Airlines paying out compensation

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

19 years 7 months

Posts: 862

Airlines will now have to pay out compensation to passengers for cancellations, delays, overbooked aircraft etc etc. I think it will be set out in various tiers like travelling under xx miles with two hour delay £200 compensation, travelling over xx miles with 4 hour delay £419 compensation.

What do you all think about this?? It could stop alot of people flying if the LoCo's start to push the price up in order to meet the payments.

Do you think it would be possible for passengers to subscribe to it i.e, if you want the option of compensation pay a higher ticket price, if you're not worried about compensation buy the cheaper ticket.

Alot of the times ATC / Dispatch / Weather may cause delays and of course this is out of the airlines control, it did not make it clear if passengers will still receive compensation if these factors delay the aircraft.

The airlines are pointing out that if it applies to airtravel it should also apply to coaches, trains etc etc.

DME

Original post

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 284

Yeah I agree that it is unfair that airlines might have to do this while surface transport companies don't. Especially considering the fact that some airlines are still in poor financial health, and that the cost sensitive low-cost airlines are probably what is keeping the european air transport infrastructure going.

Member for

19 years 10 months

Posts: 110

The part about surface transport isn't totally true. Rail ticket holders can get refunds and compensation for delayed services.

The detail of the compensation needs looking at, but most lengthy delays and cancellations are due to aircraft problems and not external factors such as ATC (how problems due to weather fits in to this I have no idea!), so airlines are directly responsible.

Low cost airlines are bleating about having to pay compensation of £400 per passenger but fail to say this only applies to flights over 2,215 miles - how many low cost carriers provide services of this distance?

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 325

This new law was introduced in part because of the policies of certain airlines who provided NO passenger welfare if the flight was delayed or cancelled - a large Irish airline operating 732's and 738's being one of them, and the legacy European Carriers overbooking some flights and then bumping people.

The said large Irish airline have mentioned that it could put upto £10 onto the cost of their tickets to create a slush fund to compensate their pax.

Member for

20 years 2 months

Posts: 2,495

That large Irish airline you are referring to offers the lowest fares of any airline anywhere in the world now what do you expect for the few quid that you pay.
We all know how good that airline with the big orange tail are at putting people up in hotles not to mention every other LCC in the world.
LCC just dont put people up in hotels and a situation rarely arises where Ryanair should put people in hotels and after all they cancel less flights than most airlines and are a hell of a lot more punctual that snozzyjet.
Low fares,efficent,punctual-and you want a hotel room.

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 325

The LCC will probably be less affected than the full service airlines because the Compensation only applies to Denied Boarding Situations, usually caused by overbooking or aircraft downgrades on the route.
The big difference for some LCC will be having to issue meal vouchers to passengers of their flight is delayed for a certain length of time.

Having read what is on the Flybe website regarding this, the Delays policy is now pretty much standard to what the Charter airlines have been operating for years.

The BIG problem is the way the media are protraying this. Having listened to some radio reports on it today you would think that all passengers were entitled to the money as soon as their flight was delayed.

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 325

DK999K - did BA provide meal vouchers and hotel accomodation for you?
did they re-book you onto the next available flight?
did they provide onward transportation to your final destination?

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 123

DK999K - did BA provide meal vouchers and hotel accomodation for you?
did they re-book you onto the next available flight?
did they provide onward transportation to your final destination?

Yes... this sounds like its gonna conclude with me not getting any compensation.

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 325

That's what I am not sure about - for the outbound leg, it looks like they took all possible steps to get you to your destination.
For the return leg - I really don't know.

I would say that you should word your letter that you were most unhappy at having paid to go BA and ended up on a leased in aircraft that was not up to the high standards you were expecting. I wouldn't expect to get something off them, but they might offer you some travel vouchers.

Member for

20 years 2 months

Posts: 2,495

Someitimes the so called legacy carriers are worse than the LCCs.

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 325

Someitimes the so called legacy carriers are worse than the LCCs.

True - it will probably hit them harder than the LCC. Say an A321 was due to operate a flight, but instead it was an A319 and you were then left with nealry 70 passengers all entitled to compensation. Whereas most LCC only operate 1 or 2 aircraft types and very rarely inter change them on specific routes.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 11,159

Yeah I agree that it is unfair that airlines might have to do this while surface transport companies don't. Especially considering the fact that some airlines are still in poor financial health, and that the cost sensitive low-cost airlines are probably what is keeping the european air transport infrastructure going.

Virgin Trains gave me a refund a couple of times even though it was the fault of Railtrack that we were delayed. Didn't even have to ask for it, the conductor went around the train handing out claim forms to all the passengers.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 284

Ok ok, don't quote me on that, I was only commenting on the statement from the airlines in the report assuming that was correct, so that was the original source! Quote that not me! :p ;)

The airlines are pointing out that if it applies to airtravel it should also apply to coaches, trains etc etc.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 405

Some airlines already offered decent compensation. There was once a 4-seat overbooking on a BA flight to Rome we were on. They offered either £125 in cash per person or £200 in flight vouchers. This was the last flight of the day and we were due to arrive in Rome at 23:00 (and go straight to sleep at the hotel) and we thought "what do we have to lose anyway", so we volunteered to be 2 of the people being left out. We were given dinner and breakfast vouchers, transferred back and from one of the LHR hotels, and arrived in Rome the following morning £250 richer.

Incidentally, nobody else volunteered and they had to pick up another couple to take out. They kicked out a monumental fuss but for what we overheard they got substantially more than the £125 offered at the end.

Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 10,160

Bear in mind that this only applies to delays that are the fault of the airline itself.

ATC delays, delays caused by weather, etc., don't fall within the scope of this scheme.