Hi,

I took a few days of much needed vacation after a few stress-filled weeks, and decided to visit Cracow with a friend - just a long weekend. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong, and my vacation was drastically cut short because of it. Therefore, it would be nice to get some compensation from the culprits. Anyone have any experience and advice on who to contact and how, for compensation? The story's rather complicated.

Friday:

* We are in Brussels airport for our scheduled direct flight to Cracow with Brussels Airlines at noon. The flight doesn't seem to be on the board, and upon asking at the ticket counter we are informed that Brussels Airlines doesn't fly to Cracow anymore. We get a new ticket for the same evening to fly to Cracow (with LOT) through Frankfurt (with Lufthansa), arriving seven hours later than planned. We also get a � 17 meal voucher.

* The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt goes on as scheduled, but the LOT flight to Cracow is cancelled due to weather conditions. LOT pays our hotel in Frankfurt and books us on an Austrian Airlines (operated by Tyrollean) flight to Vienna the next day, after which we will continue with an Austrian Airlines (operated by Tyrollean) to Cracow. We also get a � 20 meal voucher, for the hotel which is confiscated by the Ramada hotel employee and we get some rather revolting buffet.

* This goes on as scheduled, but upon arriving it's clear our luggage is not there. It's still in Frankfurt. We receive a toiletry bag and nothing more. We arrive at our hotel, 36 hours later than expected. Brussels-Cracow is a 2 hour flight. Our luggage arrives another 32 hours later than we, Sunday evening. We leave back to Brussels the next morning.

Please, does anyone know who and how to contact to get some compensation for our lost weekend due to cancellations and lost luggage? Thanks !!

It looks like you did get your compensation. You were accomodated on other flights, given hotel and food vouchers. That's is pretty much the legal requirements. No one will give you money for messing up your holiday plans.

If you bought travel insurance you can try talking to who over wrote the policy. You may get some compensation there. Otherwise you just had a run of bad luck (or not checking your flights before going on holiday).

How far in advance did you buy your tickets? It seems very odd that you could have purchased tickets at the last minute for a flight that was being discontinued. If they were purchased more than a few days in advance, why didn't you reconfirm, or at least re-check, the schedule the day before you left?

This is what travel insurance is for. It also pays to check your flight status a day or two before flying, you might then have had a chance to get transferred to an earlier flight with another airline.

Send yourself a bill for not checking/confirming your flight prior to leaving for the airport.

Send God a bill for the bad weather.

I don't think the air carriers owe you anything.

As your flight was on an EU carrier, and cancelled without informing you, you may be entitled to compensation under EU regulation 261/2004:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004

However, I don't know what the airline has to do to show they have 'contacted' you. If it's the case that they emailed you, but it went to spam, I've no idea whether they can claim that was enough effort.

bobvangeel

Brussels Airlines owes you 250 euros per passenger for the cancelled flight. There is no may about it. It is also down to the airline to prove they informed you of the cancellation.

Hi, thanks! I don't think it went to spam as I did receive all their other communication...

In the EU, passengers have rights.
And leaving our luggage in Frankfurt was the fault of the airline.

Thanks!

We did get back � 250! Thanks for the help!

Not in the EU it isn't.

Does Brussels Airlines allow pax to check-in 24 hours prior to departure? If so, was the flight still scheduled then? (e.g., Did you happen to show up at the airport on the day they decided not to fly to Cracow anymore?)

Seems like I'm missing something here. I always recheck my flights three or four days ahead of time (mainly looking for equipment changes that could affect my seat assignment, or potentially upgrades), then again at T-24 hours. I encountered one 2 months ago where DL did indeed cancel my flight entirely (e.g., the route...permanently), but I was able to resolve via phone before setting out for the airport.

Did you ever figure out who tagged your bags incorrectly? (Or who lost them?)

Thanks for updating us - I'm glad you got something out of your misadventure.

If you complain to the national authority as well, Brussels Airline should have explained at the airport what your rights were under the EU directive. Failure to do so is a breach of the directive itself - would not get you any more comp, but it's shocking they didn't feel a duty of care to tell you.

As for people categorically stating 'you got your flight rebooked that's all they are due' I do wish they'd remember that in different jurisdictions, different laws apply. Fortunately some of the European contingent stepped in to correct the information provided, but what if they hadn't? The OP would have been left out of pocket, when he was entitled to compensation.

indeed i thought everyone knew about customer protection and privacy in EU / UK

and in my hours looking at trip insurance, ive not seen anything that has wording i feel comfortable with

From my time living and traveling in the UK and Europe, I believe this type of insurance product is more mature/mainstream and has better regulation standards than it does in the U.S. Based solely on ads I see in the Tube and other mainstream places, it appears to be sold by major companies and commonly bought by millions of people. It's a big, mature market that I'd be somewhat apt to trust with my purchase.

But I too have never felt comfortable buying it based in the U.S. It's unclear to me which insurance regulator holds jurisdiction and how thorough that jurisdiction is about travel insurance products. All I see are horror stories about travel insurance that won't pay out. My own state's insurance commission doesn't even discuss it on their website.

If my main insurance provider (USAA) sold it, I'd probably buy it because I trust their other products. Even if Prudential or Allstate sold it, I'd consider buying it. But it's never those guys...it's always some third-party link off of an airline website or a different insurance-related site and it's not always easy to figure out where they're based, where my insurance rights are in force, how award travel is valued, etc.

I would probably trust Allianz for term life insurance. I trust Amex for credit cards. I trust Thomas Cook for...I don't know...the little books with train schedules in them? Not sure I trust any of them for travel cover...

Sort of like we Americans don't fully understand EU passenger rights, I think a lot of us wrinkle our noses when someone from outside the U.S. posts "Just buy travel insurance and this won't be a problem."

my issue is more that everything is worded like "trip" "delay" "interrupt" etc

i want door to door coverage, and i have never seen coverage described that way