June 13th - Compensation for flight cancellations and long delays
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2022
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Under the European air passengers’ rights rules, if your flight arrives 3 hours or more late behind the published schedule, or if it is cancelled, then you are entitled to compensation.
With airline cancellations and long delays still causing issues, I tell you how to claim compensation for these situations, and when airlines are likely to deny the request.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest on travelling, |
| 0:08.0 | whether you're dreaming of a great escape or actually away and having the time of your life. |
| 0:13.0 | Many of us, of course, will be flying and today I am going to be talking about the thorny question of delay and cancellation compensation. |
| 0:25.1 | Under the European air passenger rights rules, which have been imported wholesale into the UK after Brexit, |
| 0:33.3 | even to the point where, well, the rules are called EC261 and they're now called UK 261. |
| 0:40.7 | That's happened since Brexit, but the rules are absolutely clear. |
| 0:45.5 | If your flight is three hours or more late behind the published schedule on arrival when the door is opened or if it's cancelled then you're |
| 0:57.5 | entitled to compensation and that i've been checking out the nearest and the furthest flights |
| 1:03.9 | etc for that so lute into budapest is about the limit of your uh of the lower rate, just under 1,500 kilometres, 220 pounds. |
| 1:13.8 | A lot of destinations, certainly for southern Italy, for Greece, Turkey and so on, are between |
| 1:20.5 | 1,500 and 3,500 kilometres. And for that, you get 350 pounds and for longer flights. |
| 1:27.4 | And, um, can't 350 pounds and for longer flights. |
| 1:34.8 | And Gatwick to Cairo is just above 3,500 kilometres, just a mile or so. |
| 1:39.6 | You're entitled to £520 in compensation. |
| 1:47.5 | Now, the airline has some grounds for declining your claim. The presumption is that they will actually pay you that money, but if there are what's called extraordinary circumstances responsible |
| 1:54.2 | for the problem, in other words, it was manifestly beyond the airline's control, then they don't have to pay. |
| 2:02.3 | Now, quite a lot of these security alerts, |
| 2:06.1 | if there's a breach of security and the airport gets evacuated. |
| 2:11.1 | Air traffic control restrictions, which is a favourite one, often cited by airlines, |
| 2:17.4 | and bad weather, which in my experience can actually affect flights that you're taking, |
| 2:23.3 | even when the flight that you're taking, and this is a Milan to Heathrow flight |
| 2:29.3 | that was cancelled, not because there was any bad weather in Heathrow or in Milan, but because it was bad weather |
... |
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