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?

This is real simple. The list you have given is -

Jane & John
Dave & Sarah (Chloe and olivia- free children)
Peter & Paul
Helen & Craig
Emma & Jack - one is birthday person

So, assuming these are all couples and you have paired them up like this for a reason, split it between all 5 couples - done!

The birthday guest didn't pay but their partner did? so they get their share. The parents who got free child places paid for themselves, they get their share. Everyone gets an equal share.

It seems obvious? Do you actually understand what the compensation is?

It the lead booker didn’t want those who didn’t pay to get it then the lead booker shouldn’t have claimed it. They should only have claimed for those who paid. As it stands, they claimed the compensation named for the others… they cannot keep it and they cannot give it out to anyone else. It must go to each person, including the children and those who didn’t pay for the ticket.

It's not a matter for the OP's discretion, it doesn't belong to her. Everyone is entitled to their equal share. Some might agree to forego theirs but personally I'd feel grabby asking, even if I had paid for the holiday - it's a bit like buying someone a scratch card and asking for the winnings.

What many people are not understanding is that any of the passengers could have claimed the compensation themselves, directly from the airline (including the children, represented by their parents for practical reasons). The airline would not have said “sorry, a claim can only be advanced by the person who paid”. The only qualification was being a passenger on the flight.

Pay it equally to the adults only.

No the children claimed and were awarded £520 each for their delayed flight. IN THEIR OWN RIGHT IN THEIR OWN NAME AS DELAYED PASSENGERS!!!

That is how it was legally allocated! The children get their £520 compensation. What don’t you get about being a lawful abiding person?

Compensation is for the inconvenience. Personally I think children (regardless of whether they paid or not) should be just as entitled to it as other passengers, because being stuck in airports for long periods is very hard for them. And their parents who have to deal with them!

I'm not usually in the "but parents should get special treatment" camp but being delayed while travelling with children, especially young ones, is a tedious and exhausting experience.

That’s why I don’t buy anyone scratch cards 😂 A brilliant analogy.

I can’t imagine saying to the birthday person you didn’t pay so get no comp.

id not give to kids, but I would split equally between all adults who were inconvenienced. As a pp said, it’s comp not a refund.

Just to be difficult I think it should be split between all passengers (because all experienced inconvenience, including those that didn't pay) but slightly less for the children (not sure how you would work this out). Just because the children probs won't get the money and I don't see why their associated adults should get an extra £1040. So maybe divide the payment by 11 instead of 12 and the children get a half share each? I think birthday person should get same as all other adults.

It’s compensation for inconvenience. Everyone was inconvenienced so everyone gets compensated. It’s irrelevant who paid in the first place.

It’s financial, so it goes back to those who paid out in the proportions they paid. I can see the argument that all passengers were delayed and therefore were inconvenienced, but giving two children £520 each as a reward for bad luck seems to teach a bad lesson to me.

Why should the kids not get it? Even if it's not given to them to eg buy toys, it's money which their adults can spend on them in some way.

Interesting. If you give a parent of a young child money for the child’s birthday, do you assume that the child probably won’t get the money?

OP you say only the lead booker knows the compensation has been received - do the others know a claim was made? Because if not, how do you know some of them won't make their own claim?

I don't think you have a choice here - the conditions under which you made the claim as lead booker are that it is paid per person including to the children and in making the claim for everyone you undertook to distribute it that way. You do not have the right to redistribute it the way you think is fair.

Why? The adults are getting it for bad luck. Are you saying they shouldn’t have claimed? As much as I agree the kids shouldn’t get it, it is for a very different reason.

Or, alternatively, a lesson about how the statutory compensation regime works?

What don’t you all get???

You can’t claim compensation in name and then not pay it to those named!!!!! It is illegal. Morally wrong.

Children are NAMED on the claim!!

And what would you do when the parents applied to the airline themselves for their children’s legally entitled compensation? Since you’re saying the kids shouldn’t get it. It isn’t yours to choose; it doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to each passenger.

You would actually steal money from children? I have to admit that I find that worse than stealing from the other adults. Children can’t advocate for themselves and they don’t know what’s being done to them. That doesn’t make it OK to steal from them. I wonder what else you would approve being done to children if they didn’t fully understand what it was.

Children have the same rights as everyone else. They have been named as recipients of compensation, like everyone else. You’d steal it?

Well in that case that is what they should have done. Would have made it a lot simpler.

If the kids are quite young (which I'm assuming they are for free child places), then of course they won't be getting £520 in their pockets! Their parents will spend or save the money on their behalf.

I can see that this is ridiculous to those of us with a shred of morality.

Pay the compensation to those named and allocated the funds in name on the claim.

Why question it at all?

Why is the lesson "reward for bad luck" ok for the adults, but not the kids?

When we've had compensation, it's been for everyone inconvenienced by the delay, regardless of who paid for what, everyone gets the compensation, its nothing to do with who paid for what, the compensation is for the inconvenience.
Although I can completely see why you'd jot want to give anything to people who hadn't paid😂

The adults aren’t getting it for bad luck. The adults are getting it because the airline’s bad management inconvenienced them.

In true cases of “bad luck” such as a volcano erupting, severe weather, air traffic control failures etc the airline does not have to pay compensation because it can rely on the defence of “extraordinary circumstances”. There is decades of complex case law on this.