A long delay suffered by Enter Air passengers: How much to make up for the inconvenience?
In some cases, compensation may be added to the cover. Again, it varies greatly depending on the situation. Already, it only concerns flights which are at least three hours late or which are completely canceled.
Then, it depends on the destinations affected by the flight with Enter Air.
If you are leaving from France: Compensation is possible whatever your final destination (France, EU, countries outside the EU).
If your flight takes off from a European country: Same thing, compensation is impossible.
If your flight is scheduled from a non-European airport: As with the pick-up, you can only be compensated if the flight brings you back to France or the European Union and if the airline is part of the European Union. Otherwise, it is much more random.
The amount of compensation depends on the distance of the flight and the destinations:
€ 250 for a journey of less than 1500km, € 400 (between 1500 and 3500km), € 600 (distance greater than 3500km).
These amounts are maximum amounts because the compensation may be halved if the Polish airline Enter Air offers you an alternative which makes you arrive only a few hours behind schedule. For example, if your initial flight arriving at 2 p.m. is canceled and another flight arriving at 3 p.m. is found, you will not be able to claim the full amount of compensation because the damage is deemed to be reduced.
Contrary to the assumption of responsibility which is systematic and does not require any particular step on your part, the compensation is not given spontaneously and it must be claimed by calling on a specialized company committing fully so that the rights injured air passengers are protected and defended.
Get compensation after harm: When possible?
Unfortunately no ! There are certain special cases to be aware of … The case of connecting flights / flights with stopovers. This is a much more frequent situation than it seems: we take a flight with a stopover, the first plane is late and we miss its connection.
Concretely, if you miss a match on your own, well, … it’s your fault. The airline can be friendly and help you find another flight but it will be at your expense.
Conversely, if you miss a connection because of the airline, you find yourself in the same situation as a passenger whose flight has been canceled: you can benefit from support and compensation if conditions apply.
Delays related to you
If you miss the plane by your own fault (you didn’t hear the alarm clock, you didn’t take enough time to get to the airport and you got stuck in traffic jams, you realize that your passport has expired, etc.), you generally have no recourse to recover the full amount of the ticket, even if you have taken out cancellation insurance. Hence the interest in setting three alarms and leaving very early at the airport.
However, you can be reimbursed for airport taxes by contacting the airline. These taxes (included in the price of the plane ticket as you pay) are collected from passengers who actually board the plane. If you miss your flight (or cancel a non-changeable / non-refundable plane ticket), you are therefore exempt from paying them and you can at least be reimbursed for this part of the ticket price.
If you miss the plane for reasons beyond your control, the situation is slightly different as it is often covered by cancellation insurance. This is, for example, the case where an illness prevents you from boarding a flight, the case where you lose your job, where your employer changes your vacation dates, where you have your identity papers stolen less than 48 hours before departure.
In this case, if you have taken out cancellation insurance when purchasing your ticket or if you have one associated with your bank card, you can sometimes obtain reimbursement of the air ticket but you must carefully review the conditions of Your contract.
A surprise strike by air traffic controllers
When there are strikes, companies often take specific measures to respond to passenger grievances. For example, Air France has announced the reimbursement of tickets in the event of cancellation or delay of more than 5 hours linked to the staff strike in 2018, as well as the possibility of exchanging its ticket without charge for another flight the same month.
But clearly, it causes a lot of stress for travelers because we often have plans that go beyond the simple fact of taking a plane (hotel reservations, …).
If force majeure is the reason for your ordeal?
Sometimes an airline is forced to cancel flights due to force majeure. We remember, for example, the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull: more than 100,000 flights canceled! More recently, an eruption in Bali has also resulted in many cancellations.
In this kind of situation, the airline often keeps an obligation to take charge, in particular in the EU where we are very protected as passengers (Ryan Air had also been condemned by refusing to take care of a passenger blocked in.