Compensation delayed flight and holiday

[purplepentagram]

Does anyone know if or what I’d be entitled to regarding this. This was the first time any of us had flown or even been on a holiday abroad.

4 adults flying from Manchester UK to Boston USA - via Dublin.
flights with aerlingus.

upon check in at Manchester we were notified that the flight to Dublin had been cancelled. Thus causing us to miss our connecting flight from Dublin.
still have No idea why it was cancelled for the staff were so unhelpful it was rather upsetting.
special assistance had been booked due to all 4 adults being a mix of autism/ adhd/ learning disabilities.
after many hours of being left in limbo in the airport with no communication from anyone. We eventually got informed that our flight was now delayed by 2 days.

which now ment that we had to some how get all the way back home.
we was never advised regarding any assistance in this matter, no help or anything.

we missed out on 2 full days of our hotel booking and holiday because of this aswell. The anxiety and stress this all caused almost put us of going back for the flights.
iv filled in numerous forms and sent emails of complaints to so far nothing back.
should I not at least be compensated for the additional costs and loss of hotel nights. I’m so confused on what it says on some of pages when I google all of this.
Iv no idea on if I should be due something back - if so how much - I’m frightened that I’m going to do something wrong and accept a lower amount than I should be entitled to.
thank you.

Partly depends on the reason for cancellation and why there were no alternative flights to avoid delay, In some circumstances they should pay for additional costs and compensation(up to £520 each), but not if it was beyond their control. www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/holiday-cancellations-and-compensation/if-your-flights-delayed-or-cancelled/ If airline is not accepting responsibility try your travel insurance.

Thank you
so does this mean we should be entitled to
520 compensation each plus extra costs accrued and flights
or just the 520 each

If they did eventually fly you to your holiday , just the compensation and possibly extras like taxis home. But that assumes it was caused by them and you were not offered alternative flights sooner (even on another airline) The rest such as missed hotel nights is on your insurance.

That was the only available next flight for all 4 of us. There was nothing available not even with another airline or airport. The problem was at Dublin Airport.

If it was an airport wide problem, the airline might not be liable. Do you know exactly what the issue was?

The £520 is all the compensation your airline would owe, if it is their fault and they are considered liable. Your travel insurance would cover other costs, potentially with some limits depending on what cover you’ve got.

In order to receive EU compensation for a delayed or cancelled flight the airline must be at fault. So eg broken aircraft, you would get the EU compensation because it is the airline’s responsibility to maintain their aircraft so they can provide the service they have sold. Flights cancelled because of a fire alarm in the airport, you don’t get the compensation as this is a situation beyond the airline’s control and your travel insurance would provide you with a refund for any out of pocket expenses for this.

In order to give you better advice, it is necessary to know what exactly was the cause of the cancellation.

€600 each under EU261 regs providing the airline was at fault (eg it wasn't down to ATC strikes etc).
The airline should be covering your expenses regardless of if it was their fault such as accommodation, meals and transfers.

Airlines won't usually cover consequential losses - hotels etc will need to be claimed on your travel insurance.

Depending on the reason for the cancellation, you may be entitled to the standard €600 compensation directly from the airline

The airline were cunts!

Next time, look for flights to your destination and tell them to re-route you. If there is availability they have to under ec261. Learn this for next time. Screen shot availability. They shouldn't have put you on flights two days later if other airlines had availability... But they know that many customers don't know this.

The airline are on the hook for any and all expenses incurred, but that doesn't include your missed days annoyingly. So a hotel room whilst you were waiting for 2 days and all meals - yes, they should pay out.

What was the reason for the delay? If it was technical then compensation is payable at the amounts mentioned in earlier posts.

Two choices now, arbitration (after 6 weeks following a complaint) or MCOL (money claim online) aka small claims court to get your expenses back.

They legally have to cover expenses such as hotels when it comes down to flight delays.

Sorry, I meant the loss of the 2 hotel nights on the holiday.

Ahh sorry, I automatically presumed you meant this side.

As others have said, the reason for the delay is key. Airline's fault, ie a maintenance issue or staff shortages, which they should plan for by having spare staff and planes on standby, you are due compensation under EU261.

Otherwise, eg weather or a security alert at the airport, no compensation is due but your travel insurance might cover some or all of the costs.

