£10 Refunds

Here's an interesting story on the BBC site:

People who flew with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic between 11 August 2004 and 23March 2006 may be entitled to a refund of £10 per flight.

The law firm Cohen Milstein expects to sign an agreement later on Friday in a class action suit with BA and Virgin.

BA was fined by US and UK authorities for price-fixing on fuel surcharges while Virgin also admitted breaching US and UK law but escaped the fines.

BA declined to comment while Virgin could not immediately be reached.

The settlement would cover customers in the UK and the US.

Cohen Milstein estimates that the settlement will be worth about $200m (£100m), £73.5m of which will be set aside to pay claims by passengers who bought tickets in the UK in pounds sterling.

Passengers and businesses that bought tickets would be eligible for refunds of up to £10 for each leg of a journey.

BA was fined £121.5m by the Office of Fair Trading and $300m (£150m) by the US Department of Justice for colluding with Virgin on the level of fuel surcharges that would be added to their ticket prices.

Virgin escaped the fines because it had informed the authorities that the breaches had happened.