How I got 600€ for a delayed flight (Step by Step) - EC261 Compensation
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2024
- In this video, I show you step by step how I received €600 in compensation for a delayed flight. It doesn’t matter where you're from, how expensive your ticket was or what kind of trip you were taking - you may be entitled to compensation and can claim a file under EU261 / EC261 air passenger rights.
EC261 pdf (fill it out and send it to the airline): www.accessibletourism.org/res...
EU Customer Center (get in touch with them if you don’t hear anything from the airline within six weeks): www.eccnet.eu/contact-your-lo...
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Thanks for the explanation. It makes me giggle to think of you mad - you always are so smiley.
Great advice 👍🏻
Very imformative video. Thanks for sharing!
ive been fighting to get my money for a year and a half now, i wish i found your video earlier. Thanks!
Good luck 🍀
So frustrating! And it is irritating that companies use their customer service more as a shield than a proper service!!! 😖 Uff!! But good for you for persevering and making a video about it! (& Norway is not part of the EU, so that might be tricky for us!! But still good information to have. Thank you!)
Thanks Maggi! My flight through KLM from Germany to Mexico was cancelled and it has been a nightmare…I’ll update you in 3-4 months and fingers crossed it will work 🤞 Shame on these airlines being so evasive - customer trust should be their #1 priority! much appreciated
Please do! 🍀
This is amazing! Thank you!!
Does this apply to Ryanair and other budget airlines?
As far as I know yes.
A couple of things. First of all the compensation you are seeking is called EC261 (not eu), and there is a UK equivalent called, iirc, UK261. The full EUR 600 is only payable if your arrival time (when *doors open*, not wheels down time) is over 4 hours and the flight distance is over 3500km. Lesser amounts apply to lesser delays/distances. Also, I understand the compensation claims companies have access to aircraft movement data to prove a claim that may be difficult for us to obtain ourselves, so may be worth using in the case of a dispute (after all 65% of something is worth more than 100% of nothing!).
Thanks for the clarifications! 🤗 I am sure this will be helpful to many others. Luckily in my case it was clear, that I was entitled to a compensation, but the airline still rejected the compensation until I sent that official form - and the same with my friend on a different airline.
Thank you! I just filed my complaint with Lufthansa. We’ll see what they have to say.
Let me know what happened! 🍀
@@MaggiFuchs After some emailing back and forth with an unfriendly customer service representative at Lufthansa, I finally received a check for $657 in the mail today. Thanks to you I can now put that money towards visiting Germany!
@@MaggiFuchsAfter a bunch of emails between a not so helpful Lufthansa customer service representative I finally received my compensation of $653 (600 euros). Now I can visit Austria!
Sorry for the late reply, your message was held under review by RUclips. So happy to hear that it worked! 👍👍👍 If I were you, I probably would visit Austria instead of Germany - but I may be biased… 😂
Das ist so gut! Wir haben keine Gesetze, die Fluggesellschaften dazu verpflichten, Passagiere für verspätete oder annullierte Flüge zu entschädigen. Es ist so schlecht!
Da stimmt! Außer du fliegst in Europa oder nach Europa, dann gelten die EU Richtlinien auch für dich! 😊
@@MaggiFuchs Ich empfehle eine Versicherung, wenn Sie Australien besuchen.
Lufthansa denied my request for EU261 compensation because my flight from Frankfurt Germany to St. Louis USA did not origionate or terinate in the EU . When I appealed their decision they found that they were correct in their determinationj.
Did you purchase the flight from Lufthansa or any other European airline? Because then - to my limited understanding - you should be eligible, no matter the origin of your flight. Did you send them the EC261 form? My friend also traveled with Lufthansa, when she handed in the claim to their customer service they denied it (like they did with me), but as soon as she sent the form, she got the money. Maybe it‘s worth a try.
I had an issue with these steps. Lufthansa doesn't provide an email address to public. All the communication needs to be done via their website through feedback forms. Therefore, there is no possiblility for me to submit the EC261 form besides sending a post to their physical address.
My flight just got delayed and now cancelled. Rome - Berlin / Ryanair (Airline). They are refusing to book me a flight. Was told to buy ticket and they will compensate the cost later. Any other useful tips ?
I was corresponding with Lufthansa regarding a cancelled flight and very bad service, before claiming ANYTHING. Their replies were simply a joke with apologies. Now time to start claim but I will do it with EU and NOT Lufthansa.
