EU flight compensation

[Geegeela]

Airlines 'refusing to pay out on flight delay compensation', says Which?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah - unfortunately this is nothing new Airlines don't willingly pay up. They'll always try some excuse. Persistence is often the key here, either direct with the airline, or with one of the EU claim firms. The claim firms will take a 30% cut, but possibly worth it for free money

FWIW, Emirates trying to play the safety card is ludicrous. They want to avoid paying out for delayed connecting flights in DXB, somehow claiming passenger safety could be compromised if they have to:

[FONT=&amp]We will rigorously defend our position, and challenge the blanket application of EC 261 to every situation, without consideration of context or the safety of our passengers. Emirates, like any responsible airline, puts the safety of our passengers first and to be penalised for this is absurd.[/FONT]

The context is pretty clear... for events within the airline's control, or those which arise as part of the normal business of running an airline... they're responsible for paying compensation.

 

[anat0l]

There's no surprise that airlines will drag their feet as much as possible before paying up on EU 261 claims.

What is perhaps a bit surprising, but then again maybe not, is that national regulatory bodies (as a proxy to ensure compliance with EU regulations) don't have powers to enforce airlines to pay up, hence the statistic in the article stating that not all claims which have been stated as payable by the authorities are actually paid out.

I thought this is surprising because you hear of EU 261 cases going to courts (maybe that is the next step if the advice from the regulatory body doesn't yield the compensation). I thought there was a case where CO (yes, the old CO before it merged with UA) was told to pay compensation but refused to do so. The aggrieved passenger (in the UK, so that jurisdiction) apparently managed to go to court to get an order and a bailiff so that they could go to CO's local offices or what not to seize materials to pay for the compensation in lieu of CO not paying up. When the bailiffs appeared at the premises CO finally took the passenger seriously and cut him a cheque posthaste to avoid any of their property being seized. While that is a stupid amount of rigmarole to go through to make a carrier cough up, I can only conclude that the only reason why compensation cases decided in favour of the customer remain unpaid is because a passenger does not wish to go through such extensive steps (usually a cost of time rather than direct money) to recover payment.