ibuyyoufly

Interesting concept if it catches on. Could be costly for airlines when consumers know their rights. I suppose more for the leisure customer than those on this Board. Looks like 25% of the claim dollars go to the Airhelp company.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/flight-de...894437030.html

http://www.airhelp.eu/en/

mduell

There are a ton of services like this... euclaim, skyclaim, etc... they mostly only take the easy/straightforward cases, won't touch anything where weather like snow was involved.

Often1

Standard contingent fee stuff. Nothing new and been around for ages. No way do these guys take anything on which you could not easily collect yourself. The tough ones go by the board,

y2chen

I've been looking into this as United has denied my claim for additional compensation due to a 3.5+ hour delay on a flight from the EU to the US, and found this more recent Wired article that inspires a bit more confidence regarding more difficult cases than a lot of those existing companies that have been mentioned here before. Not sure yet if I'll be utilizing their service, but if my response to United gets denied again, I may just give them a try.

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/airhelp/

apercele79

I just got an email from airhelp that they are trying to compensate me for a cancelled flight but I did not know whether they are legit or not...

JY1024

Welcome to FlyerTalk apercele79.

Let's move your query over to the Travel Tools forum. Maybe others there have heard of similar services.

Cheers,
JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

teddybear99

Are they considered lawyers? If yes, and you are in the United States, it is my belief that soliciting you directly is illegal. It's like lawyers hanging out at hospitals and giving you their card when you had an accident.

justsawaufo

I have a case "pending" at AirHelp for approx 4 months now, this is a simple case based EC Regulation 261 (EC 261). The case has been submitted to the airline but no update has been provided ever since. I am calling AirHelp reps on a weekly basis but get different answers from each rep, one rep says they had to resubmit it last week, the other say he don't see anything that verfies that and that we simply have to wait. There is no consistency or log of call details which raises red flags on my end.

Did anyone experience AirHelp and actually received compensation?

Thanks

Silver Fox

I would do it myself, don't know what airline you flew but there are lots of extremely knowledgable people and threads on FT that are both airline and EU261 specific and most all end in success.

y2chen

I ultimately submitted my case mentioned upthread shortly after posting.

Short version:
Not a scam, worthwhile if only so they can pester the airline for you instead.
I had no issues with their email help. No experience with phone reps.
They'll communicate with the airline until they determine the airline refuses to do anything else, which could take a year.
Then, if they take your case to court, that will definitely take a while, so just chill while they do all the work.

Long version:
That wound its way through the court system in the Netherlands, where my flight was departing from, and I got my compensation something like 18-20 months after submission. Along the way, I periodically emailed them (every few months) to check on the status as I was still getting correspondence from United in the form of additional e-cert vouchers. I was kept up to date with why it was taking so long (United refusing to respond, taking my claim to court, waiting to get their legal team set up, etc). I never tried calling them though, so no idea how well versed their phone reps are. Whenever they needed more information, they emailed me. From the time they told me they were taking my claim to court to when I got an email saying they had money for me was about 10 months.

Given the run around I was given by the airline when I tried to claim this myself, and the fact that throughout the waiting period and had to do nothing else myself but check on the status of my claim, I'd say their services are well worth it. After I got my payment, I had to route it through an international payment gateway in order to get my money to a US bank account and so lost a couple percentage points in the conversion, but it was a lot better than the jack squat I would've gotten without their help.

TWA884

In the Los Angeles Times:

IntFF

There is a tricky issue of which compensation law for delays applies - of which country (and there are big differences). Like country where flight originated or where airline based. Maybe it is clear in the law/s, but airlines might try to use it.

I had a personal case like this a few years ago and I gave up. I did not have the time to research exactly the laws, send them quotes, etc.

FredMerkle

One thing that has twice reimbursed my fare completely is the EU strike rule... Air France put me on flights thst got me there almost as fast as the original itinerary during one of their seemingly semi-annual strikes, and after weeks of runaround they've paid it all back. In my experience it's more about tenacity than legal acumen... if you know you're in the right and don't give up, and you can point to the rule or law, they eventually acquiesce. I feel like using this service would mostly help of you don't want to deal with the hassle yourself, but for me it's all part of the fun!