Have you experienced a flight delay, cancellation or downgrade that you’re sure qualifies for EU261 compensation but the airline won’t pay?
If so, you’re not alone.
Many airlines frequently reject EU261 compensation requests under the guise that unspecified “extraordinary circumstances” caused the problem. Those magic words relieve airlines of their responsibility to pay monetary compensation under the regulations established by the European Commission.
Even worse, other carriers put EU261 claims in an endless holding pattern, seemingly hoping passengers will eventually give up.
Jonathan Hay faced this situation last summer after Azores Airlines suddenly canceled his family’s flight home from vacation. Reading TPG’s guide to EU261 convinced Hay that the airline owed each member of his family 600 euros ($700).
However, after months of unsuccessful attempts at navigating the EU261 compensation process, Hay asked TPG for help.
Here’s his frustrating story and the steps you can take if an airline is refusing to pay your valid EU261 compensation request.
A canceled flight home from Europe
Last July, Hay, his wife, their three children and his parents went on an adventure to mainland Portugal and the Azores.
“I’m happy to tell you that the many tricks I’ve learned over the years from TPG came in handy,” Hay told me. “I was able to book most of our flights with points that I’ve accumulated from various credit cards. That alone saved us thousands of dollars! I was the travel hero.”
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Hay said the group had a thoroughly enjoyable and trouble-free two-week vacation in Portugal. But the trip ended on a decidedly sour note.
On what should have been the final day of their journey, the family arrived at Ponta Delgada Airport (PDL) on Sao Miguel Island, the capital of the Azores. The family was looking forward to getting back home. Their nonstop flight on Azores Airlines would have them back at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) in just a little under six hours.
That is, if Azore Airlines hadn’t delayed their flight multiple times and then eventually canceled it.
“Suddenly my entire family was stranded and I wasn’t sure what to do,” Hay recalled. “Azores Airlines didn’t give us much guidance. We were essentially abandoned.”
Hotel and food expenses after a canceled flight from Europe
Hay quickly began searching on the internet and found a hotel for the night that could accommodate the entire family. The unexpected overnight stay cost nearly $1,000 for the entire clan.
But Hay was unbothered.
According to the details of the EU261, Azores Airlines would be required to reimburse him for the group’s accommodations, food and transportation to and from the airport. He also calculated they would each receive the 600 euros ($700) in EU261 compensation. This is a payment that airlines are required to give passengers after a long-haul flight (over 3,500 kilometers, or about 2,175 miles) departing from Europe gets cancelled.
“It was definitely inconvenient and stressful,” Hay said. “But the EU261 benefits I knew we were entitled to made it much less so.”
The following afternoon, the group headed back to the airport, and after an additional delay of several hours, the Hays were finally airborne. They touched down in Boston about 27 hours after their originally scheduled arrival.
The next day, Hay began his pursuit of the EU261 compensation benefits — a mission that morphed into an unexpectedly challenging endeavor.
Asking for EU261 compensation … for 6 months
Initially, Hay assumed that the airline would quickly pay his family the compensation that EU261 requires.
But immediately, Hay hit a problem: Azores Airlines doesn’t have a dedicated EU261 claim form on its website. So Hay filed a general canceled flight complaint and then waited.
Over the course of six months, Hay periodically sent follow-up emails to Azores Airlines asking for the status of his request. Each time, he would receive what appeared to be an auto-generated response advising him that the airline was receiving a high volume of complaints.
It read:
“Dear Passenger,
Thank you for reaching out to SATA.
We are currently experiencing a higher than normal volume of complaints, resulting in an increased average response time from our Customer Care team.” (SATA/ Azores Airlines)
With that path clearly going nowhere, Hay next sent an email to the national enforcement agency of the EU261 in Portugal — Autoridade Nacional da Aviacao Civil.
In response, he received a form letter explaining that ANAC was unable to assign refunds to passengers. The email went on to encourage Hay to work with the airline and perhaps pursue “judicial or extrajudicial means.”
Hay said that after receiving that message from ANAC, he began to consider paying a third-party company to take over his EU261 complaint. Those companies charge about 30% of whatever they get back for the passenger.
Instead, Hay decided to turn to the source that made him into the travel hero his family considered him to be: TPG.
Asking TPG for help navigating this EU261 compensation request
When Hay’s request for assistance landed in my email box, he was just about ready to give up.
“I’m reaching out with a bit of a ‘Hail Mary,’ but figured it was worth a shot,” Hay wrote.
“I have read many stories on The Points Guy about you helping other travelers who felt stuck! At this point, I’m considering paying one of those third party companies that take a fee to chase these things down just in the hopes of getting something, but it seems like a poor outcome.”
After I reviewed Hay’s paper trail, I advised him to hold off on that next step. I could see he had made it easy for Azores Airlines to basically ignore his complaint. It appeared that all of his follow-up messages had been landing in an email box with an auto-responder attached. He had never reached a real person at the airline.
Then, when he sent his inquiry to ANAC, he wasn’t sure if he had followed the correct procedures for a formal complaint.
On Hay’s behalf, I sent a request to the Azores Airlines executive team to have his claim reviewed and expedited.
