Passengers Hit w/ Extra Fuel Charge AFTER Buying Airline Tickets

Welcome once again to Lato's Law.

Here's Steve Lato.

I'm not a big fan of airlines.

And I tell people that they go, oh, you're scared to fly.

No, no, I'm not scared to fly.

Just not a big fan of airlines as a consumer.

So Sean sent me notes that Steve checked this out.

Another reason to not be a big fan of airlines.

And airline is telling already ticketed passengers.

They have to pay extra for fuel because oil prices are up.

Or they'll be denied boarding.

So you've already got the ticket in hand.

And they say to get on this plane,

got to pay us some more money on top of your ticket.

So this is from view from the wing.com, Gary left wrote it.

We're talking our airline called Volatéa,

which is a European low cost airline,

apparently based in Spain.

And they've crossed a line that Gary left

says he's never seen from a commercial carrier before,

trying to charge customers extra for fuel.

And the customers have already bought their tickets.

Now they say they'll deny boarding to anyone

that doesn't cough up an extra seven euros

to fly because the cost of jet fuel has gone up.

Can you imagine jet fuel price fluctuates?

Who to thought?

And by the way, when the price drops,

do they give you a refund?

Apparently their contract of carriage says they can do it,

but the question is if that's legal.

Airlines all over the world are trying to raise fares.

They add fuel surcharges to new ticket purchases

and raise baggage fees.

But those are for future travel,

not already purchased tickets.

Volatéa's terms say that in the event of extraordinary

fuel price variation, it can apply a limited temporary adjustment

before departure.

However, first of all, they're supposed to tell you

that during booking that this is a possibility,

keep in mind you might can go up or down

because they don't ever refund it when it goes down.

And this cuts against their standard terms

that fares are changeable only until booking confirmation

and that the ticket price is paid in full

when the booking is confirmed.

And of course, an even bigger problem is what does extraordinary

mean?

How do you define it?

If fuel prices go up 10%, is that extraordinary?

20% what's it take to be extraordinary?

So some people discussing us seem to think that,

well, it's in the terms you agreed to it,

but who reads all those terms that they attach

to something like airline ticket?

So this gentleman here, Gary left, has flown on Volatéa.

He says they're a low cost carrier,

but they really lean into it.

And they have interesting routes to get you places

you might not otherwise be able to fly.

Last summer, he took them to go from Venice to Nice.

That's a 283 mile flight,

but no one else was scheduled on that route.

And a train that does that would take you eight hours.

So airlines will more often say that increases in taxes

after a purchase can be collected from a customer.

For instance, Ryan Ares term said government tax increase

before departure may have to be paid

or the pastor can opt not to travel and get a refund

and easy jet and whiz air,

which is the name of a real airline I kid you not.

And I know people, some people have heard of that,

but I just think it's a silly name whiz air.

I'm sure it probably has some deep philosophical meaning.

But it makes sense that an airport fee or a tax

is something that can get imposed

after you bought your ticket that they've got to pay.

And there they can say, look, here's how much it was.

Here's what we had to pay

as opposed to that extraordinary increase in fuel costs.

So this gentleman here doesn't like the retroactive fuel cost

pass through on already purchased tickets.

And he points out that in the US,

the Department of Transportation generally bans

post purchase price increases.

And so again, we're talking about a Spanish airline,

but the fact that an airline did this

is what's really making me scratch my head.

So keep in mind that notices were sent out

to people who'd bought tickets during this window of time.

And they all got notices apparently in French.

And so when this man flew Voltaire last summer to France

and for French consumers,

local law also seems to be pretty clear against this.

Under French law, a fuel surcharge is not a tax,

so it's part of the ticket price.

And that for a standalone flight,

if there is a fuel surcharge,

it is applied at the moment of purchase.

And no later price revision can occur,

which is part of the tourism code.

It also seems to violate European Union price

transparency rules.

EU passenger rights say that the published price

must include all unavoidable and foreseeable taxes,

charges, surcharges, and fees.

