Who gets to keep the compensation?

[Memba]

This may well be hypothetical as airline hasn't agreed to anything yet but in the event that they do, who gets the money?

Situation as follows... DH and I took DC1 (18) and DC2 (15) overseas for a week for half term. Each DC brought a friend (same ages).

Both friends parents paid for their flights at approx £250 each. We paid for accommodation, car hire and activities/food/drink. They were effectively our guests.

Return flight was delayed by over 24hrs at fault of airline. I have checked and we are entitled to 600euros compensation per passenger. I have submitted claim on behalf all passengers.

In the event that the airline pays out, who gets the compensation?

Each passenger gets 600 Euros meaning friends parents make a profit on the holiday? Or we refund value of flight and keep the rest as contribution towards the cost of the trip.

FWIW DH and I are both financially disadvantaged by delay (self-employed) so actually lost income. The teenagers had no loss of earnings but got a free bonus night in a star hotel!

So, my AIBU is, in the event that airline cough up, do keep the majority of the compensation?

YANBU - refund flights to parent of each teen and keep the rest
YABU - give each set of parents the full €600

Or some other split?

I’d say it’s for each passenger, not for you to keep.

I would refund the parents £250, and then give the £350 to each child, as they were the ones that had to endure the delay.

You would have been delayed and lost work regardless of the other children being there or not so you can’t really take the money off of them. You are entitled to £600. As the other passengers, so are they.

If they paid for the flights then it’s their compensation for the 24 hr delay they endured - I don’t think anything else Is relevant

You took them as your guests and agreed to pay for food/activities/drink etc. the compensation is for flights which the parents paid for. The compensation should be paid back to individual passengers imo. You and your DH being self employed and losing income isn’t relevant to the compensation which will be paid to each passenger. That sounds very entitled tbh.

Give the cost of the flight back to the parents, take out what you paid yourselves, and divide the rest up between whoever went on the trip.

You were out of pocket, they weren’t so you keep anything above the 250 they paid.

YABU.

The clue is in your op I have submitted claim on behalf all passengers

You have claimed on their behalf. You can’t then decide to keep some of it yourself!!

I’d offer the cost of the flight to the other parents, and keep the rest. I suspect most people would.

Do they know that you applying for compensation? How much extra did the delay cost you in terms of meals etc and did you or the kids pay for those expenses?

This! People take the 'moral' highground a lot of mumsnet. But in real life the parents will be delighted to get the £250 back and don't mention the rest.

Per passenger. Everyone was equally inconvenienced.

Legally the compensation money is paid per passenger to be given to each passenger for their delay not at the discretion of what you think is acceptable. Even if you had paid for the flights the compensation belongs to each passenger who had to endure the delay not who paid for the flight.

Yes, they know we are applying for refund for flights - we didn't know about entitlement to compensation initially.

The expenses (food/drink) etc are a separate claim - all paid for by us and therefore we will keep this element of the claim.

I would take out the additional night's accommodation and meal cost and then give the rest back to the parents.

Give it back to the people who paid for the flights

You were happy to pay for all of the costs

Sorry, should have said, airline paid for hotel so out of pocket expenses were only around €100

Of course it goes back to the people who paid for the flights. Any losses suffered by you in terms of earnings would have been suffered if they weren't there.
Any claim for stuff you paid for, you keep but nothing else.

Each passenger gets their own compensation as that is how it is meant to work. You would have been out of pocket anyway

Just see your second post - if any expenses you incurred will be reimbursed to you separately anyway, then you need to give the full compensation back to each passenger!

YABVU. You should be giving the money to the people who paid for the flights.

YANBU

Bit crazy for the other parents to profit if it didn’t financially disadvantage their kids.

This is an official compensation claim, each claim is paid per passenger and is theirs irregardless of who paid for the ticket. That’s it, there isn’t a moral argument, who paid what or who is more out of pocket than who. If you have claimed on behalf of others the compensation is theirs not yours to keep. Doing so would probably be fraudulent. I presume you have their permission to claim on their behalf? Did they have to sign something from the airline to give you authority? Do they know you have done so?

Yes, they know I have claimed and consented to that. We originally thought we were just claiming a refund.

Fairly conclusive responses here though - thanks all!

Morally/legally it's theirs to keep. If I were the parents though I'd only accept the flight cost back from you and tell you to keep the rest, personally.

You keep whatever it cost for the extra night accommodation and food etc, and give the rest to the people that paid for the flights.