People's Consumer Champion: How to land flight delay complaints

Tens of thousands of consumers make a compensation claims for a flight delay or cancellation every month and just as many more could claim but don't.

If you know your rights and go about your claim in the right way, it is one of the easier compensation claims to make.

Here’s the key points that you need to know:

Do you have a claim?

How to land flight delay complaints (stock image) (Getty Images/EyeEm)

There’s no point in wasting time making a claim that has no hope. If you can satisfy the following basic criteria its worth pursuing your claim:

- Your flight either departed from Europe (including the UK) or was with a European airline, within the last six years.

- Your flight arrived at the final destination at least three hours late or was cancelled within 14 days of the date of departure.

- The delay or cancellation was not caused by adverse weather, an air traffic control strike or some other reason that was clearly outside of the airlines control.

Being able to answer the above questions in the affirmative does not guarantee that you will be successful as airlines do have a key defence.

If the airline can therefore prove i) that the reason for the delay/cancellation satisfies the test of ‘extraodinary circumstances’ (meaning that it was outside of the airlines control) and ii) there were no reasonable measures the airline could have taken to avoid the delay/cancellation (such as putting on an alternative aircraft), it will not have to pay compensation.

Gather relevant information and evidence

How to land flight delay complaints (stock image) (Getty Images)

To pursue a claim you will need i) your booking reference number (although you will not be debarred from making a claim if you do not have this) ii) the basic details of your claim, such as dates, departure and destination details and delay times; and iv) receipts for expenditure you had.

Contact the airline direct

There is no need to use a claims management company (CMC) or law firm to make a claim.

The best route to take is to simply go to the airlines website and lodge a claim direct with it.

Escalate to ADR/PACT

If the airline rejects your claim you can take your claim to an ADR scheme if the airline subscribes to one. There are two authorised ADR schemes, www.aviationADR.org.uk and www.cedr.org.uk.

If the airlines is not subscribed to either of these schemes you can complain to the CAA.

You can see more advice from Dean on www.theconsumerlawyer.blog.