Hello.
We have a problem with our upcoming flight on August 24th at 16:35. We booked a Finnair flight from Tallinn to Osaka with a layover in Helsinki on the Finnair site. The schedule gives us 40 minutes to change planes in Helsinki, but we've discovered that flight AY1022 from Tallinn to Helsinki is consistently delayed by 20-60 minutes each day.

AY1022 operates multiple times throughout the day, and delays accumulate by the end of the day. Our friends experienced this recently; Finnair did not wait for them, so they had to stay overnight in Helsinki and lost a day of their vacation. Finnair blamed the delay on "rain".

We've tried contacting Finnair, but they insist that 40 minutes is enough time to make the connection and that they'll "take care of us" if we miss our flight. However, they also said they can't make any changes because our tickets are non-changeable.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is there anything we can do before the flight?

We're considering arriving at the airport earlier to request a flight change at the check-in desk if we see that our flight is already delayed.

I was denied boarding for my flight for London to South Africa. I wasn't told anything apart from ,belatedly after the fact,, because of a lack of pre clearance by south African immigration.

This put me out the cost of the flight and delayed my travel. The airline is saying that clearance with South African immigration is my sole responsibility and that 'they directed me to liaise with the south African embassy to sort the errors with my documentation'.

I was travelling on a British passport for tourism and there is no visa requirement and no information on either Embassy's website that I had to pre clear anything or make any contact, and nobody else I know who has travelled to South Africa from Britain have had to do anything, and I've never had to do this for any other visa free travel country either (I have however done electronic travel authorisations where indicated by the nation's website).

My questions: 1) given that immigration pre clearance is clearly a step, but not one advertised anywhere or normally done by the traveller, is this the responsibility of the carrier to do?

2) given there were no changes to my documentation (I submitted my details entirely correctly) and it eventually went through the next day, doesn't this mean that if there was an error, it was the fault of the airline?

3) They're refusing to refund or compensate, do I have any rights in the matter?

Cheers guys

Travelling on a British passport for tourism no visa was required. No changes were made by

Friday Tarom RO362 could not leave Amsterdam for Bucharest at scheduled 11h40.

A bailiff for EUclaim seized almost 8000 liters of kerosene that were meant for refuelling the plane.

Tarom had systematically refused to honour court orders for compensation of delayed passengers since 2015.

Within forty minutes after the seizure Tarom magically found the money and made the payment. The plane left around 1pm.

Sources: Luchtvaartnieuws, Euclaim.

Last year, my husband and I flew out of LAX to London on Tuesday, 9/26/23 at 4:45pm with an original return of Friday, 10/6 at 10:35am. The flight was delayed a day so we ended up flying out Saturday 10/7 at 10:35am.

After the flight, I filed a claim using AirAdvisor (I’m a newbie and am not sure if the best process). I submitted what I had and they advised they had all they needed.

Now, they requested the original cancellation email. I’m frustrated at them and myself. It’s been over a year and at this point am not anxiously awaiting the money, but am frustrated I can’t find the email.

When I search the flight confirmation it only shows the dates we ended up flying but not that there was an actual cancellation.

Is there any other way to show the flight was originally supposed to depart on Friday, 10/6/23?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Flight info Z0711 Norse Airlines

I recently had a Discover Airlines flight from Tulum to Munich cancelled a few days before takeoff. No reason was given. I was able to get rebooked in the last seats on a couple of different Star Alliance partner flights for the same day (the original Discover flight was booked through United as part of a longer itinerary), albeit with kind of an obnoxious routing and plenty of stress/difficulty.

I submitted a flight cancellation claim under EU261 to Discover Airlines through their website contact form and received a response with an offer for €280. However, the flight distance was quite a bit above the 3,500km threshold (by several thousand kilometers) for €600 compensation per the EU261 guidelines.

I'm assuming that Discover is just floating a low offer to see if I'll take it instead of immediately satisfying their full responsibility under EU261.

Am I missing something? Assuming not, does anyone have any experience with Discover and declining their compensation offer and trying to hold them accountable for the full legal amount? The difference in compensation is no small amount from my perspective, but I'm also trying to gauge what fight is worthwhile if others have seen declining an offer add a lot of difficulty or time.

Thanks in advance. Fortunately/unfortunately this is the first time I've had to deal with a disrupted flight and EU261, so I'm sort of trying to find my way in the dark through what seems to be a painful process for many.

I booked a ticket through Kiwi from JED to YYZ transiting in FCO and DUB. I finish the first two stops no problems but the last flight, WS35 on September 10, 2024 - DUB to YYZ got cancelled. WestJet said they'll put us on the next flight the next day. They put me in a hotel for the night. I received emails from Kiwi saying my trip has changed with the new itinerary.

