European flight compensation regulations - a handy tip!

[melbournemartin]

Hello, here is a little tip that I have just used in my favour!

Here is a tip whenever you have a flight involving Europe and it's delayed. In pretty much all circumstances, you are owed money! However they almost never tell you about this at the airport, so most people never claim.

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm

Airlines are required to give you food, hotel, taxis etc but also to compensate you financially. The maximum amount is 600 Euros, which I recently received due to a 24 hour flight delay. Actually, the flight was only delayed by 2 hours but this caused me to miss my connection, leading to an overall delay of 24 hours which is all that matters.

Generally to do this all you need is to call up and give your booking number. That's all the information they need. It took 2 months and a couple of reminder phone calls to get my money but it finally worked Air France, and many others, also often offer a travel voucher worth 200 Euros more, to be used within a year. They are allowed to do that but they cannot force you to not take cash.

A couple of exceptions where you won't get financial compensation (but should still get food, hotel etc):

- Natural disasters (e.g. Iceland volcano or Chile Earthquakes)
- A strike of the airport staff (if it's the airline's staff striking then this doesn't count but if it is the airport staff then it's out of control of the airline and you don't get money)

Hope this helps guys!

 

[Leper]

Thanks for the info.

My family and I were on a flight from Frankfurt to Sydney via HKG on 31 August which was delayed 3-4 hours due to a mechanical fault. We subsequently missed our connection, which meant our arrival was delayed about 10 hours.

It's a bit grey as to whether or not we qualify (or whether we've missed the boat in claiming), but maybe worth a shot.

The airline (Cathay) were pretty good about it (they put us up in a hotel in HKG for 4-5 hours during the delay there), but it did piss me off that we didn't get QF FF points / status credits due to it being a particular booking category (and is wasn't a cheap ass ticket).

I'll give it a shot.... there may be 3,000 Euros in it for 5 of us!

 

[melbournemartin]

Thanks for the info.

My family and I were on a flight from Frankfurt to Sydney via HKG on 31 August which was delayed 3-4 hours due to a mechanical fault. We subsequently missed our connection, which meant our arrival was delayed about 10 hours.

It's a bit grey as to whether or not we qualify (or whether we've missed the boat in claiming), but maybe worth a shot.

The airline (Cathay) were pretty good about it (they put us up in a hotel in HKG for 4-5 hours during the delay there), but it did piss me off that we didn't get QF FF points / status credits due to it being a particular booking category (and is wasn't a cheap ass ticket).

I'll give it a shot.... there may be 3,000 Euros in it for 5 of us!

Based on purely what you've written, I think you qualify. The website I provided doesn't specific in detail what circumstances may exclude a claim but generally a mechanical/technical fault does not; it is believed that the airline is responsible for such things.

Putting you up in a hotel was nice of them. I'm not sure they had to do that since you were only at the airport for a few hours, but anyway this is irrelevant to the financial claim anyway.

Also I'm pretty sure you haven't "missed the boat". I put in my claim about a month after it occurred as I waited to return home. Yes, yours is a bit later but I don't think it will matter.

Good lucky and please report back either way! (but don't be surprised if it takes a couple of months)

 

[ash_1050]

With cancelled flights, you won't receive compensation if:

• the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances for example due to bad weather, or
• you were informed 2 weeks before the scheduled flight date, or
• you were offered an alternative for the same route with a similar schedule to the original one.

i.e. most incidents of majorly delayed or cancelled flights.

My flight was delayed 2-3 hours due to the plane shot down over Ukraine and we were given a €10 food voucher which was plenty sufficient for the small delay.

 

[melbournemartin]

With cancelled flights, you won't receive compensation if:

• the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances for example due to bad weather, or
• you were informed 2 weeks before the scheduled flight date, or
• you were offered an alternative for the same route with a similar schedule to the original one.

i.e. most incidents of majorly delayed or cancelled flights.

My flight was delayed 2-3 hours due to the plane shot down over Ukraine and we were given a €10 food voucher which was plenty sufficient for the small delay.

You're within your rights to ask for compensation, but yes that probably does count as extraordinary circumstances.

Also the alternative has to get you to your destination within I think 2 hours of your scheduled arrival time.

But you have missed what is probably the largest cause of delays/cancellations (or at least equal with weather): technical problems. And those definitely allow you to get compensation as it is considered the airline's fault. Perhaps if the airport had the problem (faulty radar or whatever) that wouldn't count.

 

[Leper]

Based on purely what you've written, I think you qualify. The website I provided doesn't specific in detail what circumstances may exclude a claim but generally a mechanical/technical fault does not; it is believed that the airline is responsible for such things.

Putting you up in a hotel was nice of them. I'm not sure they had to do that since you were only at the airport for a few hours, but anyway this is irrelevant to the financial claim anyway.

Also I'm pretty sure you haven't "missed the boat". I put in my claim about a month after it occurred as I waited to return home. Yes, yours is a bit later but I don't think it will matter.

Good lucky and please report back either way! (but don't be surprised if it takes a couple of months)

Woo hoo, I went through the process (still thinking there might be a catch), sent them a letter with relevant info attached (tickets; form and extract from the website you've linked to etc) and lo and behold I got an email from them this week saying they'll put EUR 600 (x5!) into my account and apologising for the inconvenience. Which effectively means our flight back from Europe was pretty much free. They haven't transferred the money yet but I trust they will in due course.

Thanks mate - you're a legend.

 

[Aussie Assault]

Well thats a good news story right there. Good work.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

 

[Leper]

One side of me feels a little guilty about this (it really wasn't THAT much of a hassle, and hey, did my 7 year old daughter suffer to the tune of 600 Euros?).

The other side says, "hey, they screwed my on the FF points I thought I'd get when I booked the flight, so bugger 'em". Like a small hit into the side of a Cathay 777 by the karma bus.

I guess sometimes life deals you a s**t hand and you cop it on the chin (I'm looking at you, Mr "3 elimination final losses in a row"), other times it can be raining farts and you get hit by a rose.

 

[Aussie Assault]

Stuff it, dont feel guilty for a minute. They have these policies for a reason and they're there to be used.

 

[Leper]

You've convinced me mate. * 'em.

 

[melbournemartin]

Woo hoo, I went through the process (still thinking there might be a catch), sent them a letter with relevant info attached (tickets; form and extract from the website you've linked to etc) and lo and behold I got an email from them this week saying they'll put EUR 600 (x5!) into my account and apologising for the inconvenience. Which effectively means our flight back from Europe was pretty much free. They haven't transferred the money yet but I trust they will in due course.

Thanks mate - you're a legend.

Wow, I'm so happy to hear all this! I've made over 21 thousand posts on this board in 12 years (God I need a life) and that was probably the most important

I wouldn't feel guilty. These things are in place for a reason. Also the airline should have been the one telling you about this, not me, but they don't so 95% of people never claim. It's actually quite sneaky.

Hopefully your next family holiday is less disrupted (or equally disrupted and equally reimbursed)