Martin's guide to flight delay compensation
Summer is over, kids are back at school and for most the holidays are a distant memory. Yet if your holiday was ruined by a flight delay, or even a cancellation, a strike like Ryanair's or any other disruption, then our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis says an EU rule means you could be entitled to up to £550 per person.
My twitter feed is full at this time of year with people complaining about their holiday flights from hell like Shona who tweeted “@MartinSLewis I need you in my life. Ryanair cancelled my flight last month I paid £370 to get home plus hotel taxi food etc. Now EasyJet have cancelled & I am stuck in Italy until tomorrow. They have rescheduled a flight but had to pay for hotel taxi etc where do I start?."
There’s little you can do to repair a ruined holiday, but if you are entitled to compensation it is easy to do, as Andy tweeted “@MartinSLewis Quick thanks. Followed your advice. Just received 2 x £540 for flight delays Thomas Cook dealt with it very quickly too”, and Amanda “@MartinSLewis I want to thank you. Put in a claim to EasyJet for a flight delay of 3 1/2 hours and have just received £703.14 in compensation 10 days later”.
For full help on how to claim including free template letters see Martin’s free ‘Flight delays reclaiming tool', but here are the key points…
It’s much easier if you’re on an EU regulated flight.
This is all about EU regulation 261/2004 – it’s important to mention that in any complaint you make as it has specific rules (and that’s due to move into UK law once we leave the EU). Under these rules, you can claim compensation if you meet all three of the below criteria – and it isn’t just this summer’s flight, you can back claim for any delayed flight going back to 2012.
Here’s the key things to know…
1) What counts as an EU flight? It means the flight must have left from an EU airport, or arrived at an EU airport (but then it must be an EU airline). So for example, a delayed Manchester to Miami flight qualifies, regardless of the airline. Yet for Miami to Manchester, you are entitled to compensation under this rule flying Virgin or KLM, but not on Air India.
2) It must have ARRIVED 3hrs+ late. It doesn’t matter how late you leave, it’s all about how late you arrived. So if you’re on a flight that takes off 4 hours late but arrives 2 hours 55minutes late –you’re not over the three hours needed to get compensation. And technically the time that counts is when the door opens to get off the plane.
If you’re struggling to remember if your delay passed the crucial three hour cusp, you can try using the FlightRight calculator from a claims firm (I’m not saying to use the firm to claim compensation, just to use its calculator, then put in your own claim which I’ll tell you how to do below) – just put in your flight number, date of flight and the airports you flew between, and it'll say how long you were delayed for.
3) It must have been the airline's fault to claim. So things like bad weather, airport staff strikes or political problems doesn’t count, and you can’t claim compensation. However, things that are under the airlines control such as staffing problems, poor planning, and now even technical problems caused by not fixing regular wear and tear, all count.
Airlines will try and play fast and loose with this – so listen carefully and note down what you’re told is the delay reason. If for example they’ve people working on the planes to fix them for hours but later claim bad weather – challenge it.
Ryanair has already declared it won’t pay compensation for the strike by some of its Irish pilots in July as it says it wasn’t at fault. Yet the regulator the Civil Aviation has said you should get it. So if it rejects you in the first instance just carry on to the next stage.
4) You are entitled to cash. Airlines sometimes offer vouchers, so unless they’re offering more, you can formally say you want cash.
How much compensation can I get?
The amount you get is fixed solely on the flight length and delay time. So a 1,000km flight delayed by three hours is €250 (£220ish) per person, while a 4,000km flight delayed for five hours is €600 (£540ish) per person.
What if my flight was cancelled?
Then you’re entitled to the choice of a refund or a replacement flight – and that applies whether it is the airlines fault or not. However if it was the airlines fault and it cancelled your flight within two weeks of departure, then you’re entitled to compensation on top if the arrival time of that flight is late. And somewhat strangely this applies even if you went for a refund – in other words if the offered replacement flight that arrives late you’re due the compensation.
How do I put in a claim?
First, write to the airline stating the details of your delay and asking for the compensation. You don’t need to pay anyone to do this. There are free template letters and tools available (see link above) to help you do this. If rejected, and that’s common, then depending on where you flew from and the airline you flew with, you can go to the relevant regulators for that country, or one of several new Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes many airlines have signed up with. If your appeal is unsuccessful it's still possible to go to court if you really want to press your case, though then you need to weigh up if it's worth it. And while I wouldn’t pay a claims handler before, if you’re going to court you may want to use someone like Botts & Co who has been at the forefront of flight delay compensation, though it will take 25% of what you are due if you win as a fee.
Is this fair on the airlines?
I don't want to push unnecessary compensation culture. For someone on a £10 flight, only just three hours delayed, which didn't bother them, it’s worth questioning whether it's fair to push for £220. I'd urge caution or it'll push up all our air fares.
Yet if you’re a family with young kids who spent 24 hours in a smelly airport lounge with kids sleeping on the seats – then push for your rights. Each individual must make their own ethical choice of whether to take up the cudgels.