Pissed off about those extra bucks some airlines are forcing you to shell out in fuel surcharges? Even more ticked off when you pay extra for the plane’s gas and then don’t even make the flight?
Well, Timothy Moriarty is. He’s so incensed, in fact, that he’s suing Continental Airlines over it.
Earlier this year, Moriarty claims he paid for a round-trip ticket on Continental between Cleveland, Ohio and Bush Intercontinental, including the fuel surcharge. It turned out, however, that Moriarty was unable to fly that day. He doesn’t see why he should have to pay for gas he didn’t help use for a flight he didn’t take and now he wants a refund, according to a class action lawsuit he recently filed in Houston federal court.
“I can understand an argument by the airlines that fuel surcharges allow them to make up for unexpected rises in fuel costs,” says Moriarty’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, “but it is simply unfair and fraudulent for the airline to keep these surcharges when the customer doesn’t actually use the ticket and take the flight.”
The surcharges range from $18 for some domestic flights, say Buzbee, to as much as $300 for an overseas flight. At the moment, Buzbee says Moriarty is joined by several other plaintiffs but expects the class-action lawsuit to grow to include thousands. – Chris Vogel
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2008.