I almost broke my neck on that slippery slope there. Could you explain how that makes the ticket cancellable and most importantly how it would delay the boarding process since the money is taken at checkin? You would not be paying cash, most probably you would mandate the airline to retrieve the money from your account and they would do so upon checkin.

And if this is a "hemmed" industry, I would hate to see one that doesn't have these regulations. Also, the 400 euros you mention don't just come to your account if the plane is delayed, you have to fight months to years on them and the airline will fight you back citing obscure "out of their hands" circumstances. Usually you have to hire a firm that takes 30% of the amount because the process is hard to navigate.

I can show you on this doll where the hemmed industry touched me when RyanAir cancelled my flight and then refused to give the money back. Charge back was refused by the bank with a heartfelt letter saying that in this case I should wait for a refund because the times are hard for everybody. Then after 8 months they gave me my money back missing 60 euros, which the company pocketed.

Or see the current situation in which they cancel flights and then say: oh yeah, oopsie, we'll board on the next flight which is 3 days, see you then. And then you get stranded in Mallorca because there is no way for you to get back. But you'll get 600 euros for this in a year or 2.

Or see that company in Romania (also EU) that this year sold 178k tickets they never meant to honor. You would buy a ticket and then they would cancel the flight the next day - no fines here, they just have to give the money back but good luck with that. This measure would solve this problem.

I would add that Airlines have access to the same algorithms as the rest of us, and the boarding is a shit show because they absolutely don't care about making it better, it very often ends at the same time or earlier than fueling and baggage loading, so it's good enough.

I don’t think that this regulation would make any ticket cancelable. For one, the booking would still be an enforceable contract. But the airline would have to enforce it now. But a more likely scenario would be to hold the payment in escrow, release it on check in and refund it on cancellation. A bit like Paypal‘s buyer protection.

This would work out great !!! Except - you know - for the hotel bookings, car hire and the museum tickets you bought in advance.

Uhm, those aren't affected. The airline would have the same duty to transport you as now under the same kind of contract, the only change proposed is to charge your credit card on the day you fly instead of the day you order. The rest of the contract remains unchanged.

What is a “duty” ? - https://youtu.be/A-brgkkjnHc