Originally Posted by
BenA
I can confirm Delta is very reluctant to pay EC261 claims, even if valid. I had to involve the Spanish regulator before they paid a valid claim I had for a flight ex-BCN. Smart business decision - few customers would bother to go through the hassle I did for 600-800€, and this stinginess probably saves them a ton of money. Imho, it’s a flaw in the regulation; if the airline denies your claim and it is later confirmed valid, you should be entitled to treble damages to discourage this sort of behavior.
The bigger challenge is managing "extraordinary circumstances" in the context of cascading failures. An inbound flight JFK->BCN is delayed 6 hours due to a ground stop at JFK. This causes the returning BCN->JFK flight to be delayed by 4 hours even though there are no ATC or weather issues at BCN or where the flight is going. Is this extraordinary circumstance? Delta would argue yes, a passenger would likely say no. The legislation is ambiguous, and courts are working through these things very much use case at a time - i.e., very slowly.