Unfortunately, when traveling by air, unpleasant situations sometimes occur – delays and cancellations of flights, a passenger being late for a flight due to an unsuccessful connection, and other troubles. How to behave in such a situation and what can a passenger count on?
Flight delay
Most often, tourists are faced with force majeure such as flight delays. The flight may be delayed by 20-30 minutes or a whole day, depending on the reason for the delay. In any case, in the event of a flight delay, the airline is obliged to provide its customers with a number of free services: two free calls to anywhere in the world, food and drinks (if the flight delay is more than 2 hours). If the flight is delayed for 5 or more hours, then the airline is obliged to take passengers to a hotel to rest. You can also contact airline representatives with a request to provide you with an alternative flight (rerout the flight) or return the money for the ticket (but then you will have to travel further on your own).
Flight cancellation
If the flight is canceled due to force majeure (natural disasters, war, etc.), then the airline has the same obligations as in the case of a flight delay (provides food, accommodation, the opportunity to fly in another way). If the flight was canceled by the airline for some internal commercial reasons, then passengers are also entitled to additional monetary compensation in the amount of 250 to 600 euros per ticket. However, if the carrier canceled the flight two weeks before the departure date, you will not receive compensation. You will only get your money back for the ticket and will have to look for a suitable ticket again. By the way, it is for this reason that when issuing a ticket, you must always indicate current information (telephone, e-mail), otherwise the airline will not be able to inform you about the changes that have occurred.
Missing your flight
Most often, transfer passengers encounter this problem during transfers. It is important to understand what caused your lateness. If your previous flight was delayed and because of this you were late for your next flight, the airline is obliged to either rewrite your ticket for the next flight or perform a rerouting (send you to your final destination on another plane). This is done free of charge, but only if you had a single ticket for the entire route. If you have two different tickets in your hands (this usually happens when they want to get the cheapest fare and combine flights from different low-cost airlines) then all the risks lie with you and no one will do anything for free. The same applies to those who missed their flight due to their own fault. You need to look for an airline representative at the airport and make changes to your ticket (depending on the fare at which you purchased the ticket). If your ticket was purchased at the cheapest fare without the right to make changes to it, then in this situation you just need to go to the box office and buy a new ticket with your own money.
Overbooking
There is also such an unpleasant force majeure as overbooking. This means that the airline sold more tickets for the flight than there are seats available. This practice actually exists and is even permitted by international air transportation regulations. Simply, there are always passengers who, for some reason, either miss their flight or change their departure date before the flight. Therefore, to be on the safe side, airlines try to sell a little more tickets. However, if all the passengers came on the flight, then in this situation there are not enough seats for everyone. Passengers who were the last to check in for their flight find themselves without tickets. In such a situation, the airline is obliged to pay them compensation (from 200 to 600 euros per ticket) and reroute the flight (send them to their destination on another flight). Overbooking can be avoided if you check in for your flight in advance through the website.
If for some reason the airline does not want to pay you compensation, then you can subsequently sue it. But to do this, you need to have a document in your hands confirming the fact that your flight was delayed, canceled or your ticket was cancelled. This document is usually your ticket with the airline’s stamp on the cancellation notice. You can obtain this stamp from an airline representative at the airport.
Read also our article on how to get money from the airline for a canceled or delayed flight, spending just a couple of minutes on it (review of companies paying passengers for flight cancellations and delays).
