United Airlines suddenly canceled your flight? Do you know that you can claim compensation?
In the event of delay, consumers are entitled to ground services, and even to automatic compensation for all flights departing from one of the 27 Member States of the European Union (regardless of the destination and the nationality of the carrier) and for those bound for a Member State if the company is Community.
Ground assistance
When a flight is simply delayed: from 2 hours for short flights (1,500 kilometers or less), 3 hours for medium haul (between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometers), 4 hours for long haul (more than 3,500 km) , the passenger benefits from ground handling services at the airport. It can be refreshment or (and) catering services, hotel accommodation, transfers between the airport and the place of accommodation, the possibility of making telephone calls using the internet.
Waht is an overbooking?
Is a practice that affects some 250,000 passengers per year. The idea is to sell more space than the plane contains.
It is during the check in of your flight that you are told that you are on standby like a dozen other people and that you will only have a seat if other passengers have paid much more for their ticket miss their plane.
So it’s feverish and imagining any kind of scenario that you wait for the hostess when boarding to tell you whether or not there are places available.
Overbooking is still the order of the day for many airlines, but in addition to being extremely unpleasant for the passengers concerned, a law promulgated in 2005 compensates you.
The easiest way to talk about overbooking is to have paid the price
Next comes the organization of your wait. And this is where you realize that the system is running smoothly and that it must therefore be profitable for the company.
As soon as you arrive at the transfer counter, we offer you a place on a flight the next day – flight on which you will take the place of another overbooked person – and so on – transfer to your hotel, your dinner, your breakfast and a prepaid bank card including an amount calculated thanks to this famous law of 2005.
United Airlines has put you through an ordeal, so it owes you compensation
Why this practice? (operated by many large companies, even the most serious apparently? Because an average of 20% of users do not take the flight they have booked.
In Europe, all passengers traveling on a regular, charter flight or on flights included in a combined trip.
When you are denied boarding for this reason, the airline is obliged to offer to travel on another flight within a short time or to reimburse your ticket in full without penalty.
The company must also pay you a compulsory compensatory indemnity between € 125 and € 600 (€ 250 for flights of less than 1,500 km, € 600 for flights of more than 3,500 km).
Of course the airline must take care of all your additional costs, transfers, hotel nights, catering.
The compensation cost is fixed according to the flight route
From 2 hours late on arrival on a short journey (1,500 kilometers or less), you are entitled to an automatic flat-rate compensation: 125 euros if the delay does not exceed 2 hours, 250 euros beyond 2 hours.
From 3 hours late on a medium haul and for all intra-Community flights of more than 1,500 kilometers, you will receive 200 euros (400 euros if the delay exceeds 3 hours).
From 4 hours late on the arrival of a long haul from outside the Community, you will receive 300 euros (600 euros if the delay exceeds 4 hours).
On all flights, from 5 hours late, if you renounce your trip, you can demand the reimbursement of the ticket or the re-routing to your departure point if you are in transit.
This compensation does not prevent you from going to court to claim more if the amount does not cover the damage that you believe you have suffered.
Exemption cases
Please note that United Airlines will not pay compensation if it proves that the cancellation of his flight was due to extraordinary circumstances. It could, for example, be bad weather or acts of war in a country, unpredictable, but not a strike by airline personnel.