seawolf

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes...16)3502_en.pdf

Seems like they clarified the downgrade compensation. It only applies to the segment downgraded and not the entire ticket. Furthermore, upgrades obtained via frequent flyer program may not count in the event of a subsequent downgrade.

Palal

Thanks for posting!

mfkne

That's surprising, given that for EU261/2004 flights booked via miles are equal to those paid for with money.

seawolf

It's a big "may" on the FFP associated upgrades. Not sure how airlines will be interpreting that as.

mfkne

Having read the relevant paragraph, I think this only applies to complimentary upgrades since it mentions "benefits" of the FFP.

mfkne

Big news from this for passengers who have booked a connecting flight and who have been offloaded from the second flight because the inbound flight was delayed, as is often the case on KLM:

WorldLux

This has been the "rule" (=the position of the ECJ, that national courts have to comply to) for some time now. I believe that it was a case concerning KL. The ECJ decided that the final delay had to be taken into account. It wouldn't matter if the first flight was only slightly late, if the passenger arrived severely late at his final destination.

Vice-versa, the cash compensation will not amply if your first flight is cancelled but you arrive at your final destination slightly early or on time. This is for instance the case if the connection time is shorter and/or the route is more direct.

I was in that case with KL back in 2003 or 2004. DXB-AMS was cancelled. I would miss my AMS-BRU. I was rebooked on EY to GVA. The route was shorter AND I was just slightly over minimum connection time in GVA. I arrived 2 or 3 hours early, which was good. The rest was rather horrible (especially looking 5 hours on a compass ). Overall a success, given that the regulation didn't exist back then.

mfkne

This case is slightly different - it applies to people who were denied boarding because their first flight was late even though they show up at the gate for the onward flight on time. KLM tends to do this by offloading passengers while their flight is in the air because they assume you can't make it anymore due to the delay.

Often1

The Guidance addresses an entirely different issue. This is the "proactive offloading" in which some carriers engage, believing that a passenger will misconnect, only to have the passenger not misconnect. This occurs most often when an aircraft makes up time enroute, but the carrier has offloaded passengers based on the anticipated late arrival.

This is not necessarily a good thing for the average passenger. Rather than proactively offloading passengers who are likely to misconnect, carriers will wait until a misconnect is certain and then offload. In IRROPS the better reroutes will have gone to the passengers on the ground.

I doubt that carriers will continue to proactively offload at the cost of both delay/cancellation AND denied boarding compensation.

Worcester

Do bare in mind that some carriers rebuff the first attempt at claiming compensation and give some spurious reason. Don't be put off, keep pushing them and they will pay.