When airlines don't pay up to passengers, they have to pay up to the man. United Airlines has been fined $350,000 by the Department of Transportation for not providing refunds to customers within a timely manner.
According to the DOT, United failed to process more than 9,000 refund requests quickly between March and May 2012. Not they're being hit with a fine.
Airlines must process refund requests within seven days of receipt of a complete request when the customer purchased a ticket with a credit card. Those who paid with cash or check must be refunded within 20 days of the ticket purchase. United failed to follow this rule, so they were hit with a $350,000 fine.
"When passengers are owed a refund, they have the right to expect the airline to act promptly and give them their money back," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "We also expect airlines to file accurate and timely consumer reports so that passengers will have the information they need when choosing an airline."
According to a DOT statement, the airline was also cited for "filing inaccurate reports of its mishandled baggage and oversales, and failing to file timely reports of incidents involving animals in flight."
Between the period from January and October 2011, United underreported the number of mishandled bag reports that the airline received from passengers. They also underreported the number of passenger it bumped for voluntary and involuntary reasons on flights that were overbooked in 2011. Since these factors were underreported, the airline received a high ranking in the DOT's reports of airline performance in certain categories.
That wasn't the end of their offenses. More recently, in 2012 and 2013, the airline failed to file timely reports on certain incidents that involved death, injury or loss of animals on its flights. However the airline wasn't fined for this because United eventually disclosed them to the DOT and took corrective action.
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