Who should receive the compensation?

[Olanabunny]

An extended family holiday booked to celebrate somebody's big birthday
Birthday person's cost for the holiday was spread between the rest of the people attending. 2 free child places were also applied
Flight was significantly delayed
Compensation was claimed by the lead of the booking and received today.
How should it be split?
Should the children with a free place be awarded it? Should the birthday person receive a share even though they didn't pay anything towards the holiday or should those who paid for their holiday receive a portion of it back?

The money is compensation for the inconvenience of the delay. If it was a refund I could understand debating how to split it, but it's not. Each person is entitled to to the same amount of compensation, it needs to be split equally.

If anyone is disagreeing and believe they deserve more you can refer them to the compensation rates.

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/delays/

Spread evenly between all adults so each couple gets the same

@JustTalkToThem

UK 261 (the Retained EU law version of EU Regulation 261/2004)

Compensation belongs to the passenger who was delayed.

I think all adults should get compensation. But if I were the birthday person I'd not expect it back and would tell you to split it.

Having previously worked with these kinds of claims - the compensation is for each individual passenger, regardless of who paid what. Even infants who travel for free would be entitled to compensation, or those who have paid for flights with air miles. I'm surprised the airline paid it all out to the lead passenger though?! I would've been fired for doing so without the written permission from the other passengers.

It’s not a refund. It has nothing to do with who paid for the flights.

It is compensation for a delay and the airline have paid out for each person who experience the delay as an apology to them. The person making the claim will have had to tick a box saying they have permission from all other travellers to claim on their behalf. So they just give the same share to every passenger, not just those who paid.

Those who paid. The compensation is by reference to the money paid so there is an artificial distinction being drawn between refunds and compensation.

If I was offered the money and hadn't paid I would insist it went to the people who had paid.

This is correct. I am an aviation lawyer.

The right to make a claim for compensation under UK 261 belongs to each individual passenger. For administrative convenience the compensation has been paid to the lead booker, but they are acting in the capacity of representative of each person in the group.

This becomes clear if you consider what would happen if the airline did not pay and the passengers took the claim to court: the lead passenger could not make a claim for the whole sum, only his or her own £520. Each other passenger would have to claim in their own name.

The compensation amounts were set by the EU to represent a fixed sum which reflects the inconvenience suffered. The idea was that people could claim quickly and easily without having to produce documentary evidence of financial loss. (Originally, Regulation EC261/2004 only provided for fixed compensation for cancellation, not delay, but a European Court of Justice case called Sturgeon extended the right to delay claims in 2009. ) When the UK left the EU the legislation and historic case law were transposed wholesale into UK law and the Euro amounts were converted to GBP.

All passengers suffered the same inconvenience and this is entirely separate from the cost of the flight. As someone correctly said upthread, if your employer has paid for your flight you are still entitled to the compensation because you suffered the inconvenience. Claims can be made by children.

The wording of the airline’s agreement to pay should list the name of each claimant and will probably assume that the lead passenger is acting as agent for all the passengers. It should also request the lead passenger to sign a release confirming that no further claims will be pursued, but airlines can be quite lax with this sort of stuff.

It’s correct that the airline will not care how the lead booker distributes the money, but if there were ever to be litigation between the passengers I can guarantee you that a court would hold that the lead booker would have no right to keep the money or distribute it in any way other than £520 per passenger unless all parties agreed. Obviously this is not going to go to court but that is the legal position. Take from that what you will.

The compensation rate for that length of delay is £520 per person.

The total amount of compensation that has been received is only as high as it is because of the children. There is no way that money should be being split between all the adults.

No. This is wrong.

Compensation has been paid to lead booker at £6,240 - £520 per person

The company have paid £520 to each person regardless of their age or who paid. So each person should get their £520. The company feel the children are equally entitled to compensation. Its unfair for someone else in the party to distribute their share among the others.

Nrtft but the compensation has got nothing to do with who paid what. It is paid for the inconvenience of the delay so should be split between the number of passengers inconvenienced by the delay.

The people who paid only. People who got a free holiday have had that, a free holiday, they don’t need the compensation too. Sure it’s not nice being delayed, but I don’t think they should get it if they didn’t pay, children included.

We were delayed on a family holiday my step dad and mum had paid fully for a two week holiday. The delay was a whole day and night so were given 500 each and a night in a hotel. We all let my parents keep the compensation as it was a mega once in a life time holiday which cost a lot for them. We also didn’t feel inconvenienced as we ended up at a 5 star beach hotel drinking cocktails for an extra day. My parents then used the money to go towards the next family holiday. Now that I’m older I would probably still do the same but take out enough to pay for extra day airport parking dog sitter cost etc

So then why did the airline pay it? Why did the lead booker apply for compensation on their behalf, if those passengers don’t deserve it?

It’s nothing to do with who paid what. It is compensation for the delay and therefore goes to everyone who experienced that delay regardless if she or who paid. Anything else is theft. Also fraud for the lead booker to have confirmed that they had everyone’s approval to apply on their behalf.

It must be split per person.

Lawyer here. Completely agree with this. Obviously the group can agree to divide it however they want but if it can’t be agreed it needs to be paid to each traveller, including the kids and regardless of who bought the tickets.

As pp says, the lead booker would have had to have ticked a box to say they had been authorised by the other passengers to apply on their behalves. This means:

1. the lead booker holds the compensation on trust for all the travellers in the group, and has to give them the money. It’s not legally within their power to do otherwise.
2. if the lead booker doesn’t do so that means any passenger who isn’t given their share has not received the compensation to which they’re entitled. This in turn means a) the other passengers could now apply to the airline for compensation direct and b) the lead booker had arguably committed fraud by applying on behalf of everyone but not giving everyone the compensation.

In practice the airline would just reject any further claim and leave it to everyone to fight it out with the lead booker, and neither they nor the police would be very interested in any allegations of fraud. But I still think the above is the correct legal analysis.

Each person should get their compensation.

www.bottonline.co.uk/blog/judge-rules-in-favour-of-infant

Definitely not the free children.
I think I would be inclined to include the birthday person because depending which flight was delayed they either had the start of their birthday celebrations spoilt or were later getting home which could have resulted in work or other commitments being missed.
So the compensation would cover that, it tricky though...your group needs to vote on it perhaps.

Split between all couples. It's compensation for being inconvenienced. So whether those people paid or not, they were inconvenienced.

If it was just several hours waiting around an airport, I would be inclined to just share it pro rata with those that paid in.

Assuming that no one incurred expenses due to the delay.

Maybe morally you should pay the others a small token for the inconvenience, but that would open a tin of worms and be a real tricky one.

Not sure on the legal situation.

The legal situation has been explained by at least 3 experts earlier in the thread.

As were the children. They legally get their share too; you can’t steal from them to give all the adults more. Their legal guardians choose what to do with their share.

I think the parents of the children and the free person should insist that everyone else splits the money equally between them, seeing as they are the ones that paid out in the first place, and the other three haven't paid a penny.

If you wanted to keep it fair, everyone should be compensated for any losses they incurred first (meals, hotel etc) and THEN split it 9 (or 12) ways.

But technically if the compensation has been paid out on a per person basis (and it has been paid out for 12 people) then it would seem grabby for the 9 to not allocate it in that fashion, the only way for it be fair is for the parents and extra person to not accept their share.

Either way for the difference in cost, it doesn't seem worth arguing about.. I'd be annoyed at the parents though!

If they were my kids I wouldn't be bothered that they weren't compensated. Between couples would be enough for me.