Because Hay had been waiting so long for the resolution to his case, I also advised him to submit a formal complaint with ANAC through their online form.
Good news: Your EU261 compensation is approved
I would love to say it was all smooth sailing from there, but it still took about eight more weeks before Hay finally received good news.
ANAC had reviewed Hay’s complaint and forwarded it to Azores Airlines, which was required to respond.
Here’s what the airline wrote to him:
“Dear Sir/Madam Jonathan Hay,
Regarding the complaint submitted by you to this Authority, we would like to inform you that ANAC, as the competent authority for executing the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004, establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding, cancellation or long delay of flights, with regard to airports located in Portuguese territory, requested due clarification from the air carrier as to the reasons for the flight disruption.
Following ANAC request, the air carrier agreed to pay the compensation provided for in the aforementioned Regulation.” (Formal response from the civil aviation authority in Portugal)
In the end, the airline agreed to pay each family member 600 euros for a total of 4,200 euros ($4,900). It also paid for nearly all of the hotel, food and transportation expenses Hay requested for their unexpected overnight.
Now that he’s successfully tackled this mission, Hay has retained his title of “travel hero” in his family.
“Overall, this is a relatively happy ending (ignoring, of course, the immense stress of the actual travel experience itself! Thanks again for your guidance here, and feel free to tell my story — hopefully, others can learn from it.
Jonathan Hay, Hay family Travel Hero”
How to make sure your EU261 compensation claim gets paid
EU261 provides powerful protection to travelers against the financial repercussions of flight cancellations, delays and downgrades. However, it also comes with some significant loopholes for airlines that go looking for them to avoid paying up.
The best way to protect yourself against airline shenanigans is to familiarize yourself with the EU261 regulation. Knowing what to ask for and how to ask for it can be the difference between getting compensation and not. It will also ensure you don’t set off on a mission impossible: wasting your time filing claims for cash the airline doesn’t owe you.
If you’re owed EU261 compensation, here are the simple steps to get the airline to pay.
File a formal request for EU261 compensation
If your flight delay or cancellation qualifies for EU261 compensation, and you’re at the airport, the airline is required to give you information about what it owes you under the circumstances.
In Europe, airlines typically hand out a little card with a summary of the regulations and instructions about filing your claim.
Even if the circumstances do not require the airline to pay you according to EU261’s conditions, your carrier still has a basic duty to care for you during extended flight delays and cancellations. That means the airline can’t just endlessly delay or cancel your flight and leave you stranded at the gate. Food, beverages, hotel accommodations and transportation to and from the airport must be provided to passengers.
If you don’t receive vouchers for these items, make sure to keep the receipts for all of your out-of-pocket expenses. You’ll need to submit those in your EU261 claim.
In Hay’s case, he said the airline didn’t provide any guidance about EU261 or how to file a complaint. But most airlines make it fairly easy to file an EU261 compensation claim through an online form.
It is critical that you specifically mention the EU261 when you file your claim. That will route your request to the correct department.
Escalate your claim
Unfortunately, because there is no exact definition of extraordinary circumstances, I know from my case files that, at least initially, a vast number of EU261 claims are rejected under that subjective term.
Of course, everyone can agree that bad weather is an extraordinary circumstance — airlines have no control over it. But other things like mechanical problems, worker strikes, timed-out crew and other events are less clear. Some airlines claim all sorts of things as extraordinary events, and it becomes very difficult for passengers to prove otherwise.
If your first request for EU261 compensation is rejected, don’t give up just yet. Ask for the specific reason for the denial.
If you can’t reach a real person to appeal your case at the airline, my advocacy organization Consumer Rescue can help. We constantly update a customer service database with the names and contact information of customer-facing executives at all the major airlines who have a history of helping consumers. Just send us a request and we’ll send you the contact information (free of charge).
File an appeal with the national enforcement body
If you’ve unsuccessfully appealed an unsuccessful EU261 compensation claim internally with the airline, it’s time to move your efforts to the national enforcement agency in the country where your problem occurred.
All countries that adhere to the EU261 regulation maintain an enforcement agency and this is where you will file a formal appeal.
The U.K. has adopted its own regulation identical to the EU261 called UK261. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority provides its own guidance on compensation appeals.
When you make your formal complaint, be certain to include the date, flight number and length of delay. If you’re uncertain of the exact delay, you can use the free version of FlightAware to find it.
Although the enforcement agencies are ironically not able to force an airline to pay you EU261 compensation, carriers are required to respond to your complaint via that platform. If the facts are on your side, a formal request for payment forwarded by the governing body of the European Commission almost always provides a strong nudge to the airline to process the claim.
Bottom line
The EU261 rules were set up to protect and compensate air passengers impacted by extended flight delays and cancellations. If you believe that you qualify for compensation, contact your airline and file a complaint. Make sure your claim contains the phrase “EU261 compensation request.”
If that doesn’t resolve the payment issue, you can file an appeal with the national enforcement body in the country your airline is operating from.
Of course, if that fails, you have one more tool in your problem-solving belt: Ask TPG for assistance. Send your request for help to ombudsman@thepointsguy.com, and I’ll be happy to help you, too, if I can!