I’ve written before about how my recent trip to Europe was marred by the fact that my initial flight to Dublin was canceled
We were just relaxing and enjoying our first ever business class trip when…. CANCELED!
(SEE ALSO: 5 things I did right when my flight was canceled)
(SEE ALSO: 3 mistakes I made when my flight was canceled)
While going through the rebooking process, I decided that I wanted to concentrate on GETTING to Europe, and then how to get EU261 / 2004 compensation for my canceled (and ultimately downgraded) flight. I didn’t want to do something to my ticket (like refund or cancel it) and find out that all of a sudden I didn’t have ANY ticket to get to Europe
I wrote before about my original attempts to get EU261 / 2004 compensation – see Submitting an EU261 compensation claim for a delayed or cancelled flight
Fighting for EU261 / 2004 compensation on two fronts – British Airways
I’m in a bit of an interesting situation, because I used British Airways Avios to book a flight on Aer Lingus, so neither airline seems to want to really take care of things (even though interestingly they’re both owned by the same parent company)
Originally, the British Airways phone representative had offered to refund my 50,000 Avios that I had paid in lieu of rebooking me. I declined that at the time (which in hindsight was wise since I think that would have canceled my ticket and left me without ANY way to Europe), but after I was back in the states, I called to try and get my Avios refunded.
Even if they wouldn’t refund my entire 50,000 Avios as they originally offered, I thought that I had a clear case to get at least 25,000 Avios back, since I was eventually downgraded and only flew Economy.
Unfortunately, after being bounced around to 3 different departments, the phone agent told me that because my ticket was showing as “flown” they could not automatically refund me, and I would have to submit any EU261 / 2004 compensation claims online through their customer service form.
I’m still waiting on a reply to that after having followed up a few times.
EU261 / 2004 compensation: Aer Lingus version
I originally tried to Tweet out to @AerLingus to find the correct way to submit a claim for EU261 / 2004 compensation
(SEE ALSO: List of Airline and Hotel Twitter contacts)
After a delay, they suggested I fill out an online comment form, which I did, receiving a case number. After receiving no response for quite some time, I called in and they opened up an ADDITIONAL case, which actually has started to get some traction. Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten 2 email responses from Aer Lingus about my EU261 / 2004 compensation claim
Please accept my sincere apology for Aer Lingus not having met your expectations during your travel with us on September 15, 2015. I am very sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment caused as a result of the cancellation of flight 138.
Aer Lingus is very conscious of the importance of providing customers a reliable service. Regrettably, there remains isolated occasions where service is affected due to an aircraft requiring unscheduled maintenance. Please be assured safety is our first priority.Airlines under European Union regulation may be required to provide compensation for flight cancellation. Exceptions to the rule are in cases where a cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances including technical aircraft problems, which was the basis for the disruption on this occasion. It is our policy to reimburse customers for reasonable receipted out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the disruption to our maximum liability. Claims of a consequential nature such as lost wages, etc. are not covered. Please submit receipts for out-of-pocket expenses incurred for our review.
As previously advised by our Reservations Department, you would need to appeal to British Airways for consideration of reinstating your frequent flier points into your British Airways account. If British Airways requires a statement from Aer Lingus advising that you were downgraded, please have them include the Reference Case: XXXXXX number in their correspondence.
(emphasis mine). You can see them trying to wriggle out of paying out a compensation claim, which, from what I’ve read, is a pretty common occurrence. You can also see them suggesting I contact British Airways to get my Avios back (which of course I’ve already done).
The second email from Aer Lingus was more interesting
Regrettably, Aer Lingus does not process EU Claims, I would like to direct you to contact the Commission for Aviation Regulation, which has been designated as the enforcement body in Ireland for Regulation EC 261/2004 at Alexandra House, Earlsfort Terrace Dublin 2.
Processing an EU261 / 2004 compensation claim with the Commission for Aviation Regulation
Now, it would be super inconvenient for me to try and communicate via mail with a company in Ireland, but thankfully this is 2015, so the Commission for Aviation Regulation has a website for EU261 / 2004 compensation claims.
Clicking on Air Passenger Rights Complaint Form allows you to go through the process of submitting an EU261/2004 compensation claim.
The form for requesting EU261 / 2004 compensation appears quite ancient, but runs you through the basics of your incident.
