NEWS & OFFERS: Great US oneworld fares from £1132 and US adopts compensation

Great Oneworld US fares from Dublin from £1132

In the previous article on the best fares in the current British Airways sale, I mentioned the great fares you can get from Dublin, which can be substantially cheaper. You have two choices with the fares, you can either position to Dublin and then fly straight to the US from there with Aer Lingus or American or double back to Heathrow to fly to the US with British Airways for more tier points. If you live close to Heathrow you could also build in an overnight stop at Heathrow as fares allow you to break your journey for up to 24 hours for free.

The latest advance purchase sale is now on from Dublin. These fares come and go fairly regularly although there is no predicting when they will come back. The current sale fares are available until 14 May and cover the period from October to March 25. If you don’t want to pay up front you can book a holiday by adding just one night and just pay a small deposit. 

These are about as good as the fares get, so I would not have any hesitation buying at these prices.

The Los Angeles fare is particularly good and there are the odd dates where you can build in a JFK stop for the extra tier points. This means you get an extra 140 tier points each way that you break the journey in JFK and then fly on AA’s transcontinental service to Los Angeles.

You can fly with any oneworld airline as well as Aer Lingus for a similar price. Airlines available include Iberia and Finnair as well as BA and AA. 

Here are the fares:

• Los Angeles £1383
• San Francisco £1473
• Las Vegas £1430
• Vancouver £1525
• Seattle £1544
• Portland £1563
• New York £1132 (Iberia)
• Boston £1356 (Iberia)
• Miami £1301 (Iberia)
• Orlando £1527
• Chicago £1470
• Phoenix £1557
• Denver £1401
• Dallas £1587
• Toronto £1406

• Cancun £1743
• San Jose Costa Rica £1687
• Antigua £1696
• Providenciales Turks & Caicos Islands £1797
• Nassau £1734

You can check prices and availability here. 

To book a BA holiday with accommodation for only part of the trip, you will need this page. 

HT: Luxury Flight Club

US enforces airline compensation for delays, baggage and more

Up until recently, little compensation was enforced when things went wrong with US flights in many circumstances. Unbelievably, an airline could simply leave you stranded by cancelling your flight and not pay you anything. So, if you were flying on a domestic US flight or to a non-EU destination, you were at the mercy of the airline. 

Now, finally the US government is finally going to force airline to pay compensation. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a rule that requires airlines to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed. The new rule makes it easy for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their checked bags, or fail to provide the extra services they purchased.

“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them – without headaches or haggling,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Our new rule sets a new standard to require airlines to promptly provide cash refunds to their passengers.”  

Prior to this rule, airlines were permitted to set their own standards for what kind of flight changes warranted a refund. As a result, refund policies differed from airline to airline, which made it difficult for passengers to know or assert their refund rights.

Having been caught out with Jet Blue, who sadly has a great onboard product but terrible customer service, I welcome this rule. I had a defective seat and no wi-fi or entertainment on a transatlantic flight in business class and was offered $15 airline credit on a £1500 flight. 

Under the rule, passengers are entitled to a refund for:

• Canceled or significantly changed flights: Passengers will be entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly changed, and they do not accept alternative transportation or travel credits offered. Significant changes to a flight include departure or arrival times that are more than 3 hours domestically and 6 hours internationally; departures or arrivals from a different airport; increases in the number of connections; instances where passengers are downgraded to a lower class of service; or connections at different airports or flights on different planes that are less accessible or accommodating to a person with a disability.
   
• Significantly delayed baggage return: Passengers who file a mishandled baggage report will be entitled to a refund of their checked bag fee if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their domestic flight arriving at the gate, or 15-30 hours of their international flight arriving at the gate, depending on the length of the flight.
   
• Extra services not provided: Passengers will be entitled to a refund for the fee they paid for an extra service — such as Wi-Fi, seat selection, or inflight entertainment — if an airline fails to provide this service.

The final rule improves the passenger experience by requiring refunds to be:

• Automatic: Airlines must automatically issue refunds without passengers having to explicitly request them or jump through hoops. 
   
• Prompt: Airlines and ticket agents must issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.
   
• Cash or original form of payment: Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in cash or whatever original payment method the individual used to make the purchase, such as credit card or airline miles. Airlines may not substitute vouchers, travel credits, or other forms of compensation unless the passenger affirmatively chooses to accept alternative compensation.  
   
• Full amount: Airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees, regardless of whether the taxes or fees are refundable to airlines.

The rule also requires airlines to provide prompt notifications to consumers affected by a cancelled or significantly changed flight of their right to a refund of the ticket and extra service fees, as well as any related policies.