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Are You Entitled to Airline Compensation?

If your flight is cancelled you may be entitled to hundreds of pounds in compensation? EUclaim offers a new service to disgruntled travellers making claiming easy.

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If you have contacted an airline because you were denied boarding or because your flight was cancelled, the likelihood is that were fobbed off by the airline claiming 'extraordinary circumstances'. Critics say that this is an effective get-out that airlines can use to minimise compensation payouts.

According to EUclaim, a company that specialises in helping airline passengers get compensation, millions of pounds of compensation go unclaimed every year because travellers don't know how to claim. They say that a staggering 1000 people can claim up to £470 every day in the UK and are unaware of their enitltment.

Few people know about the EC regulation 261/2004 introduced in 2005 which gives air passengers rights to compensation of between €250 (£200) and €600, depending on the length of the flight, as well as help, if boarding is denied, flights cancelled or delays suffered.

However, EU law states that airlines don’t have to pay out if flights are cancelled at the last minute due to extraordinary circumstances such as technical problems, but EUclaim says carriers use this law to their advantage making it virtually impossible to claim.

EUclaim have compiled a database that tracks commercial flights around the globe. Using airport departure information with the departure and expected arrival time, the database tracks the movement of the plane and makes it possible to check whether the reasons given by the airline for not paying out compensation are valid.

Regarding cancellations Noorderhaven said: "Most flights are withdrawn in the summer when the weather is fine. In most cases it is because the airline hasn't got enough planes, so they cancel the flight that will cause them the fewest headaches. They tell passengers it's due to extraordinary circumstances, but really they are making a business decision."

If you feel you may have a claim but are unsure, you can find out by using an entitlement calculater below.

If the results of the Calculator show that you are entitled to a compensation EUclaim may take on your claim and start the process of proving that reason of extraordinary circumstance as presented by the airline is not valid and that compensation should be paid. If the airline still refuses to pay out the claim, they will continue the claim in court.

They will take care of the whole claim process, and when the airline has paid the claim to them, they will transfer the claim amount minus administration and collection fees (over 73% of the amount claimed will be transfered) to your account. Euclaim works on a 'no win no fee' basis.

9 October 2008

Comments

joe quinlan, UK

scheduled KLM flight 29 Oct 08, AMS-BAH dep 1335 arr 1930 cancelled. Departed 29 Oct 08, AMS-DXB dep 2050 arr 0610*. Departed 30 Oct 08 DXB-BAH dep 0830 arr 0845. Arrived into Bahrain over 13 hours late with original itinerary completely changed. We were two elderly passengers who found the whole experience completely daunting and somewhat confussing since we received very little info from KLM. They did give us a pathetic 10 euro meal allowance, 5 min phone card and rather arrogantly a 50 euro future KLM flight discount voucher....PATHETIC AND VERY NON SYMPATHETIC, even though we had commenced our journey 29 OCT 08, EDI-AMS dep 0550.

17 November, 2008

Vijay, Mumbai, India

I was scheduled to fly on Kenya Airways from Nairobi to Mumbai on 11th Oct morning . I was at the airport 3 hours in advance and on reaching the counter was informed that the flight was full and I was being off-boarded and would be flown the next evening. They went to the extent of giving me a written letter stating that the flight for that day had been cancelled when in fact it had not.

what happened was that the flight on 10th Oct was cancelled leading to the 10th passengers being accomodated on the 11th flight and hence the shortage f seats which lead to my being off-boarded.

12 November, 2008

Alexander Lenders, EUclaim, NL

Dear Marina,

The incident you describe is unfortunately not uncommon to the industry. Stranded passengers are often treated badly, especially when it happens on international transfers to and from regions outside the EU.

If incidents (cancellations, re-routings, denied boarding and extreme delays) happen on flights that depart or arrive in the EU, you could be entitled to compensation according to the Passenger Rights regulation 261/2004 (check on our EUclaim calculator above).

Your incident however, happened outside the EU on a non-EU carrier. This means that this EU regulation does not apply. Any request for compensation depends on the courtesy of the airline, and in our experience, this isn't much (if at all).

31 October, 2008

Marina Wilkinson, UK

I was travelling from Glasgow UK to Melbourne Austalia. In Dubai I boarded flight EK404 and after a period of time there was an announcement saying that due to a technical fault there would be a delay to departure We then all stayed on the plane for approx 3 hours with no further information untill it was announced that we would be taken off the plane. The information desk in the airport said that we would receive some breakfast but no one on the flight could find out where this would take place so no breakfast was provided, we were also instructed to return to the original gate at 8.30am The waiting lounge was closed and as a result no seating was available during this time.

During this waiting time it was announced that we had to go to a different gate where again the waiting lounge was closed and despite numerous complaints they refused to open it or offer any form of seating, After having to stand around/sit for around another hour, the waiting lounge was eventually opened where we were finally offered a small sandwhich and a small drink.

We were then informed that we had to re-check in with the same boarding cards that we had used to the previous flight. Having re-checked in we then had to board a bus in order to take us to the plane.

Once on the new flight, an announcement was made to inform us that there was to be another 20 minute delay due to a passenger now refusing to fly, who had to be then taken of the plane and their luggage removed from the flight. We eventually arrived at our final destination (Melbourne) at around 8.40am - over 8 hours late.

28 October, 2008

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