Survey: Consumers expect compensation for flight cancellations

Survey: Consumers expect compensation for flight cancellations

There can be a variety of problems when flying. Most customers expect financial compensation in the event of serious delays or flight cancellations.

According to a survey, an overwhelming majority of consumers expect adequate compensation for severely delayed or canceled flights.

87 percent of the participants in a representative Forsa survey agreed to this, reported the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) in Berlin. 77 percent believed that passenger rights were an important achievement for the European Union, and 70 percent believed that this would motivate airlines to become more punctual and more consumer-friendly.

Every tenth participant stated that they had already made such a claim for compensation at least once. Of 99 people affected, 80 people reported that they had contacted the airline directly, with multiple answers possible. 15 people used the public transport arbitration board, and 24 went through a lawyer or one of the many legal tech platforms on the internet. These either buy their claims from customers (instant indemnification) or enforce them against payment from the companies (debt collection portals).

Compensation even for early flights

The EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation 261 of 2004 provides for lump-sum compensation between 250 and 600 euros in the event of long delays or flight cancellations. According to the most recent ruling by the European Court of Justice, even bringing the departure forward by more than an hour at short notice triggers such payments if the airline has not given notice in advance. The Frankfurt Regional Court has also overturned the clauses of the low-cost airline Ryanair, which wanted to make it more difficult for its passengers to access the Internet platforms.

Association board member Klaus Müller called on the new federal government to translate the words in the coalition agreement into action at the EU level. The traffic light coalition partners have decided that they want to maintain passenger rights at the previous level of protection. On the other hand, there is a proposal by the EU Commission for a new version, with which significantly lower compensation would be due.

Source From: Stern

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