And the passenger should not later discover further charges

added to a chosen flight.

So there's a lot more to the story,

but I admit this is not a US airline.

This is happening in Europe.

But it's the kind of thing where you look at it and go,

oh, okay, now somebody's got their toe in the door

with a new idea, could this be rolled out elsewhere?

And as he points out, well, technically,

they could not do this in America.

But on the other hand, they also shouldn't be doing

or they're doing it, and they're doing it.

So we'll have to wait and see,

because I'm always bothered when industries figure out

new ways to squeeze money out of people.

As noted previously on things like,

I don't know, subscriptions for heated seats.

Sometimes they seem borderline,

near the line of ethics, right?

So don't know if anybody who tries in America,

I certainly hope not, but I can tell you right now

that one of the reasons I don't like flying,

again, I'm not scared to fly.

I've flown in big planes, I've flown a small planes,

I've jumped out of a plane with a parachute on my back,

and I survived.

And flying to me doesn't bother me.

The experience of dealing with airlines bothers me,

and I've had some really weird things happen to me.

And I have actually been halfway through a trip

where I flew to one place and flew

from there to another place,

and had the person at that counter

in the middle of that trip say, you owe us more money.

And I'm like, how is that possible?

I've got my tickets right here.

And the woman just goes, you owe us more money.

And I had to cough up $200, $100 for my ticket,

$100 for somebody else's ticket.

And she goes, you gotta pay us in cash.

And the reason they were requiring it in cash was

so that I wouldn't attempt to put it on a card

and then reverse the charges,

because they knew that that's what most people would do,

because they were being shaken down at an airport.

Now, number one that was not in America,

that was not in the US.

And number two, when I got back to my office

after my vacation, I hammered out a letter

on my letterhead to the people I'd bought the tickets from,

and said I got shaken down at the airport

for $200 cash.

Here's the receipt, I expect reimbursement.

And I got reimbursed.

But I also know that I largely probably got reimbursed

because I'm an attorney.

And I sent the request on my letterhead.

And for other people who got shaken down similarly,

I don't know how many of them got reimbursed.

And, you know, am I gonna sue somebody over $200?

As a matter of principle, I might,

but of course, the problem here is that the people

who shook me down were in another country.

And so at that point, it might not be worth pursuing.

However, I got my money back,

but I remember at the time going, I have no choice.

They won't let me board unless I cough up the ransom money.

And that's the kind of thing that makes you

worry about situations like this.

Where the airline goes, it's seven euros per ticket,

or you don't get on the plane.

Well, seven euros?

Are you gonna argue, how long are you gonna,

argue about seven euros?

Which is, think of them as dollars,

but I think right now they're a little bit more than a dollar,

but you know, like 10 bucks, 10 bucks, say.

How long are you gonna argue about 10 bucks a ticket?

When the plane is right there and they go,

you can't get on until you pay.

So it's a wild story.

It's a wild story.

So hopefully enough people will see this story

and push back when they are in a situation where they have to,

I either bought tickets from Voltaille or Voltaille.

Sorry, mispronounced a word, I hate that.

But we'll see what happens, but it's a crazy story.

So again, Stan, thanks for sending that.

Nope, not Stan, Sean, I apologize.

Boy, this entire video's a train wreck.

Now, I was getting names wrong.

Sean, Sean, you should see my handwriting.

It's very sloppy.

From a distance, you can see that that's easily misconstrued

as Stan, but it was Sean.

Sean, thank you very much.

Sean sent that view from the wing.com Voltaille airline

tells already ticketed passengers to pay extra for fuel

as oil prices soar or be denied boarding.

I almost picture the captain walking up

down the aisle, it's gonna be guys when you gas money, come on.

Kicking some money, we need gas money.

That's written by Gary Love.

Questions, comments, put them below this talk to you later.

Bye bye.

Thank you for watching Lato's Law.

You will only fail if you stop trying.