Flight was overbooked, offered money to take next flight

[Highligh]

During the snow the other day I was due to fly home from somewhere in the EU to the UK. The flight was overbooked because they didn't have enough staff for a full flight. The airport manager asked for volunteers to come off the flight and get one the next day. We were told we would be paid €250 for this.

I agreed as I had no rush to be back. I was told to fill in the form online with the airline. Now the airline is refusing to pay me the money they promised and said the disruption was out of their control.

What should I do?

Sorry I posted this in the wrong place originally, could a moderator delete the first one?

Sounds shit. Sorry what a nightmare

I don't have any advice but would love to which airline this is

I'd name and shame them on Twitter

I would be absolutely livid over that! I’d be straight on every social media naming and shaming. This might even be of interest to your local news site. And there must be somewhere you can officially complain about things like this? Like a trading standards sort of thing? I’d even consider a small claims court just out of annoyance

See the Which link below, you may not be entitled to the CAA compensation stated depending on the circumstances, and that is likely to be the basis for the refusal.

Make sure that you record who offered the compensation and refer back to the airline, raise an ADR as per the link etc and ultimately via the small claims court (take advice on this)

You may also search out the airlines details and write / email to the chief executive etc, then of course there’s social media, sad face in the Daily Mail etc

Who offered the payment and also how they worded it is going to be key

www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/i-had-a-flight-cancellation-can-i-claim-compensation-alAuW6y0rZX2

(PS I note that you have the airport manager and the airline - these two different parties will be key, and your claim may therefore be against the airport managing company for their ‘error’)

We did this with BA quite a few years ago now. They gave us £1000 in cash! If was our outbound too. Never clung on to a bag so tightly!

It's a really horrible situation. It would be best if you didn't leave it at that because you are right in this situation. If I were you, I would first write a comment on Twitter to the airline because it will affect their reputation. After reading my review, many people will draw conclusions and not run into this problem. Also, I would go to a good lawyer and sue the manager of this company to get my money. To avoid such situations, I try to travel only in business class because it is convenient and does not provide problems. I hope you will succeed and be paid compensation for moral damages.

There might be two different things going on here.

One is payment where you are delayed or are not on the flight and you claim compensation for that. There are quite limited circumstances which the airline can claim that it was out of your control. I once waited 7 hours in an airport while they waited for a broken part to be delivered. By then it was too late to fly so we were all put up in a hotel and compensated for the waiting.

The other is being compensated for being bumped on a flight due to overbooking which is different and might explain why the airline is resisting compensating you under path (a) because their liability is actually under path (b) and they are hoping you won't twig to the difference.

Oh flip! Out of their control, I meant.