Originally Posted by
William13
Hi All,
has anyone experience with the 261/2004 Compensation at AirBerlin? Here is the scenario: I bought a ticket with my TopBonus miles to bring my aging mother from the US to visit the wife & I for a few months here in Berlin. Flight over was without incident but the flight back was delayed on departure at TXL for over five hours and arrived at JFK just under five hours late. I completed the EU 261/2004 Form and sent it to AirBerlin by registered mail. I recently received a letter indicating that they had my claim and then shortly thereafter an email offering the following:
1) Travel voucher in the amount of EUR 120.00 – redeemable on all airberlin group operated flights, regardless of travel type (validity: 24 months)
OR
2) 10,000 topbonus award miles
OR
3) Cash payment of EUR 75.00
along with a URL which i could visit to choose one of the three options. If I found none to my liking I could just wait and they would process my claim personally after reviewing the particulars. Needless to say, having spent 50K miles and €400 for taxes and fees, the offered options seem a bit light. Has anyone experience with AirBerlin Compensation claims? I am unsure whether I should wait for AB to follow their processes or should I go ahead and forward my information to the Luftfahrt Bundesamt and rely on them to handle.
thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
cheers,
William
I agree that the options are light!
If the delay was on a flight from TXL-JFK then your mother is due 600 euros in
cash compensation not vouchers or miles so long as the reason for the delay is not due to extraordinary circumstances which could not have been prevented even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
IMO you (or rather your mother) should make enquiries from the airline to ascertain what the reason for the delay was due to.
I cannot advise on how you should advance your claim in Germany but in your position would probably raise a complaint to the LBA before taking action to recover the compensation in your equivalent of small claims court.
You may need a letter of authority from your mother to ensure you have the power to issue proceedings in her name.