A German court has ruled that airline passengers can’t claim the money back for alcoholic drinks they buy during a prolonged delay because rather than acting as a ‘refreshment’, they could instead dehydrate passengers.
The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by a couple who wanted an airline to pay for two Aperol Spritzes they had bought while waiting out a delay at London Heathrow Airport.
The airline, which wasn’t named by the District Court in Hanover, paid the two passengers for some of the food and beverages they had bought during the delay but refused to compensate them the cost of the two Aperol Spritzes which cost just £15 (USD $19).
The couple had flown from Hanover to Miami with a short stopover in London and were meant to return to Hanover with stopovers in New York and London. The passengers had already suffered a three-hour arrival delay on the way to Miami, but they had even worse luck on the way home.
Part of the return flight was cancelled, and the airline rebooked the couple on a flight from Miami to Hamburg via Madrid. They then had to catch a train from Hamburg to Hanover with an arrival delay of around four and a half hours.
Following their return home, the passengers submitted a claim to the airline to cover the cost of the food and drink they consumed while waiting in London and Madrid.
The receipt for food and drink consumed in Madrid came to just €20.80 but in London the receipt totalled €88.
Under long-established EU air passenger rights legislation, airlines are required to provide mandatory assistance to customers during prolonged delays. The point at which this requirement is triggered depends on the length of the flight but, in this case, assistance must be provided when the delay hits four hours or more.
The wording of the legislation says passengers are entitled to meals and refreshments, although it’s up to airlines and courts to interpret what ‘refreshments’ mean.
Some airlines provide vouchers that can be spent at airport concessions, but in other cases, passengers can simply keep receipts and claim back reasonable expenses they incurred during a delay situation.
At the heart of this lawsuit was whether the cost of alcoholic beverages could be claimed back by passengers as a ‘refreshment’.
The Hanover court has ruled that alcoholic drinks can’t be claimed as a refreshment because the effect of drinking alcohol could have the opposite effect. In other words, refreshments should actually hydrate and refresh passengers.
Interestingly, however, the court concluded that it might be possible to claim for craft beers because they could be non-alcoholic. A definitive ruling wasn’t, however, forthcoming because the passengers didn’t include this in their lawsuit.
The ruling isn’t necessarily definitive for future claims brought by passengers, but it could influence future court rulings and could act as a precedent.
TOTH: One Mile at a Time.
