What does an airline company owe you? The Women’s Travel Group has a few tips. How often does the pilot apologize by saying, the delay is due to the late arrival of the aircraft?
Bottom Line: is it weather, mechanical, staff shortage? Heard this too often? Be your own detective. Look at flight tracker and check weather from where the plane is coming and where you are. Save via screenshot any notices from the airline. You can call the airline and ask what the situation is. You can speak to staff. With the volcano situation described below, I asked the pilot who was hanging around with us peons.
What are you owed for a delayed or cancelled flight? The airline must offer you a replacement flight or a full refund. Some, but not all airlines, pay for meals and hotel. A stricter rule was pending at writing this article. It is likely the new administration will not pass it. My experience: after what is called “creeping delay” was as follows. Delta cancelled a NY-Mexico City flight because of the erupting Popocateptl volcano. The 8 hours were constantly delayed; we did not know the status of the flight. Delta gave each passenger a voucher for a budget meal. Everyone was angry at Mother Earth and at Delta. I saw the pilot and asked him why Delta did not explain to passengers what caused the creeping delay. He said, the Mexico City tarmac was cleared. Then wind changed and ash recovered the tarmac. Easy Jet, a European discounter, cancelled a Catania-London flight due to a country wide transportation strike. Though the cancellation was connected to an Italian strike, Easyjet lodged us in a hotel, served a hot dinner and breakfast and transferred us back to the airport next day. If you are in Europe, you should check flight laws there; Euro laws are often more customer friendly.
Bottom line: call the airline while you are sitting in the airport wondering. You have nothing to do anyway. It is amazing how people will stand in a line of 350 others, rather than call the airline. Try using the non toll free number for your airline. Ask for what you need. A new seat? Meal? Hotel? Ticket on another airline? Some airlines will give you a voucher for a partner airline and a replacement flight.
Baggage delay Delay is rare but upmost in traveler’s heads. 99% of all bags reach the destination on time. This delay can happen when a bag is transferred in your connecting airport from one plane to another. It is more likely if the planes are from different airlines. Smart tags as well as the airline apps update you on your bag. With one of our travelers, her smart tag showed her bag was in Frankfurt and misplaced when transferred to her second flight. But the bag was sent back to her home, as we were traveling. Everyone chipped in with clothes and her basic needs. But so much for the smart tag. This is rare
Bottom line, if you bag is delayed, check the amount DOT specifies as your compensation. Amounts relate to time delayed, where you are flying and what is in the bag. Contents needed to assist a passenger with their disability might generate a larger penalty. When my bag was delayed in Delhi due, to a total Heathrow computer, BA send us updates by email and text, and immediately put 50 Pounds into a bank account we could access. Three of us went out and bought lovely cotton Indian clothes and ayurvedic personal products. There was change left over by the way.
Broken seat or other annoyance once on the plane. ie if the seat is broken. The seat might not be safe. If safe, but uncomfortable, as in broken plastic arm rest, most airlines move you or give you something: frequent flier miles are one type of compensation. Bottom line: Show the issue to staff promptly.
If you companion is disruptive, the airline might move you or not. Complain to staff away from your seat mate and keep notes for later. I was on a plane years ago; the serviceman next to me had a gun. Apparently the law is he had to be in full uniform to carry a gun, and he was not. Staff discreetly moved me before confronting the soldier. A family wants your seat? You do not have to move; a recent attempt to guarantee families seats together failed in the courts.
Bottom line: Speak to staff quietly if your seat mate is acting up and you feel unsafe. Consider asking others near you to be witnesses. Write down their seat numbers. Record what you can discreetly; photo again what you can by pretending to do a selfie, but really photoing the perpetrator.
Award winning The Women’s Travel Group sends out tips from its 33 years of operating small group luxury tours for women. Send us any questions, none are silly. We have room on upcoming India, Day of the Dead in Mexico, Tuscany, Paris and more. Call us on 646 309 5607.
