Most of us do have reasonably punctual flights but, this year, over 175,000 have been delayed or cancelled so far in 2018, almost 26,000 more than last year, according to flight delay claims company AirHelp.
Judges ruled that the airline was not liable to pay out compensation under EU261 for flights cancelled due to strike action. The CAA says that UK passengers are entitled to pay-outs of at least €250. Is the court right or is the CAA?
Yesterday’s Radio 4 midday consumer show, You & Yours, ran a story about travel and flight delays. (You can hear the show by clicking here and signing in.) Nothing special about that you might think since there shouldn’t be many people left who haven’t heard of EU261 and the statutory rights to compensation airline passengers have if a plane is delayed or cancelled. What they were highlighting was that some airlines are slow to pay despite, in some cases, there being county court judgements against
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The Supreme Court in the UK has refused the airline, Emirates, to appeal a lower court decision that decided it should recompense passengers who missed flight connections.
Overall AirHelp says that passengers – not just Americans – are owed more than €5 billion by airlines, a staggering sum.
The time has come for air passengers to be treated like those who buy holidays and for them to be provided with protection.
This week is National Consumer Week, a week in which there is supposed to be publicity of consumer issues. So far, all I have seen is a warning about automatic renewal memberships such as those employed by some gym clubs. News about consumer issues in the travel industry haven’t come to the fore but the week is young and there is still time. Although EU261 is a European Union rule enabling a person to claim if their flight is delayed or cancelled, the British government
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Gin, yachts (there is a link there somewhere) and the appalling Hurricane Irma occupy some of Adrian’s thoughts this week.
On Tuesday, Tim Farron MP asked the Department of Transport what information the Department for Transport holds on the amount of compensation for delayed and cancelled flights. Answer – none.
A story about easyJet denying boarding to a couple on an overbooked plane a week ago was not noticed by the press until this week.
American Airlines, Etihad, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines have been told by the CAA to obey EU rules or face unlimited fines.
“In an effort to prevent customers being misled and ‘scammed’ in this manner, Ryanair has offered to pay Flight Delays the €25 admin fee it charges customers for every claim settled, on condition they do not deduct any fees from the compensation paid to customers.
Is it not time for the CAA to read the riot act to all airlines, remind them of their responsibilities and order them to pay legitimate claims in a speedier manner?
Bus arrivals, holiday safety and unhelpful tourism answers by government ministers are some of the things that helped exasperate Adrian this week. But then he was sent a picture of a bus sign…
There is no reason why the government could not immediately state that they would introduce legislation so that EU261 remained part of our law.
With the Paralympics, cake trails inspired by The Great British Bake-Off, a space-themed kids area at Washington Dulles airport and free-interest installment ways to buy holidays, Adrian is spoilt for choice this week.
It is hoped that the British government would adopt a revised EU261 act but one a bit fairer to both sides otherwise we shall be back to the bad old days of relying on courts or alternative dispute resolution systems to resolve problems.
