Flight Delay Compensation

Hi

A couple of weeks ago i had a flight from Dusseldorf to Leeds delayed by about 8 hours.

Should have left a 9pm – Final departure time was approx 4.30am

I am aware jet2 will try to wriggle out of this so am thinking of using skymediator to handle my claim – they take 25% of any compensation awarded.

Has anyone used these or or a similar service?

Any advice appreciated

Thanks

You’ll struggle to get anything. Most airlines include clauses in their terms and conditions that limit any compensation to nothing more than a hotel at most or most likely money towards refreshments.

What did you miss out on due to being late that you can justify claiming against them for?

Did you suffer any additional loss, and/or did they offer any form of compensation (food etc)?

And were there any external circumstances causing the delay?

Aren’t there EC regs governing this sort of thing now?

For short delays of under two hours, you don’t have a right to compensation, costs or a refund. However, once you’ve had to wait around that long, you could be owed serious sums. The longer the delay, the more you could get.

Find out your rights based on the delay length:

Two hours or more

If your flight departure is delayed for more than two hours, your airline may also have to look after you until your flight departs. This means you could be provided with food, drinks, communications and accommodation if you are delayed overnight. This rule kicks in on delays of between two and four hours, depending on the length of the flight.

You are entitled to this help in all circumstances, regardless of the cause of the delay. The Court of Justice of the European Union upheld consumers’ right to care and assistance in January 2013 after Ryanair challenged it (see the Ryanair ordered to pay costs MSE News story).

If you had to pay for these yourself, keep receipts and make a claim for those costs to the airline. See the How to claim section for how to do this.

Three hours or more

Passengers can claim compensation of between €250 (£212) and €600 (£508) if you meet the criteria for compensation, already mentioned above. The amount depends on the length of the flight and the delay, see the How much will you get? section.

This is in addition to food, accommodation and other extra costs (as mentioned above).

Five hours or more

But when the delay hits five hours, as well as costs for food, accommodation and other extras, you qualify for a refund of the ticket cost, no matter whose fault the problem was, if you decide not to travel.

To also get compensation, the problem must be the airline’s fault (see conditions above).

You can get a refund for a delayed flight if:

The flight departed from an EU airport, regardless of the airline, or you were on an EU airline that landed at an EU airport.
Your flight departure is delayed by five hours or more and you decide not to travel.
If you’re on a booking with a connecting flight and you’re at your intermediate stop, you are also entitled to your money back for all legs on your ticket (including a return at a later date) as well as a flight back to your starting point if the flight lands five hours or more late and your trip no longer has a purpose.
Can you get both a refund and compensation?

Yes, you could be entitled to a lot of cash in some cases.

If you decide not to fly because the departure is delayed by over five hours, if it lands over three hours later than scheduled (instead of miraculously making up the time in the air), and it’s the airline’s fault, you can also claim for compensation, as well as a refund.

From money saving expert…….

It’s reasonably clear cut, you are entitled to a refund of the fare and probably compensation of E250, see here. However, it depends on the cause of the delay – it must have been the airline’s fault. From the linked webpage:

Your airline must inform you about your rights and the reason for being denied boarding, or any cancellations or long delays

Did Jet2 confirm why you were delayed? Personally I would just download the forms and fill them in.

Yeah I was surprised by the EU compensation thing, I figured there would be zero compensation for relatively short delays (especially on the return leg) and they’d only pay for basic meals and hotel if long delays but does seem there is compensation for shorter delays.
A friend has just started a claim against Ryan Air following a 12 hour delay – initially they just told her she could cancel the ticket and get a refund (this was 2 days after she’d returned on the delayed flight…) so not very helpful but she’s filled out a claim form and posted it so will be interesting to see if it gets anywhere – I have my doubts. One big issue as mentioned on MSE is if the delay is out of the operators hands they aren’t liable for compensation in most circumstances (apparently) but although there’s a link to a site that’s supposed to tell you who’s fault the delay was it didn’t for my friend’s flight so I expect RA will just say it was the airport’s fault or something and she’d then need to pursue it with the CAA to get any further.
I normally would just advise not to bother but any chance someone has to shaft RA gets my backing.

This thread on Flyertalk covers it specific to BA, but is useful for any airline if you take out the BA specific stuff.

Don’t pay someone else to write a letter on your behalf. I wrote a single email to BA about a 4hr 15mins delay on a flight to Antigua, and had a response within a week and a cheque for €600 each (in GBP) a few days later.

Thanks for the advice gents.

I am going to write to jet2 with a letter provided by the CAA.

Will see how it goes

My parents were booked on a over-booked flight to the US last year and were asked if they minded going on a flight the day after (about 12 hours after theirs was scheduled to leave). To sweeten the deal, Virgin offered them return tickets to anywhere in the world except NZ/Australia and put them up in a hotel overnight at the airport with money for food.

I thought that was absolutely brilliant. Suspect it’ll vary from airline to airline. We’ve been delayed before a few times and had varying degrees of compensation on the spot but never anything more than a meal voucher…

I heard virgin was good, knew some people who did New York a lot with work, if they stepped down work still paid them and they got to keep the sweeteners.

The EU scheme looks good, I got delayed 4 1/2 hrs with Qantas, had to rebook onward flights and got a $20 voucher which equals a sandwich adn cup of tea. Finally got 2 lounge passes after using the twitter route.

Anyway whats the EU ever done for us