a flight for the next few months, they will no longer be able to argue that the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions were not foreseeable, ”warns Beate Gelbmann, Head of the Complaints Department at the VKI.