astonmartinv8

I understand that under EU law compensation would be due for the LHR-HKG flight I was on the other day. It departed and arrived over 4 hours late. Am I accurate and if so am I due EUR600?

Has anyone had experience of applying for such compensation and if so which was the appropriate method?

CX did not advertise compensation rules to passengers on the day.

Thanks,

Marcus.

percysmith

Edit: I ignored Sturgeon case but it may apply - see post #6 below.

You only get EUR600 if your flight gets cancelled http://www.covered2go.co.uk/_assets/...ice.pdf#page=3

Your case is delay so your entitlement is "Meals and refreshments in relation to waiting time. Two free telephone calls, emails, telexes or faxes" http://www.covered2go.co.uk/_assets/...ice.pdf#page=2

You may also obtain compensation from an travel insurance policy you have in force at the time of the flight delay (your own, airlines don't provide this).

Centipede100

Percy/astonmartinv8

That's not correct.

Compensation for delays in excess of 3 hours in arriving at your final destination was brought in by way of the Sturgeon judgement: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...7J0402:EN:HTML

This ruling has since been challenged by a group of UK airlines and this challenge is due for final judgement sometime this Autumn. The Advocate General's legal Opinion on this challenge was published in May and was particularly scathing of the airlines' attempts to use this challenge as a delaying tactic:

39. As to the actual principle of compensation of air passengers whose flight has been delayed by at least three hours, since nothing new which might call into question the interpretation that the Court gave of those provisions in Sturgeon and Others has been presented by the parties to the disputes in the main proceedings, I do not see why the Court should reconsider that interpretation.

Full Opinion here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...CC0581:EN:HTML

You are best waiting until the judgement has been published in the Autumn before you do anything else. The airline may still have a valid defence of 'extraordinary circumstances' not to pay out the due compensation but this usually excludes things such as technical or mechanical breakdown or crew shortages.

Airlines rarely automatically pay out compensation and indeed there is a fair bet that they will force you to small claims court in order to succeed in your claim.

If you are going to post links to external websites, it may be best checking the advice given is current and up to date. In the case of the links given, the AUC ceased to exist in that form about a year ago and the leaflet dates from June 2006 with the Regulation having been subject to a number of precedent case law revisions since then.

kchika

Could the OP perhaps elaborate on what exactly happened, the ground arrangements etc?

mayodave

My guess is having had the same awful treatment from CX on a LHR HKG flight that eventually got cancelled and I was travelling in F, is that your chances of getting anything from there financially is almost zero. They will argue everything they can rather than admit a problem.

percysmith

Non-monetary assistance: The other leaflet I found on CAA's own website is less specific http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/125/CAA439..._8P_Web_AW.pdf , but issued later (November 2011)). The June 2006 leaflet is more detailed, and I asume at least the applicable regulation http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...01:0007:en:PDF did not change during that time.

But the case law did to include monetary compensation, my apologies, see below:

Monetary compensation: I also found an updated web page on CAA's website http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?pageid=12745 , which references the Sturgeon judgement and appeal thereon.

Interesting development on EU 261/2004 - delay for more than three hours == cancelled. No wonder why the airlines want to appeal that.

This is very generous for EU and UK passengers. Imagine this being applied on HX!

I suppose if the UK airlines' appeal against Sturgeon judgement fails, OP can claim CX. If that fails then I suppose OP has recourse to UK CAA (an EU regulation is being breached, so there's no point going to HK CAA?)before taking OP to small claims (doubt Small Claims HK will take this, so UK?)

kaka

UK small claims comes with a cost....

GE90-115B

EU600 for a 4 hour delay? We've walked out of airplanes compensation-less after worst delays.

percysmith

We're in HK...too bad

Europeans get to write back annual leave if they're sick on leave http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1624590.html