Theres nothing like it. Packing up your short shorts and tight vest, and wrangling together your group of gays for a week of partying and misbehaving down in the Gran Canaria, or Mykonos or even Sitges. You’ve spent all of the past two months working out at the gym and it’s finally time to show it all off in a tight pair of speedos. What could go wrong? Well, it turns out a lot…
Your dreams of working on your tan and nabbing yourself a local could be dashed in a second with a flight cancellation. The recent bad weather and strikes across Europe means it’s more likely than ever that you’ll be standing at departures at Luton, all packed up with nowhere to go. Having spent all night organising your jockstraps according to colours could all be in vain, not to mention all the money you already spent on fun stuff to do when you’re out there. You could miss your one-on-one massage with Mateo!
Even if you’ve got yourself to the hotel, had your week of fun, you could always be stuck at a foreign airport, hanging around, sucking on a giant Toblerone worrying about all the meetings you’ll have to cancel for the next day. NIGHTMARE. There’s also no accounting for all the other costs that could roll out from a cancelled flight, from missed trains to extra nights at a hotel. It’s stressful, it’s expensive and it’s just down right heartbreaking. It was suppose to be a week a relaxing, blowing off some steam, and getting down and dirty but instead it’s ended with running franticly around a Spanish airport in a novelty penis mask.
DON’T PANIC! We here at Qx have you’re back, so here’s all you need to know if your cancelled flights have screwed up your galavanting in the sun…
Know your stuff!
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. EU regulation EC 261 gives passengers the right to be reimbursed for flight cancellations. If you go down through the right channels the airline is obligated to re-imburse costs, as well as pay you flight cancellation compensation. This compensation could be up to €600 so it’s well work making sure if you’re eligible for it or not.
Steps take when your flights are cancelled:
If you find yourself at the mercy of an airline due to a cancelled flight you have to make sure you do to the following:
- Keep a hold on your boarding pass, and all travel documents
- Make sure you know why your flight has been cancelled
- Request an alternate flight to your destination or refund
- Make a note of the arrival time at your destination
- Ask the airline to pay for your meals and refreshments (yes, really)
- Don’t sign anything or accept any offers that may waive your rights, don’t be handing out your John Hancock
- Get the airline to provide you with a hotel room
- Keep your receipts if your canceled flight ends up costing you extra money
You’re due a refund!
If you’re missing out on a Spanish beach sipping on a Pina Colada, you’re due our money back. You’re due a full or partial re refund of your original ticket and a return flight to your point of departure. That’s a given. You’re also due the earliest possible alternative transport to your final destination. If the airline can’t provide you with one, try another one. But you don’t want to miss out on the holiday, you need a new ticket to your final destination at a later date of your choosing, subject to availability. According to EC 261, when a flight is cancelled, you should be offered the choice between: Reimbursement within seven days of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought and, when relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure OR Re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity or rerouting, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date.
If you need overnight accommodation, they must provide you with a hotel room and transport to and from the airport. Kick back at one of those sad airport hotels, and crack open a bottle of rose.
You’re due compensation!
You’ve missed out on some of your holiday, precious hours of tanning just got snatched away from you. That means you’re due compensation. Under EC 261, you are entitled to compensation for your cancelled flight provided it’s to/from the EU, have a confirmed booking on that flight, they didn’t tell you 14 days before, your flight is cancelled because of not-so-extraordinary circumstances like “technical difficulties” or “operational circumstances”. Unless a T-Rex made its way onto the runway and destroyed the plane you were suppose to fly on, it’s safe to say you’re probably eligible.
It’s really worth looking into compensation because you could get somewhere between €250 and €600 which could mean another holiday with the gays! Maybe a city break this time?
Where do you go for help with all this?
Luckily, there are people out here who are dedicated to getting you exactly what you’re owed. Tackling all this alone is daunting and takes up a whole bunch of your time. Most airlines will do everything they can to get out of paying anything so you need someone on your side, fighting your corner. AirHelp are the leading flight compensation company in the world, and they can really help you out with the whole process. They’re experts in getting people what they’re due if a flight is delayed, cancelled or if they’ve been denied boarding. It comes highly recommended by people who’ve sought their advice, getting a 9.5 score on Trustpilot. PLUS you don’t have to pay AirHelp a fee if you don’t manage to get compensation. There’s no reason not to reach out to them to see if the could help.
If you’ve found yourself stuck because of a flight cancellation, and know you deserve your money back head on over to AirHelp to see if they could help.
