An NYC man is suing Delta Airlines and British Airways for $16,000 — demanding refunds for two flights that were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, new court papers show.
Steven Schiesel says he bought himself and his wife a pair of one-way tickets for himself and wife Elaine to fly from New York City to Tenerife, Spain via Delta on April 14. But they were unable to go as both the US and Spain were under lock down at the time, a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Saturday says.
Schiesel bought the Delta tickets on January 24 for $5,543 each and he requested a full refund prior to the flight, the court papers say.
And he also booked a second one-way flight for the pair from Portugal back to the Big Apple on May 2 from British Airways for $5,952, which he also asked for a refund for ahead of the flight, the court filings say.
But both airlines, “failed and refused to provide plaintiff with a full cash refund, and offered plaintiff a voucher to be used on another flight in the future, for which plaintiff had no use,” the court documents charge.
The suit says this goes against British government, US government and US Department of Transportation rules “requiring airlines to provide full cash refunds to passengers who purchased plane tickets on flights affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Schiesel is suing for breach of contract.
In April, a Minnesota cop filed a similar lawsuit against United Airlines for a refund of a canceled South Carolina trip scheduled for April 4.
Delta and British Airways did not immediately return a request for comment.