The long-awaited vacation has arrived. You arrive at the airport in high spirits, only to be disappointed – your flight is delayed. You will have to endure additional long hours waiting for departure at the airport. However, it is much more pleasant to wait knowing that you will pay for it, because passenger rights guarantee payments of up to 600 euros in case of flight delays and cancellations. We will tell you in this article what compensation passengers are entitled to by law and how to receive them.
EU Regulation no. 261 entitles passengers whose flight is canceled to receive compensation. In addition, as a result of amendments to the regulations adopted in 2012, passengers whose flights were delayed by more than 3 hours are entitled to payments from €125 to 600. And even if the flight was late by less than 3 hours, but at the destination, in Due to transfers, you find yourself more than 3 hours later than planned, you are entitled to receive compensation.
This law applies only in the EU, but citizens of any country can take advantage of cash payments when flying from the European Union or on European air carriers (except for flights completely outside the EU).
Good reasons
Compensation will not be paid if you were notified of changes earlier than 14 days before departure. Also, airlines often refer to extraordinary circumstances: in the event of a strike, martial law or bad weather (if no flight was flying from the airport at that time), they do not pay money.
If the problem was a technical problem or a connecting flight delay, you are entitled to compensation. But even in emergency situations, airlines are obliged to provide support to passengers until the situation is completely corrected. Flight rebooking or a full refund for an unused ticket is common practice.
Flight delay
If your flight is delayed by less than three hours, you cannot claim compensation, but you are entitled to receive refreshments. If you are forced to sit at the airport for more than three hours, then when waiting for a flight less than 1,500 kilometers away, you can receive €250; from 1500 to 3500 km – €400; over 3500 km – €300 (in case of delay of more than 4 hours – €600).
Flight cancellation
If the flight cancellation occurs within three hours after the scheduled departure, you have the right to receive a refund of the full cost of the ticket and compensation from €125 to €300. If you waited 3 or 4 hours before finding out about the cancellation, the compensation will be €250 euros for a flight less than 1500 km, €200 for a distance between 1500 and 3500 km and €300 for long distances over 3500 km. If you waited more than four hours, you can get €250, €400 and €600 respectively.
Denied boarding
With overbooking, there is periodically an overabundance of passengers on board. If you have nowhere to sit in the cabin, then you have the right to a refund of the full cost of the ticket and payment: up to 1500 km – €250, from 1500 to 3500 km – €400, more than 3500 km – €600. If you choose to rebook onto your next flight, you are also entitled to compensation and support while you wait: meals, hotel (if your next flight is scheduled for tomorrow) and communications.
If the flights were connecting and there were changes at the connecting stage, then the time of arrival at the final destination will determine whether you are entitled to compensation or not. It is calculated in the same way: by hours of delay and distance.
How to get
You have the right to personally submit a claim for compensation directly to the airline. You can use the services of agencies that seek compensation, such as airhelp.com, compensair.com and others. They charge a commission for the work, but usually achieve results. By the way, compensation can be received for flights made within the last six years.
Do not throw away receipts for food and any purchases at the airport that you made while waiting and try to photograph all changes on the board: all this will help in establishing your rights to payments. However, you should not present a bill for a champagne dinner in the most expensive airport hotel room – the airline will force you to confirm the need for such expenses and you are unlikely to succeed. But adequate and friendly behavior will help you get what is due by law.
When traveling, pay for purchases with a OneTwoTrip loyalty card, and up to 10% of the order amount on OneTwoTrip, as well as up to 2% of any purchases paid for with the card, will be returned to your account.
Author: Olga Semyonova
