Delayed flight compensation

[Deleted member 65149]

Twice now I’ve been the beneficiary of compensation for delayed flights, receiving a total of 3,000 Euros. The first occasion was ten years ago when our flight from Heathrow to Bangkok was delayed overnight and I had to fight Thai Airways with many letters over several months to get the compensation due to my wife and I under EU regulations (EC Regulation 261/2004). They tried all sorts of ways of getting out of paying up, but my research and persistence worked. The second occasion was when our flight from Hong Kong to Heathrow last December with our daughter returned to HK after nine hours in the air and we were put on another flight 24 hours after the original one. Virgin Atlantic paid up quickly and without any fuss.

There are many companies who advertise their services to do the legwork for you, at a price. They may (or may not) have got our compensation through quicker and easier from Thai Airways, but at what cost? For the second claim from Virgin I actually started the process off using a free online helper via MoneySavingExpert called resolver.co.uk. It couldn’t have been easier but with Virgin Atlantic having a dedicated team dealing with EU compensation claims I suspect it would have been just as easy on my own.

The EU compensation is only for flights leaving an EU airport or by an EU registered airline landing at at EU airport. So for instance when we suffered a missed connecting flight to Melbourne because of a delayed flight from Thailand to Singapore five years ago we only managed to claim the cost of the only available alternative flight (with Jetstar - Australia’s equivalent of Ryanair - instead of the far superior Singapore Airlines with whom we were originally booked).

I don’t have a clue what will happen about this EU compensation after 2019 - if anything g does change then!

Despite my successful and financially rewarding claims, I do wonder whether all of us who fly with EU airlines and/or from EU countries will pay in the end. Are the airlines that may be subject to such claims pushing up their ticket prices to cover the potential costs, or are they risking going the same way as Monarch?

 

[E53AMG]

If you actually had to buy replacement flights I guess a quicker resource would be travel insurance regardless of the EU position, unless of course it is compensation over and above the cost being sought..?

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[st13phil]

Are the airlines that may be subject to such claims pushing up their ticket prices to cover the potential costs, or are they risking going the same way as Monarch?

It will be factored in as an operating cost, so it will either dent margins or be passed on through higher ticket prices.

It certainly appears to concentrate the mind of the airlines. I've experienced delayed flights with BA multiple times in the last 12 months, but they always manage to squeak in under the delay compensation threshold

 

[Darrell]

We had a 20 hour delay with Norwegian last February whilst returning from a week in Forteventura.

The pilot informed us the plane had a technical problem. When we began the compo procedure Norwegian told us it wasn’t a technical problem so therefore we weren’t due any compo!!

We went to a company that acted on our behalf and received just over £900 a few weeks ago. I can’t remember their fee and I don’t care.

The compo paid for our flights to Forteventura next Saturday!!

 

[Deleted member 65149]

We had a 20 hour delay with Norwegian last February whilst returning from a week in Forteventura.

The pilot informed us the plane had a technical problem. When we began the compo procedure Norwegian told us it wasn’t a technical problem so therefore we weren’t due any compo!!

We went to a company that acted on our behalf and received just over £900 a few weeks ago. I can’t remember their fee and I don’t care.

The compo paid for our flights to Forteventura next Saturday!!

EU compensation isn’t just for technical problems. 20 hour delay is 600Euros each, that’s £1055 for two of you. So they charged you about £150.

 

[Meldrew2]

We were delayed at Gatwick flying to Canada with Air Transit last summer.

I used the letter templates on "Money Saving Expert" to claim - about six weeks later two cheques arrived (one for each passenger).

I guess it's worth using a claims firm if you are dealing with an airline that is well known for trying to wriggle out of claims - but it's a lot of money to pay for what could be just one sheet of A4 and a stamp...

 

[Denis O]

I currently have a no win no fee lawyer fighting a case against Thomsons for a 5 hour delay on a flight to Sal. I tried it myself as the procedure is not particularly onerous but Thomson just ignored me. I got the legal firm involved as I thought they may have better luck. 18 months after they started writing they are progressing to court action. Quite common evidently. Thomsons will likely pay up just before court.

They are just taking the piss. No point having a system if they just ignore it but I guess it helps the cash flow.

Lawyer gets 20% of I remember correctly.

 

[Darrell]

EU compensation isn’t just for technical problems. 20 hour delay is 600Euros each, that’s £1055 for two of you. So they charged you about £150.

Norwegian are notorious for wriggling out of paying.

 

[GP801]

Last year we had a nine hour delay coming back from Pisa with Easyjet. Filled out the online claim form on their website and the money was in our bank account within 7 days. They even e-mailed a link to their claim form after the flight finally landed. After all we had heard about airlines using all sorts of excuses to avoid paying we were impressed. So on this occasion well done Easyjet

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Last year we had a nine hour delay coming back from Pisa with Easyjet. Filled out the online claim form on their website and the money was in our bank account within 7 days. They even e-mailed a link to their claim form after the flight finally landed. After all we had heard about airlines using all sorts of excuses to avoid paying we were impressed. So on this occasion well done Easyjet

Certainly not the EasyJet I know. A couple of years ago long train delays in Switzerland (yes, I was amazed at that too) resulted in us getting to the departure gate in Zurich 28 minutes before the scheduled departure. We could see passengers still walking to the plane but we weren’t allowed through the gate, despite carrying our baby. The ground crew didn’t want to know, and that included the staff at their ticket desk when we tried to get another flight back to the U.K. The most galling part was that the plane we were supposed to be on was delayed by over ten minutes so we were actually at the gate well over the 30 minute before departure deadline they set. All this was after confusing and conflicting safety information regarding taking a car seat on the plane. Their customer services insisted that we took one, against our wishes, but the cabin crew on the way out to Zurich said we couldn’t use it and put it in the overhead locker! EasyJet didn’t give a toss about all this when I wrote to complain after we eventually got home. I’m not going to risk flying with them again.

 

[400ixl]

Despite my successful and financially rewarding claims, I do wonder whether all of us who fly with EU airlines and/or from EU countries will pay in the end. Are the airlines that may be subject to such claims pushing up their ticket prices to cover the potential costs, or are they risking going the same way as Monarch?

Of course that cost is getting fed directly back into ticket prices.

In a similar way to whiplash claims for car insurance, it is adding to everyone's future ticket prices. Short term gain for you, long term harm to everyone else. Guess it comes down to your core values as to which way you call on that moral dilemma.

Recovering costs incurred is a slightly different topic, but does overlap, but most are being compensated for time as any extra costs are usually covered by the airline through vouchers / hotel rooms etc.

 

[tangey]

A little known fact is that, if your flight is departing the US, you may fall under the US DoT compensation scheme.

Long story short we were involuntarily denied boarding on a BA flight Vegas-Heathrow. The flight was overbooked in Biz, and I was not willing to accept a downgrade to a lower cabin due to health reasons. BA in the US handed us a prepaid card each with $1350 on each card that was active within 2hrs, and gave us meals and transport to a hotel for the night, and booked us on the next flight the following day. On IVB, if they can not get you to your destination within 2 hrs of your original arrival time, US DoT mandates it's $1350 per person.(that might just be for long haul)

Under EU regs, the max payout would have been €600, and it would have involved many weeks/months of claims handling, receipt keeping etc.

The funny thing is, I was aware that the flight was overbooked the day before, as I could not check-in. I phoned multiple BA offices to try them to rebook us on an alternate itinery, as I knew that once we got to the airport, there were no options with any carrier to get us home that day. However, they insisted it had to be done at the airport.