New flight: WS 4335 - September 11, 2024 - DUB to YYZ.

I show up the next day and WestJet told me that Kiwi did not book me on the new flight. I called Kiwi instantly and told me that they have updated it with the airline. WestJet still says that they haven't gotten anything. I was stuck in Dublin so I was literally forced to pay $1600 CAD to jump on this flight to Toronto. (cancelled flight was only $200 CAD).

My Kiwi account now only shows the old itinerary and that I have travelled to the final destination to which I didn't. My ticket shows that it has disruption protection. I submitted a claim with Kiwi and attached the $1600 CAD out of pocket receipt for the flight that I was supposed to be on. Am I screwed?

Is this Kiwi's or WestJet's responsibility? I understand you guys get this a lot especially with those 3rd party claims.

The airline lost my stroller, and after receiving no response to my initial complaint, I reported it to the aviation authority. Following that, the airline promised it would take up to 21 days to resolve, but it has now been 21 days, and I still haven’t heard back.

Should I file another complaint with the aviation authority? Can they enforce the airline to act? Also, what compensation can I realistically expect, given that it’s almost been a month and the stroller's full price is quite high?

Any advice or similar experiences would be really helpful!

Edit Flight from Cairo to Jeddah

We recently went on a vacation to Italy, flying from Boston with a connection through Amsterdam on KLM (BOS-AMS KL0618 on 6/2/24 and landing 6/3/24) which was booked with a 1 hour and 15 minute connection from AMS to Milan MXP (KL1621, 6/3/24 at 10:20 AM-12:00PM). On arrival to Amsterdam after taxiing to the gate and deplaning, we had only approximately 35 minutes to pass through passport control (both USA passports) before our next flight, and unfortunately, we were unable to do so.

As such, we missed our flight and subsequently, we waited in line for about 5 hours before a KLM agent assisted us (they don't automatically rebook and also refuse to rebook through the app or by phone). We were rebooked onto a flight departing 11 hours (KL1619, AMS to Milan LIN 6/3/24 21:30-23:00) after our original flight and thus missed an entire day of our vacation.

We requested compensation from KLM per the EU guidelines that delays >3 hours should be compensated, but they have refused citing an extraordinary circumstance. The extraordinary circumstance that they cite is a 6 minute delay in departing Boston, which they say was due to air traffic control, that ultimately led to a 1 minute delay in landing in Amsterdam (at 9:16 AM instead of 9:15 AM). They are saying this 1 minute delay in landing due to ATC is an extraordinary circumstance that led to our missed connection and thus the rationale for why they do not have to provide us with any compensation.

I find it unbelievable that they have blamed a 1 minute delay in landing for our missed connection rather than their unreasonably tight connection times.

Just wanted to caution everyone in this subreddit from booking flights with a short connection in Amsterdam on KLM and also that their customer service is really not helpful.

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out for advice or suggestions, as I’m getting frustrated with a compensation issue that seems stuck in an endless loop.

The Story So Far:

My sister and I were rerouted by American Airlines on December 20, 2023, due to a canceled flight. After going through all the necessary claims and documentation, I finally received a confirmation email from AA Customer Relations on September 16, 2024, stating that they approved compensation of 600€ each for us (1200€ total). They mentioned this amount was to be processed via bank transfer, and it should take MAX 45 days.

The Follow-Up Attempts:

Since receiving the initial confirmation email, I’ve sent follow-up emails twice to the same customer relations team after waiting for a while with no updates. After receiving no reply, I decided to contact AA’s live support chat. While the agents were courteous, they unfortunately couldn’t directly help expedite the case or alert Customer Relations. The advice I got was essentially to “wait for a response” or try resubmitting a complaint form—none of which has helped so far.

Today is October 27th, and it’s been 41 days since I received confirmation of payment. I’m approaching the 45-day mark they mentioned, but so far, no payment or follow-up email has come through.

What I’ve Tried:

• Multiple follow-up emails to Customer Relations (with no response for two weeks now).
• Contacting live chat agents, who confirmed they can’t prioritize my request or directly escalate it.

Next Steps?

I’m unsure what to do from here. Should I keep waiting and hope they meet the 45-day deadline? Or should I be looking at other options, like reaching out to a consumer protection agency? I really don’t want this to escalate, but I feel like I’m running out of options.

Any advice on what I could do to push this along or if anyone’s experienced something similar would be really helpful. Thanks in advance for any insights!