I wrote a long complain to Lufthansa / if interesting I can share it here.
I also made the mistake of trying to correspond with them first - thinking they would value the customer and actually care about the complain… they didn‘t. You can share if you want, but if you could let me know how your claim went and if you were able to get some money back, that would be great. :) All the best to you 🍀
PS: Lufthansa is really my least favorite airline. Everytime I was treated very badly during a trip or with customer service, it was with them. The worst was one flight when they changed my prebooked window seat to the middle seat in the middle row. I tried to get my reserved seat back, but they didn‘t care and were pissed at me for asking. And when they served the food on that flight, it was the same meal for all. It was just a black blob that I could not identify, so I asked a flight attendand what it was because I have food allergies. She said she doesn‘t know and it‘s not her problem and I either eat it or not. I decided to stay hungry on the 12 hour flight because a middle seat doesn‘t go very well with having to run to the bathroom every few minutes… 😅
@@MaggiFuchs Hi Maggi - First want you to know how much I enjoy your channel. I think very much the same about travelling as you do and I enjoy to see others that travel the same way.
As for my experience with Lufthansa I spare from you their reply which was just the usual BLABLABLA of customers service people and offering me a gift from their shop...no money back and actually ignoring my MAIN complaint which was their lousy service. I did not claim directly, but now after having their reply I will claim via EU European Consumer Centre Denmark.
Here is my letter to them - a bit long but tells a story of BAD service - I erased personal details though:
I debated with myself whether should I write directly to you, or post it in the social media or claiming a complaint to Lufthansa customers service or public relations. My experience in life has taught me to apply directly to head. Applying in Lufthansa customers service would, in many cases, get a “template” reply and I wanted you to get the information directly.
It might be a bit unusual and perhaps rude, but I know that in many cases in big organizations the management team is not fully aware of difficulties and bad experiences that your customers go through.
When I had to fly from Tel-Aviv in Israel to Billund in Denmark I decided to fly with a well reputed and good customers service company such as Lufthansa.
Among your advertising slogans, one caught my eye: “Air Travel engineered around you. Nonstop you!”
In my case this was NOT what I experienced!
All the details will follow, and I have documentation of all, if needed.
My reservation code was - XXXXXX
Ticket number - XXXXXXXXXXXX
Flight from Ben Gurion Airport Tel-Aviv, via Munich Airport to Billund Airport as the final destination, on Monday 22 April 2024.
Flight LH0000 TLV to MUC - 22.4.2024
The ground crew in TLV (handling company?) was not so polite, almost rude. Before the flight I had 2 email messages with gate change and seat change in the plane. The flight left with 45 minutes delay. I was afraid to miss the second flight from Munich to Billund. The flight itself was very pleasant with great service.
Flight LH1111 MUC to BLL
Before the planned departure I had 2 email messages on gate change in Munich and 4 email messages about change in departure time. The final time when we boarded the plane was 22:45, a delay of an hour!
All the messages came to my Gmail in my smartphone. By the way, around me were some quite old people, whom I am not so sure are using smartphones…
While the plane was on the ground and the pilot conducted final checks, and after some minutes of waiting the pilot announced that a red lamp blinked and the flight is canceled! The pilot announced that Lufthansa arranged for the passengers a hotel stay in Munich Airport and that they are looking for alternative flight in the next day.
At this stage I had called my wife in Denmark, who was driving on her way to Billund Airport for almost 2 hours to drive me back home. It was late and was forced to book a Bed & Breakfast place to stay the night and avoid driving back and forth.
At this stage all the passengers went back to the gate via the sleeve. There were two ground crew persons, no special sign or somebody from Lufthansa to guide around 100 passengers - we were just told to go to Lufthansa Service office.
We all have started to walk, without anybody to accompany us. The first Lufthansa Service office was closed.
The second Lufthansa office was opened - but there was a mess, almost chaos!
About 100 confused passengers standing in front of 2 Lufthansa employees. It turned out, after talking to people in the waiting line, that one is having vouchers for double room, and the other vouchers for single rooms in the hotel. This instead of these employees stand with a simple clear signs and avoid the mess and the confusion.
