MANY people experienced flight delays and cancellations last month - leaving them inconvenienced and sometimes out of pocket too.
A range of European regulations and international conventions provide you with certain rights when using flights from France, the UK and other EU countries.
Your flight is cancelled:
The airline should provide free refreshments, two phone calls, food (depending on length of wait), a stay in a hotel if necessary and, if appropriate, a transfer to a replacement airport.
They should give you a choice between:
- Rearranging a flight either as soon as possible or to suit you
- Reimbursing tickets for the unused part of a journey, plus arranging a free flight back to your starting point if it was a connection that was cancelled.
You should also get compensation:
- €250 for flights less than 1,500km
- €400 for flights for 1,500 - 3,500km
- €600 for 3,500km+
Where appropriate, the compensation can be limited to price of the ticket to your destination.
The compensation payment is not due where you had two week’s notice; where you had less notice but were offered a different flight at a time close to the original one; or where the cancellation is due to circumstances which could not reasonably have been avoided, such as bad weather, security alerts or strikes.
The same rules apply when you are not allowed to embark on the plane, for example, due to overbooking.
Your flight is significantly delayed:
This relates to flights that are:
- Two hours late for flights of 1,500km or less
- Three hours for all flights within the EU of more than 1,500km and for all other flights of 1,500 - 3,500
- Four hours or more for other flights.
The airline should give the same assistance as for cancellations including a hotel stay where the flight is expected to be delayed until the following day.
If the delay is five hours or more you have the right to a refund for the part of the journey not undertaken and, as appropriate, a free flight to your starting point.
Formerly there was no set European rule obliging companies to pay compensation for delays (as they have to in cancellations).
However the European Court of Justice ruled on November 19, 2009 that if a delay is three hours or more it should give rise to the same compensation rights as cancellation.
The Conventions of Warsaw and Montréal (article 19 in both cases) can also be invoked to seek compensation, specifically in the case of delays (no set length is stated), where you can show you suffered financial loss as a result (hotel not used, working day lost etc).
Again, this does not apply where the carrier could not reasonably have avoided the circumstances and it does not apply if the airline can show the loss in question was your fault.
What if the airline does not refund or compensate as they should?
You should take it up with them in writing. They may take around two months to respond. If you get no satisfaction and you were refused boarding, had a cancelled flight or a significant delay, you can apply to the Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC, the government body in charge of aviation).
This can be done online, but you need to attach proofs like scans of tickets, receipts and boarding cards and correspondence with the airline.
Go to: http://tinyurl.com/dgaccomplaintsform
What does travel insurance offer?
This can be single trip, or annual. It is often offered by airlines during booking. Cover varies, but in some circumstances may offer extra compensation for delays and cancellations.
However leading firms we checked with (including Mondial, whose insurance is offered by Easyjet) said where a flight is cancelled for bad weather, the airline should refund or replace flights.
The insurance does not help or cover costs if you need to buy a expensive flight to get to your destination on time.
These policies typically cover you for circumstances where there would be no assistance from the airline, such as where you cannot travel due to illness or due to your car breaking down or public transport not running on time etc.
Travel insurance also typically offers a range of other protection, related to baggage and personal possessions, accidents, medical expenses abroad etc.
Be careful if buying from a British insurer, as their policies often do not cover French residents.
Sources include travel agents, your home insurer (who may be able to add an option for a small amount extra per year), general insurance companies, banks (often in connection with premium bank cards) and web-based providers like www.europ-assistance.fr and www.mondial-assistance.fr
