Can You Get Compensated For Airline And Travel Issues?
While traveling for leisure or business most times is fun and sunny skies, there are those times when things go awry either in the airport or on the airplane itself. Perhaps an incident came up in which you felt you were treated unfairly, or someone working for the airline seemingly didn’t do their job right. Maybe you bought a ticket from the airline that said “non-refundable”, but you feel you should be entitled to a refund. Can you ever get any form of a cash refund, travel voucher or frequent flyer miles as compensation? The answer is yes, sometimes you can, but it has to be under the right circumstances.
Compensation For Flight Delays That Are The Airline’s Fault
Different airlines can have different policies on what they will compensate you for if it doesn’t fall under circumstances that US, European or other international laws require passenger compensation for. But if there is a flight delay that was caused by something like the airline’s computer system crashing, the pilot or flight crew showing up late, or perhaps mechanical issues that should not have happened, usually the airline will provide passengers some form of compensation. If the flight is delayed because of circumstances outside the airline’s control such as severe weather, or problems in the airport that they aren’t responsible for, they are usually not obligated to offer compensation.
Compensation As Mandated By Governing Laws
The two main flight regulating authorities are the US Department of Transportation, and the EU commercial flight authority. The USDOT requires that any flights originating within the US offer compensation if the airline lost your luggage, if you were denied boarding through no fault of your own or bumped from your flight due to the airline being overbooked, or stranded in the plane on the tarmac for more than three hours. The EU rules have much of the same compensation procedures as well as a few more if flights are delayed at least five hours not due to weather. But these regulations can at times have vague wording in them, and airlines may still try and find loopholes in these laws. If you believe you have a situation that falls under these laws but aren’t getting cooperation from the airline, you might be able to get help from a flight compensation specialty firm who can work on your behalf.
Compensation For Poor Service On The Flight
Airlines do like to pride themselves on making passengers comfortable and helping them when they need assistance with something. If a flight attendant was acting improperly or perhaps spilled a drink on you and ruined your clothes or damaged your cell phone, you can usually file a complaint or compensation request with the airline. Now this usually only happens if the incident was avoidable and not caused by something like another passenger bumping into the flight attendant. But other issues such as a broken seat or safety equipment that should not be broken are also things that you could be compensated for.
Buying Travelers Insurance
There are times when you need compensation while traveling due to events that fall outside what an airline will compensate you for, or perhaps for other gray areas of flight issues that the laws don’t fully cover. For those issues there’s traveler’s insurance which can cover things like flights cancelled due to weather, emergency hotel bookings and flights that may be missed because of things like auto accidents on the way to the airport. That’s why you should always get a traveler’s insurance policy just in case any attempts to claim compensation with an airline don’t work out.
In conclusion, if you ever need to claim compensation with an airline, it’s always best to go through the right channels to do so. You could call their customer service number, or even reach out to their social media page to voice your complaint. But it’s always best to do so in a calm and civil manner so that you can explain clearly what happened.
Can You Get Compensated For Airline And Travel Issues? is a feature post
