Caveat emptor – buyer beware – seems to be the policy of North American airlines these days. At one time, they competed over whom offered the best service to their customers, but that has become a thing of the past, with airlines nickel and diming passengers today.
In fairness, as prices came down and the popularity and convenience of flying rose, it was no longer a luxury good, something only the elite could afford, and so the business models needed to change. And they are businesses, so their goal is to maximize their profits for shareholders. The problem is that the ‘rule of contracts’ has not changed, and, though they may wish to argue their policies allow them to do so, they are still subject to Contract Law.
In essence, the contract we purchase is a license agreement, which allows us the use of their services, in this case flying us to our chosen destination, with a few caveats in place. These include the ability to eject us from a flight if we are unruly or pose a danger to the other passengers or crew, taking away from their rights to the contracted services, but there is a big question mark hanging over their ability to bump a passenger for no other reason than they oversold the flight. Here, we have questions arising over the breach of contract, and even fraud for selling a ‘promise’ they knew they could not fulfil. This is why they offer ‘compensation’ for re-assigning a passenger, as the passenger then becomes complicit in the change of the contract.
We have seen recently that, through social media outrage and a multitude of humorous memes, the consumer is no longer tolerant of this asymmetrical abuse of the contract. And though the corporations did not care at first, when the markets reacted negatively to these breaches of contract, they had little choice but to respond, though they are still struggling to take accountability for their actions. Is there now an onus upon the government to step in to provide some form of consumer protection on this issue?
The demand for this form of service seems to be relatively inelastic, which means that people are still going to want to fly, and, as Lisa Raitt declared when a minister in the Harper government, that this service was now essential for Canadians (when she pushed forth ‘back to work’ legislation on flight attendants), should we demand that this Liberal government put forth legislation to protect the interests of consumers? In truth, the government will be reluctant to do so, as they have always deferred to the interests of ‘big business’, with a naive belief in the integrity of ‘the market’. This means that as consumers, we will have to be more diligent in knowing and expressing our interests. But as a veil of ignorance is lifted from the consumer, there may be a revolution coming to such business practices and our demands will change: seller beware – caveat venditor.
John Kennair is an international consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.
