The family from Engels tried to return money from the tour operator and travel agent for a spoiled vacation, more precisely for a day of vacation at the resort, which were lost due to two flight delays. The cost of these days was estimated by tourists at 30 thousand rubles, but the total amount of the claim sent to the Engels district court turned out to be much more significant – about 300 thousand rubles. In it, citizen P. included penalties for “violations of the terms of service, that is, for late flights (about 70 thousand rubles), a fine, as well as compensation for moral damage in the amount of 150 thousand rubles.
In her complaint, the tourist relied on the laws on “Consumer Protection” and “On the basics of tourist activity in the Russian Federation”, according to which, in particular, “the tour operator is responsible to the tourist and (or) other customer for non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment of obligations under the agreement on the sale of a tourist product”.
However, the district court did not satisfy the claim, and the Saratov Regional Court later confirmed that this decision was lawful. Representatives of the Red Wings airline, which participated in the process as a third party, managed to prove that the delays of the charters were caused by objective reasons. In the first case, the plane took off 4 hours later due to a technical malfunction (incorrect indication of the amount of fuel in the aircraft), in the second, the delay was 7 hours, and the cause was thick fog. The court cited the provisions of the Air Code of the Russian Federation, aviation rules approved by the Ministry of Transport, as well as the airline’s internal instructions, which confirmed that the carrier acted in accordance with the law. “The delay in the delivery of passengers to their destination on the dates set by the contract of carriage is a consequence of the carrier’s compliance with the flight safety conditions of the aircraft, as well as the exclusion of the risk of endangering the life and health of passengers,” the court decision says. And here is an important legal point. As noted in the court, special norms of transport legislation take precedence over the norms of the law “On Consumer Protection”, which was referred to by tourists.
In addition, the court did not find confirmation of the fact that the tourists had lost exactly a day of rest, as they claimed. The reference to this by the author of the complaint is untenable, since “the number of days and nights specified in the contract for the sale of a tourist product and the booking application has not been reduced, the date of arrival and the date of departure have not changed.”
At the end of May, Rospotrebnadzor made explanations about what tourists who purchase a tour need to know, what the contract should be and to whom to make claims if the vacation went according to an unplanned scenario.
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