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I rode a commuter flight on Boutique Air to BWI to catch a cross country flight to LA. Three days before I was to return, I got a notice that my flight back from BWI to AOO (Altoona-Blair County) was moved up by 2 hours, making it impossible to make that connection.

It was also the last flight of the day, and staying overnight at the airport was not an option. Since the flight was an 8 passenger, my husband and I made up 25 percent of the riders, so it wasn't a case of everyone being there early.

The puny refund we got for that leg of the trip didn't come close to the value of the three hours I spent on the phone trying to get another flight home, let along the cost of the changed flight. Then we had to drive out to the original airport the next day to get our car. Do we have any legal recourse?

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  • It was Boutique Airlines. Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 20:21
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    Were the two flights on a single ticket/booking or were they booked separately?
    – jcaron
    Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 21:15

1 Answer 1

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When you book an airline ticket, you agree to the terms of a contract with them, the "Conditions of Carriage," known by a variety of names.

According to Boutique Air's Operator-Participant Contract, you are entitled to a full refund of the ticket price if they make a "Major Change" prior to departure. Unfortunately, a two-hour schedule change is not "major" according to the agreement.

The following are major changes: (1) a change in the origin or destination city, unless the change affects only the order in which cities named in the itinerary are visited; (2) a change in the departure or return date unless the change results from a flight delay experienced by the "Air Carrier" (If, however, the delay is greater than 48 hours, it will be considered a major change.); or (3) a price increase of more than 10% occurring ten or more days before departure.

It was not clear whether both your LA flight and your AOO flight were on a single ticket, or booked separately. On a single ticket, you would likely have been re-accommodated on the next available flight (which it seems you would have refused), or been offered a partial refund (which it seems you accepted).

If you bought the AOO flight separately from your LA flight, you assumed all responsibility for failing to make the connection. After all, your LA flight could have been delayed or canceled, or rescheduled for a different departure, and that would not have been Boutique's fault.

For what it's worth, Altoona is less than two hours' drive from Baltimore, so if I were in your shoes, I would have rented a car and driven home. That would have been far cheaper than booking a new flight at the last minute, especially for two people, and gotten you home faster than just about any alternative, seeing as Boutique is the only airline that flies BWI-AOO nonstop, and only does so twice a day.

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  • While some rules are layed on in a contract, regulations may also set out certain requirements. For example in the UK an airline must pay you money if a flight is moved more than 2 hours forward with insufficient notice. caa.co.uk/passengers/resolving-travel-problems/…
    – Att Righ
    Commented Apr 24, 2022 at 17:09
  • OP was on a domestic flight on a domestic carrier in the U.S., so I don't see how U.K. rules are relevant. The EU also has certain regulations about compensation which are equally irrelevant.
    – choster
    Commented Apr 25, 2022 at 20:26
  • Those were the ones relevant to me, when I looked at this question for a similar question I had. The existence of rules in some countries is useful because it makes it more likely that rules exist in other countries. I think this makes them relevant. Also... if I opened a new question with "UK" in the title I rather suspect it would be closed a duplicate.
    – Att Righ
    Commented Apr 26, 2022 at 16:08
  • Do you actually want 200 versions of every question?
    – Att Righ
    Commented Apr 26, 2022 at 16:22

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