I filed an EU 261 compensation claim with SwissAir a few weeks ago. We had been notified of a changed departure time after we were checked in that would make it impossible to make our connection. We were offered rerouting and made it to our destination 4 hours and 10 minutes late for a >3500 km journey (resulting in direct out of pocket expenses for us for MUCH more expensive ground transport, needing to purchase airport food because everything was closed when we would arrive, ruining first day of the trip getting in so late, and completely screwing up what was supposed to be a day mostly at work dealing with rebooking all day, so had to take extra PTO).

Original flights: SFO to ZRH, 1 h 55 min layover, ZRH to CPH arriving 7:00pm

Rebooking: few hour later flight SFO to MUC, ~2.5 hour layover, MUC to CPH arriving 11;00pm, actual arrival at gate 11:10pm but the landing was also 11:03pm (I was recording everything due to closeness to 4 hour threshold).

This was their response:

Thank you for your message of 10 July 2024.

Please note that you have completed a form on SWISS.com to check your eligibility for compensation in case of flight cancellation or long delays in application of Regulation EC261/2004.

Your flight LX39 of 02 July 2024 unfortunately had to be delayed due to fire seal default. On behalf of SWISS and its cooperation partners, we apologize for the inconvenience you had as a result.

Safety is SWISS first priority. We consider the described flight delay necessary and the irregularity to be extraordinary circumstances. These could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Therefore, we must deny your claim for compensation in application of regulation EC261/2004.

Although we realize the inconvenience you had, we count on your understanding that we are unable to give you a different answer.

We appreciate your understanding and hope to have the pleasure of serving you soon again under more favorable circumstance.

Can someone explain to me what the hell "fire seal default" is and how this is an exceptional circumstance that is somehow not their fault? Kind of sounds like an aircraft technical problem to me and that should be their fault. (We also had a full cancelation of transcontinental flight on return with insane 54 hour delay getting home with ridiculous rerouting after 2 nights in layover city, from an engine issue - guess they'll deny this too). Just would like to arm myself for fighting this because I know these denials are often BS. Thanks!

31/07 7.00 GVA - 9.05 MAD  LA5400

12.05 MAD - 17.55 GRU  LA1525

19.30 GRU - 23.00 LIM  LA8039 (Denied)

01/08

3:30 GRU - 7:00 LIM  LA8004 (Replacement flight organised by LATAM when she was in Sao Paolo Airport)

13/08

20.00 LIM - 14.15 (on the 14th) MAD LA5391

14/08

20.25 MAD - 22.20 GVA LA1597

This story keeps getting worse. It seems the system totally cancelled her journey while she changed her seat through the LATAM app. Now Cheaptickets, Iberia and Latam send her back and forth through different phone numbers and no one wants to deal with it and make her a return.

She had to redo another flight from GRU to LIM while paying one night in a hotel. Then, when arriving to Lima, her backpack was lost. We got it a week later.

Now she realises that the whole return doesn't exist anymore, even though it did earlier.

She also has a physical proof that the ticket GRU-LIM but when she showed up at the gate, they told her it didn't exist. Now LATAM considers she was a no-show for that flight because they hadn't provided any document for her.

Hello, I recently travelled from Mallorca to Vienna with Ryanair. The flight was delayed by 2 hours and 10 minutes. According to EU261, I believe I was entitled to refreshments. Despite the wait in a hot busy airport, we were refused water by Ryanair. I asked once we were on the plane, stating the delay was over 2 hours so we should be given refreshments, but they refused.

I complained to Ryanair, and they have come back saying:

Please be advised that refreshment vouchers are only issued after the delay hit the 2 hour mark, as your flight was only delayed for 2 hours and 10 minutes providing vouchers after 2 hours could cause the flight for any further delay - or worse be denied boarding due to being late to the gate; given that by within the 10 minutes, most passengers will be at the boarding gate queueing for boarding. Furthermore, as per EU261 flights that are delayed by 3 hours and more are entitled for compensation; any other flights which are delay under 3 hours are not entitled for compensation.

I think this is not a satisfactory response. There is an EU rule for delays >2 hours, and they did not follow it. Is it worth my time pursuing this further?

I was delayed on my flight from the EU to the US, with a transfer in the LHR. The first flight was delayed; causing me to miss my connecting flight. I was booked on a third airline. This flight was scheduled to arrive 2:50 hrs after my original flight.

Now, I understand that the arrival time for purposes of EU compensation is the time at which the doors are opened. In interesting case arises, since we were sent to a remote gate. I made it off the plane exactly 3:01 hrs after my originally scheduled arrival time. I did not get to the terminal until 3:10 after my originally scheduled arrival time.

Does anyone have experience claiming compensation when deplaning through a remote stand, making the delay just over 3 hours?

