Back in 2016, I had quite the saga after my Aer Lingus business class flight was canceled back in September (!) 2015. I thought it would be useful to once again share what happened and the hoops I had to jump through to get full restitution
(SEE ALSO: 3 mistakes I made when my flight was canceled)
(SEE ALSO: 5 things I did right when my flight was canceled)
These were the seats we were enjoying…. until our flight was canceled!
Getting $1300 from Aer Lingus through the EU261 law
My first check was filing an EU261 complaint form from Aer Lingus. EU261 is a European Union law that gives specific compensation for flight delays or cancellations. In my case, with an international flight delayed over 6 hours, we were due 600 Euros each.
It took quite awhile, but Aer Lingus eventually sent me a check for $1306 (1200 Euros) back in February.
While EU261 is typically applied to European airlines, there are some circumstances where you can get compensation for delayed or canceled United Airlines flights.
Getting 25,000 Avios from British Airways
In addition to the legal obligation from EU261, which dealt with the fact that I arrived at my destination nearly 24 hours late, I felt that I merited compensation for the fact that I paid for business class (50,000 Avios for 2 people) but only was flown in economy class (25,000 Avios total). At the time, I was glad to get ANY seat on the plane as I’m sure Aer Lingus was trying to accomodate nearly 300 passengers that had been bumped from their flight.
This saga has gone on a LONG time. What complicated things was the fact that I used British Airways Avios to fly on their partner, Aer Lingus. Even though the two airlines are owned by the same company, their systems don’t talk with each other.
Back in May, I had talked to someone at British Airways and she said that they had gotten what they needed from Aer Lingus and were just waiting on the BA Executive Club department.
I think what frustrated me the most was the fact that I NEVER got any feedback or followup. It seemed like at times people at British Airways were looking into my case or working things, but I literally NEVER got any indication of what was going on. Only the fact that I persistently followed up every few days gave me any kind of insight as to what was going on.
Recently, when I checked my Award Wallet balance, it appears that my 25,000 Avios have been credited
Thanks to Award Wallet, which ranks #1 on my list of the top 10 miles and points tools, I was alerted to this change, but true to form, British Airways did not tell me at all…
Still, I’m glad that (10 months later!) I can finally put this fiasco behind us.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Was it worth all that trouble??
You’re talking to a guy who has been known to walk around the mall looking for coins on the ground so….. yes 🙂
My saga with AA took 4 months for us to receive a satisfactory conclusion.
Result was definitely worth the effort.
My saga with Etihad cost me Brussels Airline cheap Bus. Class seats, took 10% of my points away and wasted about 2-1/2 months that I could not reserve a flight. And, what a difficult company to get answers from too.