How to Get Compensation for Canceled Flights to Europe
Few things are more frustrating than a canceled flight, especially in the US. You can wait for hours with your increasingly anxious fellow travelers, and you are told that you will have to wait until the next day to actually board the plane.
But if you are traveling to, or within the European Union, the mandatory flight cancellation compensation may take some of the edge off.
Catherine LaGrave explains how this influenced her for Condé Nast Traveler . Describing in detail how a flight from Frankfurt was repeatedly delayed and then eventually canceled, she writes that she “earned” about $ 750:
In my case, Delta immediately offered to refund my round trip in full – a welcome gesture, especially since they were technically obligated to refund me only the full remaining cost of my ticket (in this case, one way). I accepted this refund and then, when I returned to the United States, I filed an electronic application with the airline’s customer service department by email, describing the situation and asking for the compensation due to me. They obeyed, and there was a check in the mail: no fuss, no talk, no disagreement.
This is due to the Decree on compensation for flight 261/2004 , the European Union’s decision, according to which passengers are entitled to compensation of 250 euros (currently about US $ 280) to 600 euros (about $ 670) in compensation if the flight arrives at its destination with a delay of at least three hours. at This Is Money (UK finance website). Refunds depend on the duration of the flight and how many hours your flight was delayed, which The Points Guy breaks down:
If you qualify, your payout is based on the length of your trip. For a flight of 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) or less, you receive € 250. Longer flights within the EU and other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km (2,175 miles) cost € 400, while longer flights cost € 600. However, a 2009 regulation allows airlines to cut compensation for delays of less than four hours in half.
In the event of flight cancellations, “you have the right to board another flight of the same airline to your destination, or cancel the flight and receive full compensation,” and the airline must also provide you with hotel accommodation, if you need it, and refreshments. You are not entitled to anything if the delay or cancellation is due to “extraordinary circumstances” such as the weather or a worker’s strike.
Any airline departing from an EU airport must comply with the rules, whether it is a European airline or not. But if you are flying to Europe when the delay / cancellation is with a non-European carrier, it doesn’t count. This means that if the LaGrave flight to Europe from the US on Delta was canceled, the airline would not have to comply with the rules.
But due to her staying in the EU, the airline returned most of the change to her. “So the next time you have a delayed flight in Europe, smile and bear it — and just think about all the money you make,” she writes.