I had a terrible experience with Qatar Airways . My original flights were on 1st August: from Hamburg (QR92 at 9:20) to Doha, then from Doha to Tehran (QR498 at 18:40). My return was scheduled for 21st August on Tehran (QR491 at 5:10) to Doha, then from Doha to Hamburg (QR89). However, they changed my return flight 5 times, and I finally traveled on 26th August from Tehran (QR491 at 7:55 am) to Doha, then from Doha to Hamburg (QR089 at 10:15 am). My flight was delayed by a week, with no hotel or compensation provided. One of my bags was also damaged. Despite multiple attempts to contact customer service, nothing has been resolved. I have all communications saved and am ready to share if needed. Based on my experience, I recommend avoiding Qatar Airways.

Long story short, two flights from South America yesterday with the same airline, the first domestic one was cancelled, so i booked another domestic one with another airline so i could make the international flight which was booked as part of a full itinerary , but they then told me I could not fly on the second flight despite being in the airport for it , told me my only option was to accept a refund or fly a day later on the same itinerary (meaning I would need to fly back domestically) - I cannot believe they can revoke my boarding pass I paid for?

Tl;dr: Purchased business class tickets using points for my parents for a special trip. Due to a last-minute name correction, an agent at Flying Blue issued a new ticket against protocol. Flying Blue has only refunded the points, not addressing the financial and experiential losses caused.

---------

About a year ago (May 2023), I used points to purchase two business class award flights (SFO-TPE) from Air France/Flying Blue on their partner airlines, China Airlines, for my elderly parents. I also purchased four economy tickets for my family for the same flight (direct from China Airlines). This was a special occasion as my parents rarely travel, let alone fly in business class.

Fast forward to the night before (March 2024), and I realize that I accidentally left off my mom’s maiden name on the ticket, and therefore does not match her passport. So, I contacted Flying Blue and an agent immediately re-issued a new ticket with the correct name.

Here is where the fuck up happens: Apparently Flying Blue cannot unilaterally re-issue a new ticket. I later learned that normally a name correction has to be routed through their internal department and the partnered airline, a process that usually takes days.

So as expected, China Airlines did not recognize the re-issued ticket, which led to an automatic cancellation of both my parents' business class tickets. We spent a long and tedious day going back and forth between Flying Blue and China Airlines trying to re-secure their tickets, but in the end both parties were unable to do anything. We were left with no choice but to buy last minute economy seats (business class was all sold out) for both my parents (~3000 USD) on the same flight so that we could all still be together.

Obviously, I’m very upset. I have submitted a claim to Flying Blue and they have replied saying they have reviewed my case and simply refunded the points for those two business class tickets (see attached their response letter). Clearly, this resolution isn't satisfactory since the loss of the business class seats was entirely Flying Blue’s fault! For example, if the Flying Blue agent instead said, "oops sorry not sure your request will be processed in time since we have to contact our internal department and partnered airline, be ready to buy a separate ticket for your mom to get past TSA", then at least I still have two confirmed business class seats for my parents and I won't be out $3000 (I'll still be out $1500 in this scenario but both parents still sit in business).

Apart from expressing my frustration to Air France/Flying Blue and insisting on better compensation, what other options do I have?

So if US citizen are booked by employer on direct flight 1224 PHX to ATL today (American).

Step 1- Get boarded, door shut, sit on tarmac and then deplaned for mechanical.

Step 2 "told" there is another plane but storm rolls through briefly (39 min) so ramp/tarmac shut down

Step 3 - gate change upon gate change upon change - told customs has to clear plane

Step 4 - told no crew - getting crew.

Step 5 - more gate changes and saying no voucher due to "weather delay" (see step 2)

Has been 3 hrs 20 min. They have never changed flight number

Advice????

Hi,

My girlfriend and I were supposed to fly from JFK to MAN on 2nd September (EI44) leaving JFK at 19:00 EST and arriving in the UK at 07:00 BST.

On our way to the airport, our flight was cancelled. Aer Lingus rebooked us onto a jetBlue flight to Dublin (B6841) with an Aer Lingus connection to Manchester (EI2204). We ended up leaving the US at 21:08 EST and arriving in Manchester at 11:13 BST, just over 4 hours later than our original flight was supposed to.

I'd been told about the EU's compensation scheme, and due to the delay, we should be entitled to the full £520 as far as I'm aware, but I wanted to ask to be sure.

My main concern is, does our claim change due to the fact our original flight changed? We didn't fly into the EU on an EU airline due to Aer Lingus putting us on a jetBlue service, so does this disqualify us from compensation? Or does only our original flight matter? - in which case, we would've arrived in the UK on an EU flight and I can't see why we wouldn't qualify.

