Have airline passengers had it too good? Flight-delayed.co.uk thinks not.

A flight delay can ruin a holiday. Most passengers plan for most of the year if not longer and dread the thought of their trip experiencing turbulence at any stage. So when their flights are delayed by more than three hours or cancelled altogether, passengers are entitled to compensation under EU regulation.

Like many other things, in light of a British exit from the EU, this will need to be renegotiated with the EU by the UK. There are some that are clamouring for the amounts paid out to be reduced, critics of the EU261 (the regulation regarding compensation) say that the amounts being paid to passengers are excessive and need to look at.

Here at Flight-delayed.co.uk we wanted to respond to those critics of the regulation with some reasons why we think that as it stands, passengers are getting the compensation they deserve.

EU261

Under EU rules if your flight is delayed by more than 3 hours or cancelled you are entitled to a fixed amount of compensation depending on the distance of your journey. These rules were dreamt up as a way of keeping airlines in check and to encourage them to be on time. The airlines officially have had little to say in public as they don't want to be seen battling the consumer but in reality it is a different story. Leading up to and after the implementation of the regulations, airlines have lobbied to first prevent it and then water it down to a level that was more beneficial to them at the expense of the passenger.

The fight for your rights:

Airlines will fight until their preverbal last breathe to avoid paying passengers what is rightfully theirs. The most common reason we come across at Flight-delayed.co.uk is that airlines use to avoid paying out are extraordinary circumstances. Fortunately for passengers, we have a team of legal experts that spend their days working to define what exactly constitutes extraordinary circumstances.

What the airlines don’t want to pay for but have too:

Without naming names, many airlines will avoid paying compensation like it is the latest strain of the bubonic plague. They are, however, liable to pay in a number of cases they at first tried to ignore. Technical defects are often blamed but it is the responsibility of the airline to make sure their aircraft are in good working order. Passenger = paid.

When a flight is cancelled altogether. Passenger = paid.

In what could only be described as incompetence on behalf of the guilty airlines, a sure fire way to get compensation is when your flight has been double booked. Passenger = paid.

The great campaigners:

It was an article in a national broadsheet that brought this issue to our attention. In said article, the writer argued that passengers are paid excessively in comparison to what they pay for their flights. We think the amount that passengers are paid out is fair. A flight delay or cancellation can really be a kick in the face to the start of a dream trip or a short getaway. The loss of time or days missed from your holiday or time missed with the family or a missed one off event such as a wedding can have a devastating effect.

The cost of the price is irrelevant as far as we are concerned, it is the time that passengers are losing from their trips due to the incompetence of airlines that is the issue. Campaigners and critics should look to make other sections of industry fairer rather than attacking current safeguards of consumer rights.

No matter what the critics say, Flight-delayed.co.uk is and will continue fighting for the compensation you are owed.