Why you should use a flight delay claims company

Date: 22 Sep 22

There have been thousands of flight delays and cancellations this year due to Covid, political instability, weather, air traffic control strikes, lack of staff and even the queens death. Passengers have been badly hit by delayed or cancelled flights and ruined holidays resulting in them losing money on hotel bookings, transfers, excursions, and parking charges.

According to EU261 passengers are entitled to compensation where they have either been:

• Delayed for over 3 hours
• Denied boarding on an overbooked flight
• Had a flight cancelled within 2 weeks of the flight

The amount of compensation depends on the distance of the flight and ranges from 250 Euros to 600 Euros per passenger in addition to any other expenses incurred such as hotels, food, phone calls and alternative flights.

Most airlines have a procedure for submitting your claim which can range from a simple online form to a complicated array of documents that need to be filled out.

The basic information you will always need include:

• Flight Date
• Flight Code
• Booking Reference
• Proof of ID

Why do airlines avoid paying compensation?

Airlines don’t want to pay compensation for a flight if they don’t have to. Some compensation amounts are 5X the cost of the flight so airlines are loathe to pay out if they can possibly get away with it.

Airlines lost a lot of money during the covid pandemic, laid off staff and have had to endure staff shortages at major airports resulting in some airports reducing capacity and airlines having to cancel flights en masse.

They also rely on passengers not knowing their rights, not knowing if and when they have a claim and not knowing how much they are entitled to. Passengers may believe they are only entitled to compensation for the delay/cancellation where in reality you are allowed to claim for ALL reasonable out of pocket expenses.

How do airlines avoid paying flight delay compensation?

The primary method airlines use to deny a claim for compensation is citing “extraordinary circumstances” you can read more about this on our website https://www.flightdelayclaim.com/blog/extraordinary-circmstances-in-delayed-flights-explained-33

By citing “extraordinary circumstances” they have a get out clause for not having to pay compensation and they bank on passengers not being able to confirm the reason for the delay/cancellation and to not pursue a claim.

The second most popular reason they cite is that the flight actually LANDED on time. Where a delay is extremely close to the 3-hour threshold they will attempt to convince you that the flight landed on time but what they fail to disclose is that a flight delay is not based on the time a flight landed but on the time it arrived at the gate. According to our records the average flight takes between 12 and 20 minutes to arrive at the gate meaning a flight that landed within 180 minutes becomes a valid claim by the time it arrives at the gate and doors are opened.

Another reason for most claim rejections is because the airline knows you have no recourse to their decision as they are not signed up to an ADR (alternative dispute resolution). Airlines such as Jet2, LoganAir, Aer Lingus and BlueAir are not members of an ADR meaning there is no 3rd party to assess the legality of your claim. This leaves passengers with legal action or the CAA as the only method of challenging the decision.

Finally the most common method airlines use to avoid paying compensation is to ignore you. This forces you to constantly call premium rate numbers for updates, send constant emails, complain by social media all of which will be ignored in the hope you go away.

Why use us?

• We know the claim procedures for all the airlines
• We have access to detailed information not available to passengers such as gate arrival times, weather patterns
• We know how to best use the ADR services
• We can help you claim back all reasonable expenses incurred
• We have automated systems which kick in at various time intervals ensuring we are always chasing the airline
• We don’t take no for an answer where we believe you have a valid claim
• We will take airlines to court if they refuse to pay a valid claim
• We are industry leaders in claiming flight delay compensation
• We process claims for other claims companies
• We operate on a No Win No Fee basis
• We have won compensation for claims that passengers have previously had rejected by the airline

Is the time and effort required to submit a claim worth the effort?

Unfortunately, we cant answer that for you but we charge the industry standard of 25% of your compensation to submit, chase and process your claim for you. If you have had a delay or cancellation in the last 6 years and think you are due compensation then submit a claim on our website https://www.flightdelayclaim.com/flight-checker/ and let us get the compensation you deserve.