Making Cents: Flight delays: Know your rights!

A FRIEND of mine was travelling to America recently and his flight was delayed by two hours and he thought he was entitled to some form of compensation but he wasn’t because the delay needed to be greater than four hours because of the length of his journey.

Given the time of the year where hundreds of thousands of people are flying abroad for their summer holidays and also what’s gone on with Aer Lingus, I wanted to put some information in front of you regarding what your rights are and what you are entitled to in the event your flight is delayed or cancelled.

And for 100% accuracy, so that no one is left in any doubt, I’m going to use some text which I’ve taken directly from websites from the likes of the Irish Aviation Authority, Citizens Information, and the European Consumer Centre Ireland.

Delayed Flights
If your flight is delayed beyond certain time frames, your air carrier should provide you with written information about your entitlements and also with care and assistance. The time frames are as follows:

• for all flights less than 1500kms (short haul eg, Shannon to Brussels or Cork to Paris), the delay must be greater than two hours.

• for European flights of more than 1500kms and all other flights of between 1500 – 3500kms (medium haul eg, Dublin to Malta or Knock to Madrid), the delay must be greater than three hours.
• for all non-community flights of more than 3500kms (long haul eg, Shannon to New York or Dublin to Cape Town), the delay must be greater than four hours.

If your flight is delayed by more than five hours (regardless of the length of the journey) and you decide not to travel, you are entitled to a full refund.

What is ‘care and assistance’?
Care and assistance consists of:

• meals and refreshments (in reasonable relation to the waiting time)

• hotel accommodation (where an overnight stay becomes necessary)

• transport between the airport and the hotel (where necessary) and

• two telephone calls/ faxes/ emails.

If the airline does not provide the above assistance to you and you are forced to make your own arrangements, you should retain all your receipts as you will be entitled to reimbursement of your expenses.

But you should make yourself known to the airline, to avoid a situation where you must make your own arrangements. And airlines should also ensure, where available, that accommodation is accessible for people with disabilities and their service dogs.

And you only have the right to assistance as long as you have to wait for re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or a return flight.
In exceptional cases, the airline may decide to limit or decline assistance if it would cause further delay to passengers waiting for an alternative or a delayed flight.

Compensation
Following a 2009 European Court ruling, you are now entitled to compensation if you arrive at your destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time unless the air carrier can prove that the delay was the result of extraordinary circumstances.

And examples of events defined as extraordinary circumstances are air traffic management decisions, political instability, adverse weather conditions and security risks.

Situations which are not considered as extraordinary circumstances include:

• most technical problems which come to light during aircraft maintenance or are caused by failure to maintain an aircraft.

• collision of mobile boarding stairs with an aircraft.

• strikes by air carrier staff (internal strike action).

Any strike external to an air carrier that affects the operation of the airline may be considered as extraordinary circumstances. However, to be exempted from paying compensation, the airline must prove that (a) there is a link between the extraordinary circumstances and the delay or the cancellation, and (b) the delay or cancellation could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

If a dispute arises between you and your air carrier regarding the existence of extraordinary circumstances and the payment of compensation, the matter should be referred to the appropriate enforcement body.

If you miss a connecting flight travelling within the EU or outside the EU on a flight originating from an EU country, you should be entitled to compensation, if you arrive at your final destination with a delay of more than three hours. It is not relevant if the carrier operating the connecting flights is an EU or non-EU airline.

If you depart from a non-EU country to your final destination in an EU country, with connecting flights operated successively by non-EU and EU airlines or by EU airlines only, only the flights operated by EU airlines are taken into consideration for the right to compensation in case of a long delay on arrival at the final destination.

You are not entitled to compensation if you miss connecting flights due to delays at security checks or if you did not respect the boarding time of your flight at the airport of transfer.

If you accept a flight to a different airport from the one in the original booking and it arrives late, you're entitled to compensation. The time of arrival used for calculating the delay is the time of arrival at the airport mentioned in the original booking or the destination agreed upon with the airline. Transport costs between the alternative airport and the one in the original booking or agreed destination should be borne by the airline.

The amount of compensation payable depends on the distance of the flight. If the flight is classed as:
• short haul, the amount payable is €250 per person.

• medium haul, the amount payable is €400 per person.

• long haul, the amount payable is €600 per person.

The amount of compensation payable in respect of non-community flights of more than 3500kms (long haul) may be reduced by 50% if you arrive at your destination less than four hours after the scheduled arrival time.

Compensation when re-routed
When the choice is re-routing and you are entitled to compensation, the amount of compensation you are entitled to depends on the length of delay past your original planned arrival time.

Cancelled flights
Where your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to a choice of:

• Refund the cost of your ticket within seven days or

• Re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or

• Re-routing at a later date at your convenience, subject to the availability of seats
You are not entitled to compensation if:

• You have received at least two weeks’ notice of the cancellation; or

• You have received between two weeks and seven days’ notice, but you have been offered an alternative flight departing no more than two hours before your original departure time and arriving at your final destination less than four hours after your original scheduled time of arrival: or

• You have received less than seven days’ notice, but you have been offered an alternative flight departing no more than one hour before your original departure time and arriving at your final destination less than two hours after your original scheduled time of arrival.

If the airline can prove that the cancellation was caused by an extraordinary circumstance which could not have been avoided, even if all reasonable measures had been taken, no compensation is payable.

How to make a complaint
Complain to the airline first: If you have a complaint about a cancellation, long flight delay or an instance of denied boarding, complain to the airline first.

Complain to the appropriate national enforcement body: If your airline does not resolve your complaint, you should send it to the appropriate national enforcement body.

Each member state is responsible for departures from airports within its territory and arrivals into such airports from third countries on EU/EEA-licensed carriers.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) is the national enforcement body in Ireland. It deals with complaints arising from flights departing from Irish airports or those arriving at an Irish airport from outside the EU/EEA on an EUEEA-licensed carrier. You can make a complaint online.

If you have a complaint about a flight returning to Ireland from the EU/EEA, you contact the national enforcement body in the EU/EEA state your flight departed from.

Liam Croke is MD of Harmonics Financial Ltd, based in Plassey. He can be contacted at liam@harmonics.ie or www.harmonics.ie