Know Your Passenger Right to Claim Compensation for Flight Delays

If you are not departing from the EU airport on any of the airlines or are travelling on an EU carrier, you are entitled to the care and compensation under the 261/2004 of EU Regulation in case of a flight delay by more than 3 hours. Compensation for Flight Delays are also given when you take a replacement for cancelled flight and the replaced flight is late for just 2 hours.

Moreover, the airline has to provide drinks and food at the appropriate time of the day and also a mode of communication of your delays and a refund of your important calls.

 In case there have been overnight delays, the airlines should provide hotel accommodation and transportation to reach the same or go to the desired destination. In case of major disruptions when the airline staff cannot help you in the making the arrangement of your stay, you can claim the cost back. However, in case you do not get any except an expensive hotel for your stay, you better not expect a full compensation for your stay. For all the claims, you must provide the supporting receipts.

The various amounts of compensation for flight delays

In cases of delay of more than 3 hours, you can get cash payment of €250 for short distance flights. For long flights where the distance ranges between1500-3500km, the compensation for flight delays will be increased up to €400.The flights where a distance of more than 3500km has to be covered, one can receive a compensation of up to €300 in case of a delay of 3 -4 hours. When the day is more than 4 hours, the compensation can be €600.

When is the compensation for flight delays not payable?

 There are exceptions to the payment of the flight delays in the cases of extraordinary circumstances. This means in a situation when there is a disturbance in the flight schedule due to unrest caused by a civil war, security issues, extreme weather conditions or natural disasters, strikes by the airport staff, medical emergency on board or air traffic control restrictions.

There is coverage of protection of passenger interests for situations where the airlines have an ample control on the circumstances but a delay is there. This includes unexpected flight safety shortcomings. In June 2014, the Court of Appeal ruled that compensation for flight delays should be paid for delay when the failure is due to ordinary technical problems.

Valid duration to apply for compensation for flight delays

 One can qualify to get paid for the compensation caused by flight delays in the past three years. There have been many attempts by ay airlines to limit this duration to 2 years but has been overruled by the Courts.

The nationality of the airline carrying the flight plays an important role. For instance, if someone is travelling on a flight from New York to London with British Airways and the operating carrier is American airlines. In such a case, the rule for Compensation for Flight Delays would not apply even if BA flight number is specified the e-ticket. Thus, one must check eligibility criterion carefully before making claim for compensation for flight delays