I filled out the form for EU261 / 2004 compensation and we shall see how this goes!
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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 
AL is bull-shitting you. Anything that is under control of the aircraft career, and especially technical problems, are covered by the EU regulation.
This summer, in-laws were traveling from MUC-ATL. DL cancelled the flight to due technical problems w/ the aircraft. Took about ten weeks but eventually, Delta shelled out EUR1,200 (EUR 600 pp) in compensation. Plus free ground-transport, hotel, meals until in-laws could depart the next day.
Also, there are law firms who take these cases on a commission base (25% of recovered monies.)
Yeah I know they are – they’re just trying to get me to go away, which I won’t. And I do know about those places that will take this on for commission – they keep emailing / tweeting me every time I post about this :-). My plan has been to try it on my own and if I still can’t get anywhere – then I’ll hire one of them
I flew on KLM (with what I thought was a KLM ticket) from SFO to AMS and then on to Rome (FCO) via Alitalia. Upon check-in at SFO, we were given boarding passes indicating a delay of 3 hours. And the continuing boarding passes were issued on KLM with a delay of about 8 hours from our original arrival time (only had a 2 hour layover originally). No explanation beyond that the incoming flight was delayed.
We were given food vouchers at SFO after waiting in a 2nd line (only one of the computers could print the food vouchers). I had to ask for an international phone card as we had arranged with the hotel for a 3rd party to pick us up, and needed to update them on the new flight info into FCO. Took quite a while for them to find one of these.
In AMS, we didn’t get any food vouchers (didn’t ask), so purchased food, plus a converter since we left those in the checked luggage.
After returning home, saw threads like this and did some poking around the KLM website, and found the form to submit (really only asked for reimbursement for food and the converter in AMS, plus something for losing the afternoon in Rome).
About 6 weeks after submitting the form, got email saying they accepted the food reimbursement, denied the converter reimbursement (can’t blame them for that), plus they would reimburse 600 EU additional each converted to dollars for the delayed flight. And to be patient for the checks.
The checks arrived within the week, and we were VERY happy and thrilled that the process was so smooth. Was a little strange to us that the checks were from Delta…..our return flight was Delta, but all the flight numbers were KLM and the ticket was issued by KLM originally.
Really thankful for posts like the original one that I tripped across to find out about this EU law, and how to go about trying to get the reimbursement. It worked really well for us!
Awesome! I’m sure that I will get my compensation – it just takes awhile…
Something similar happened again, but this time I was denied upon my first go around. Was scheduled on KLM, but got email 2 days before saying flight cancelled. Agents couldn’t figure anything out, and just said it was a mistake. Upon online check in night before, found out I was bumped from flight (due to equipment change) onto a Delta flight with an extra stopover. Was scheduled to get to final destination about 1.5 hours late…..but at the new stopover, was delayed 2.5 hours due to navigation computer issue, and ultimately got to final destination 8.5 hours after initial schedule (and 7 hours after revised schedule). But because I was notified ahead of time about the bump, they say I do not qualify for EU 261. I replied, and still trying to get it….we’ll see how it goes.
This is not true… EU 261 states that: “…they are informed of the cancellation less than seven days before the scheduled time of departure and are offered re-routing, allowing them to depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than two hours after the scheduled time of arrival….” (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:en:HTML). Since you got the notice only 2 days in advance and got to your final destination more than 2 hours later, you should get the FULL compensation. The only possible exception is force majeure, but that’s unlikely the case given that the equipment change was done 2 days prior to the flight, and that argument wasn’t even claimed by the airline. Go ahead and claim your money.
Never got anywhere complaining with Delta on this, even though I quoted the rules directly (since Delta handles KLM stuff in the US). And I talked/emailed with a number of folks, just getting the run around. Finally turned to Airhelp to go after KLM itself in Europe, and after a number of months did get the money (less the Airhelp fee). Yes, I could have filed all this myself, but it would have taken more time and expenses, and if I messed something up, may not have seen the money. So while the fee is considerable, I am happy that I did get the majority of the cash in the end.
If a year ago it was even debatable if a technical delay is a force majeure or not, it’s not anymore… Why not counter AL with:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11874056/More-passengers-to-get-flight-delay-compensation-after-legal-win.html
This all happened in 2015… Now we’re in 2017… what’s happened since?
Here’s the final chapter to the story