We’ve all been there – arriving at the airport full of excitement about your holiday in the sun or a trip to see loved ones and staring at the departures board with incredulity. No, surely, it’s not my flight that’s delayed…there’s no way my flight’s been cancelled! Well, it’s a sad fact that if you travel by plane there’s a good chance that you’ll experience some sort of issue along the way. Sometimes, it’s just a delay of 20 minutes, but sometimes you can be stranded at the airport overnight or your flight’s totally cancelled. So, what can you do? While your initial reaction may be to tear your hair out and start screaming at the nearest member of staff, this – unsurprisingly – will get you absolutely nowhere. Before you lose it altogether, remember this – air passengers have rights! Not only that, but when you enforce your rights, you can get up to 600 € from the airline!
But don’t start spending your imaginary cash just yet, pump the brakes. Of course, the amount of compensation – and if you get any at all – depends on a variety of factors. With a cancellation, it’s all about when you were notified (14 days or less ahead of your flight is the rule of thumb), where your airline is headquartered, plus the flight route and distance. Those last three must also be noted if your flight is delayed, plus you need to be aware of how much you were delayed at the destination, not while you were waiting to take off. In this case, once the delay is 3 hours or more, you can start thinking about claiming.
Okay, so you reckon you have a claim, what now? It all might seem a bit daunting – just little old you against the big business that is the airline – but honestly, it doesn’t have to be. You can head to MYFLYRIGHT, input your flight date and number into the flight compensation calculator and voila! Not only do they do all the complicated stuff and figure out if you have a claim, but they even let you know how much you can expect to get. And all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse.
If you’re thinking, “oh I had a delay or cancellation, but it was ages ago”, you may still be in luck. It varies across the EU, but in the UK, you have up to 6 years to claim for your flight issue – so there could still be time to get the money you deserve.
It might seem like too much hassle to chase up – maybe you’re resigned to the fact that you lost out on some money and it’s better to simply move on, rather than worry about chasing up the airline (who, let’s face it, don’t really care that you lost holiday time or missed your Gran’s 90th birthday) and you’ve decided to put it down to experience. Well, it actually doesn’t have to be a huge headache at all. Head back to MYFLYRIGHT, pop in the relevant information – don’t worry, they’ll guide you through – and they’ll pursue your case for you, even taking the airline to court if need be. You barely have to lift a finger, it’s free and you don’t have to worry about intimidating legal processes.
So, what may at first seem like a lost cause is actually something you have the power to turn around to your favour. What are you waiting for? Let’s fight for your passenger rights!
