Airline delays – Know your rights

Airline delays – Know your rights – This applies to all flights including charter flights.

Take this example : A budget airline, codswallop Airlines, cancels your flight to say Barcelona. Oh, and it’s not going to compensate you either.

The Truth: The EU has brought in some regulations that have caused wailing and gnashing of teeth in some sectors of the airline industry.

If you are denied entry to a flight where you met all the boarding criteria – prompt check-in, valid ticket and in a fit state to board – or the flight is cancelled, you now have rights.

Many people have slept in airports over the years
Firstly, you get “reimbursement of the cost of the ticket within seven days or a return flight to the first point of departure or re-routing to their final destination”.

You are also entitled to “care”. The EU’s summary mentions “refreshments, meals, hotel accommodation, transport between the airport and place of accommodation, two free telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails”.

And you’re in line for compensation of 250 euros for all flights of 1,500km. You get 400 euros for all flights within the EU of more than 1,500km, and the same for all other flights between 1,500 and 3,500km. All other flights get you 600 euros. Compensation only applies to cancellation, not delay.

The airline can avoid compensation if passengers are notified at least two weeks before departure. And if they are notified less than two weeks before, and are re-routed with only minor delays, they will also not be compensated.

There are rights for people who are delayed. Different levels of delay entitle customers to different levels of care, while any delay of more than five hours allows a refund to be obtained, although obviously, you will not be any closer to your destination

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But the legislation contains a glorious get-out for airlines. In “extraordinary circumstances”, they do not have to compensate passengers.

There is a great temptation for airlines to say that staffing shortages or technical faults are “extraordinary circumstances”. But this get-out may not continue much longer.

“The European Court of Justice has cracked down,” says Dr Twigg-Flesner. “Technical problems are not extraordinary circumstances.”

Where it applies: The regulations are European law, so apply across the whole of the EU.