For a full guide to your rights and how to claim any compensation due, have a look at:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delay-compensation/

which they should plan for by having spare staff and planes on standby, you are due compensation under EU261.

I have no advice for the OP but I’m just going to chuck a note of realism here…it’s often said on thread like this airlines could avoid at least some delays by having spare aircraft and crews, and I suspect that’s what the blue sky thinkers at the EU has in mind when they drew up 261.

The reality is with short haul aircraft usually costing >$50,000,000 a pop and long haul typically well above $100,000,000, plus the need for multiple crews per aircraft airlines are not going to plan on having many if any spare aircraft/staff scattered around, just in case.

You might get lucky at a main base (so Dublin for Aer Lingus) if there’s a spare airframe lying around just out of maintenance but other than that forget it, the best you might do is “comp”.

Gosh, you’ve gone in aggressive there! The airline I work for (a really Big Airline) are currently flying at about 98% capacity and while we fly to some destinations 10+ times a day, there are others we only fly to twice a week. If one of those flights is cancelled it can take days for the airline to get passengers to their destination, even using alternative routes and other airlines.

I got stuck in Germany once when the UK’s air traffic control system keeled over. Passengers were being told there were no seats available to purchase at any price on any airline out of that airport for 5 days. These situations are rare but do happen - airlines can’t just rustle up seats on a plane when there are none.

We flew from Edinburgh to LA earlier this year and our flight from Edinburgh to Schiphol was delayed so we missed our connection and ending up being rerouted via Seattle. We were 10 hours late in getting to LA so we thought we would be entitled to compensation (our flight from Schiphol was also delayed and we only made our connection in Seattle because a pilot hadn't turned up to fly the plane up from LA so that flight was also delayed). DH put in a claim but it was rejected because the original delay was because Edinburgh Airport had closed its runway for emergency repairs so the delay was outwith the control of the airline.
We hadn't incurred financial loss so we couldn't claim on our insurance. We had booked with Virgin but the original flights were with KLM. KLM flew us to Schiphol and we then flew Delta from there. In Seattle Delta gave us meal vouchers and at the gate had a trolley with food and drinks.

The people saying "If it wasn't the airline's fault you are not entitled to any compensation" are wrong.

Under EU261, you are entitled to meals, accommodation, phone calls, re-routing, etc etc, whatever the cause of the problem, whether that's the plane not working or a storm. You can claim retrospectively for reasonable incurred costs ("reasonable" means checking into the Holiday Inn Express, not the Four Seasons).

The only thing that for majeure (the storm, air traffic control strike, etc) gets the airline out of is paying cash compensation. This is calculated based on your final destination on the booking, which in this case (assuming you made just one booking for the two flights) is Boston, so you would get the maximum based on the distance, which is €600 per person.

EU261 applies if:

• The flight is into an EU airport on an EU airline, or
• The flight is from an EU airport.

That covers you since Aer Lingus is, I think, an EU airline (unless they run their flights from the UK with a UK-registered operating company called "Aer Lingus UK" --- Ryanair and EasyJet have both UK and EU subsidiaries).

Additionally, EU261 was copied into UK law (it's sometimes called "UK261") after Brexit. This covers you for any flight out of the UK on a UK-operated airline, so "Aer Lingus UK" would not be able to wiggle out of it. There was talk of the previous UK government abolishing this as the airlines hate it, but I don't know if the present government has any such plans.

@samarrange

Good point.

There effectively two buckets…one labeled “duty of care and support” which pretty much universally applies and was around before 261, and then there’s the “comp”, which is additional.

“There was talk of the previous UK government abolishing this as the airlines hate it, but I don't know if the present government has any such plans.”

Some airline CEOs have expressed displeasure due to the amount of comp that can become payable for, say, a 3 hour 5 minute delay, verses the actual loss suffered by the passenger…and, incidentally, many also object to the way compensation is portrayed by some in the comp industry as being the only thing that keeps the airlines on the straight and narrow, maintaining their aircraft, etc, which one look at the economics will show is pretty much utter nonsense, but it’s a popular view and so persists.

That said I don’t think there is any sign of it being abolished UK side and the reality ATM is airlines just add the bill from this year to the next year’s ticket prices.