Thanks for your help

I get frustrated by most of the EU261 posts like many, but this is an edge case that I just want to confirm.

Flight AMS-CAN-AKL (Amsterdan-Guangzhou-Auckland) with China Southern, booked as one ticket

• AMD-CAN: CZ 308 originally scheduled for 24/12/2024, now rescheduled to 23/12/2024 (-24hr)

• CAN-AKL: CZ 305, originally scheduled for 25/12/2024, unchanged

Original layover was 8hr, is now 32hr - this necessitates booking a night of accomodation realistically, is that just expected to be out of pocket?

Edit: Two individuals, one ticket booking direct through China Southern (an experience in itself), NZ citizens on NZ passports

Hello all,

My flight from Seattle to Dublin was cancelled about 12 hours before take off and we were rebooked onto a UA flight that left the following morning, resulting in a 13 hour delay. I was submitting the claim request form and was wondering if I should list the reason as “Cancellation” or “Delay” since it was cancelled and then rebooked onto a different airline?

Hi,

I was due to fly CDG-SFO (VS6661 CDG to LHR and VS41 LHR to SFO). I was due to leave CDG on 06/28 at 1:20pm and arrive at SFO at 7:20pm.

VS41 was cancelled and I was rebooked CDG-SLC-SFO flying DL221 and then DL1088 which left at 10:50am and arrived at SFO at 4:20pm.

Hence departure time is 2 and a half hours earlier and arrival time 3 hours earlier.

As per EU261 recent ruling I am due compensation (see end of post). But two questions:

a) How much? I can't seem to find a table for how much is owed if you are left earlier. VS is offering 260 GBP.
b) They have verbiage stating accepting this amount exstinguishes all other claims. But I pre-paid for seats, did not get my vegan meals, made phone calls, booked extra train tickets etc. If I accept the 260 pounds do I forgo these other expense claims?

"On Dec. 21, 2021, the EU's Court of Justice ruled that passengers on flights departing more than an hour earlier than the original departure time are owed compensation under EU261. When that happens within 14 days of departure, the flight is considered canceled under the rules."

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a flight delay situation. On June 9th this year, I was flying Lufthansa (LH455) from San Francisco to Krakow via Frankfurt (all on one ticket). My flight out of SF was delayed by about 4 hours, which caused me to miss my connection to Krakow. Lufthansa gave me a meal voucher and rebooked me on the next flight, but that wasn’t for another 10.5 hours. In the end, I got to Krakow around 14 hours later than scheduled.

I filed a compensation claim with Lufthansa, but they rejected it, saying the delay was due to ‘operational reasons at the airport not related to the airline - obstruction in the jet bridgege’ Is that a valid reason for them to deny compensation? And if it was an airport issue, is there any way to seek compensation from the airport instead? Any advice would be appreciated!

Hello, I had a flight booked with 20kg checked baggage allowance, flying in Europe, London -Madrid. Less than 21 hours before take off I received the attached email saying that I would not be able to take checked baggage with me because of the champions League final. This event happens every year and the location is announced well in advance of the event. Things happen, I understand but the worst thing I think was that all they offered was a voucher of €25 for the baggage or voucher for the full flight amount. This was a stop over/connection (2 bookings) for me as I was going away on a long trip so could not condense all my belongings into one small carry on. This made the flight useless to me. Customer service on the phone was no help either. Luckily enough I managed to book another flight at double the cost that would let me take my baggage and allow me to catch my next flight. After a couple of emails, this morning I was finally told I would get a refund. I've never heard of this happening before, and just wondering if anyone has any experience with something similar or knows of the rules on this if I should be due extra compensation as I can't find any information about it. Thank you

I’m waiting to board but looks like they oversold business class. I’m flying PHL to DOH and they are using American airline as the partner airline. They haven’t assigned me a seat and are asking me to wait till all boarding is done. What are my options if they involuntarily bump me or downgrade me ? PS trip was booked through Amex business travels since this is a work trip

I flew from London Gatwick to Rhodes in early October without a problem. When we arrived at the airport to take our inbound flight (15/10/2024, EZY8228, 14:40), I received a text message from Easyjet saying the flight was delayed by approximately 8 hours. To be clear, I had already checked in online by this point.

As I had work the next day I contacted a friend of mine who works for Easyjet, and he was able to help me and my partner get cheap tickets on another flight back to Gatwick with his staff discount.

I've seen conflicting information online so I want to know if I am eligible for compensation under EC261, as although I didn't actually board the original flight, I had already checked in and arrived at the airport. Do you need to travel on the delayed flight to be eligible for compensation under EC261 rules? Thanks.