South Africa’s low-cost carrier, FlySafair, has been given 14 days to explain its overbooking practices to the National Consumer Commission.
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The National Consumer Commission (NCC) says it has given domestic low-cost carrier FlySafair a period of 14 days to explain its controversial conduct of overbooking and overselling tickets.
IOL reported on Wednesday that the National Consumer Commission said it has initiated an investigation into the conduct of overbooking and overselling tickets. The probe comes after an unsatisfied customer shared his unpleasant experience with FlySafair’s practice of overbooking flights.
Other customers have also taken to social media, complaining that they were informed by FlySafair at airports that there were no available seats on the plane, despite the customers having bought tickets in advance.
On Thursday, National Consumer Commission head of complaints and investigations, Prudence Moilwa told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that the broad investigation seeks to ensure that breaches of the Consumer Protection Act are not perpetuated.
“If and when we find that there are policies as well as terms and conditions around this (bumping off of travellers), how are they brought to the attention of the consumer? Another aspect on the terms and conditions, on the policies, there still has to be fair terms and conditions in terms of other provisions of the Consumer Protection Act," she said.
She said if, in any transaction, there are accompanying terms and conditions or policies that might affect consumers negatively, the terms and conditions need to be brought to the attention of the consumers beforehand.
“Suppliers are duty-bound to make consumers aware, to draw the attention of the consumers to those policies. It is not just those policies that we will be looking at, but also how they are implemented in order to make sure that consumer harm is not perpetuated.
“We do view this as a very serious possible violation of the Consumer Protection Act, looking at the fact that consumers circumstances are different and the losses that might come up as a result of this type of practices. It is one of the things we want to look at as well.”
She said a set of questions have already been sent to the airline, giving the low-cost carrier 14 days to respond. If the airline requests an extension, Moilwa said that consideration would be made. She also urged other customers with similar grievances against other airlines to contact the consumer watchdog.
“We want to look at all these aspects of overbooking, the issue of the no-shows as well. How do they manage the two, if they want to use that as a defence or as reasons why they overbook. We want to see how it is implemented so that consumer harm is not perpetuated," said Moilwa.
FlySafair is facing an investigation by the National Consumer Council for alleged overbooking on passenger seats.
Image: Supplied
X (formerly Twitter) user Miles Nsala shared his frustrating experience of arriving at the airport, only to be told that the airline didn’t have seats available for the flight he had booked and paid for.
FlySafair responded by admitting that they overbook flights. They specified that this practice helps keep ticket prices affordable for their passengers.
While acknowledging the inconvenience this may cause, the airline claimed to offer compensation to affected passengers.
“We do overbook flights to ensure we keep our tickets as affordable as possible for our passengers. We do see how inconvenient this can be and therefore offer compensation for passengers who were not able to take the flight they booked,” said the airline.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
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