I had received a voucher (photocopy available) saying a night stay at NH Hotel Airport Schwig, a bus shuttle ride return at bus station 11 and dinner plus breakfast. Nobody explained how to find bus station 11 and a non-familiar airport - just “go and follow the signs”…
At this stage I had an email message from Lufthansa saying I was booked to an evening flight the next day (23/4/2024). This means stay of not planned 24 hours in Munich Airport. Some of the passengers were booked to morning flight.
As said, my wife was waiting for me about 24 hours close to Billund Airport in Denmark. In the voucher it said that the hotel stay included Dinner and Breakfast, no word about checkout time..
Arriving at the hotel, by the reception area stood about 100 passengers, in front of 3 reception employees. Waiting for the hotel registration lasted about 30 minutes. And came the time for our “dinner”… In the lobby area, next to bar standing tables, was a table with 2 heating devices to keep the soups hot. One pot was with Creme Soup and the other one with Goulash Soup, and some slices of bread. When I arrived at the serving table the Goulash Soup pot was empty and there was no bread left...I approached the hotel personnel and to my complain they replied that kitchen closes a midnight! By any standard- this was WAS NOT a dinner!
The next day - breakfast was very nice, but I was told that checkout time is 12:00.
Where should I wait almost 10 hours for my flight?
Is only breakfast provided by Lufthansa enough?
Do I have to buy with my money lunch and dinner to an alternative flight at night?
In a somehow cynical way I noticed that Lufthansa is having classes for employees in NH Hotel - it should include some classes about customers service...
Before departure time I had an email with gate change and a seat change. I paid for a seat in the front of the plane and was given a seat in the far end of the plane!
Finally arrive at Billund Airport in about 24 hours delay.
I fly quite often, in different airlines. I never had such a bad experience with any other airline.
I would very much like to regain my confidence and trust I had with Lufthansa, who carries the slogan of “Air Travel engineered around you. Nonstop you”.
Apologizing again for a long and perhaps too personal letter expressing my frustration with a very bad experience, and asking you to consider a proper compensation in a way that will make me want to fly again with Lufthansa and the other airlines in your group of companies.
@@MaggiFuchs My reply to you was blocked by RUclips. In general, Lufthansa reply was just BLABLA. I wrote a long letter that I could send here. Will send to you in another method. My claim will be via EU offices in Denmark. BTW, I love your channel!
What was the original layover duration in Chicago and how late did you arrive in Chicago? The compensation scheme overall sounds great (lots of people are calling for something similar in Australia), but 600€ seems a lot for what could have been a delay of as little as 1-2 hours (?) on the original leg. I wonder if US airlines will stop selling multi-leg tickets with layovers of less than 3-4 hours to try minimize flow-on effects of late arrivals from the EU.
Still, great tip to keen in mind!
The layover duration was a little over 2 hours, so we had to wait in Chicago for 6 hours instead. And I was not even booking the flight with the shortest layover duration, because even though the compensation is nice, I still prefer to not get in that situation. I am always wondering what airlines are thinking when they offer flights with layover durations of like 30 minutes or so… there is no way people can make that on international to domestic flights and dealing with immigration and all those things… 🤔
@@MaggiFuchs thanks for the info, yeh not sure why they sell those legs with super short layovers either!
Thank you very much!
So in 2020 we had booked and paid for a three week trip to Ireland. Suddenly due to Covid all our accommodation monies were refunded to us. The airline refused to refund it. Would that be part of the passenger rights? How would I find out? Thank you for this enlightening video.
I don‘t think you would be eligible for compensation in that case, but in my humble opinion, you could be eligible for a refund. But that depends I guess on where you lived. Here in Austria, people were entitled to a full refund in cash and not vouchers or anything, even if the airlines tried to refuse.
This form requires signature. How did you manage this?
Did you send complaint form as paper with Post or with email and digital signature?
I have an iPad where I can use the pencil to fill it out by hand. Otherwise I would print it, sign it and than scan it or take a picture.
I'm also using Ipad for this purpose, but I'm rather curious whether they have accepted "Ipad" signature instead of real digital signature?
In my case they did! :)
I discovered this claim now about a 2month old flight, please tell me that i still can claim it🙏🙏
I would say yes. It depends on the country, but usually it‘s around 3 years. So I would just give it a try, what do you have to lose? 😉
Today my flight from Doha to Bangkok delayed more than 7hours. How do i submit the form?