Originally Posted by
csutter
I've read it three times now and as I understand it:
a) If your flight is cancelled and your replacement flight departs less than an hour earlier or arrives less than two hours later than your original flight would have,
then you get nothing.
b) If your flight is cancelled and your replacement flight departs less than an hour earlier or arrives less than two hours later than your original flight would have,
then you get 50% of the "regular" amount due.
Surely a) and b) contradict each other, in the sense that there is no possible situation where b) applies that isn't covered by a)?
You are looking at it the wrong way round. You must first determine whether you are entitled to Art 7 compensation or not. In case of canx, you look in principle at Art. 5.
Once it is established that you are entitled to compensation under Art 7, then you need to look at the detail of the article to determine which amount you are entitled to.
Let us not forget that Art 7 covers compensation across all 3 situations (IDB, canx and delay). It could very well be the case that there are situations where you are entitled to €125 compensation for IDB and never for delays or canx.
As it happens, in case of cancellations, there
can be situations where you are entitled to €125. This would be when you are rerouted on a short-haul flight that departs more than one hour earlier compared to the original schedule but arrives no more than two hours later at destination.
For instance, you were due to fly ZRH to LHR on LX, leaving ZRH at 8.50pm and arriving LHR at 9.40pm. LX phones you the night before to tell you that they have cancelled that flight and are putting you on the 6.35pm, landing at 7.25pm. In principle, you would be entitled to €125 compensation.
In cases of delays (as opposed to cancellation), however, you will never be entitled to €125, since compensation only kicks in when there are 3 hours or more of delays and therefore you will never be entitled to compensation for a delay < 2 hrs.
The fact that the part of Art 7 on reduced compensation for arrival less than 2 hrs after original scheduled time never applies to delays (as opposed to cancellations) does not mean that there is a contradiction. It is just that this part of the Reg will not in practice apply to short-haul delays (even though there are situations where it will apply to short-haul canx or IDBs).