Grounded and Furious: The Secret Loophole That Could Get You Big Compensation for Your Cancelled UK Flight
Ever had your travel plans slapped in the face by a good ol’ British Airways snafu? Well, if you or someone you know got caught in the great UK airport meltdown this week, don’t just sit there stewing in a sea of delayed flights and frustrated travelers—there’s actually some dosh on the table to cushion that blow. Picture this: over 1,000 flights tossed into chaos by a mysterious ‘technical glitch,’ spreading its havoc from Manchester to London and everywhere in between, creating what some called ‘absolute carnage’ in crowded lounges filled with tired souls clutching onto the hope of late-summer sunshine. Sounds like a nightmare, right? But hey, amidst the chaos and those infamous Heathrow grumbles, there’s a silver lining of compensation waiting if you know where to look and what hoops to jump through. Curious what you’re exactly entitled to and how to claim it? Let’s unpack that tangled suitcase of info before the next announcement cracks over the tannoy. LEARN MORE
If you or somebody you know has been slapped in the face by this week’s travel delays, there’s some compensation to take advantage of.
Rumblings of furious passengers across various UK airports emerged yesterday (8 September), with more than 1,000 flights thrown into chaos by what was being described as a technical glitch.
Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast City, Aberdeen, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Glasgow, as well as London’s Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London City airports were all impacted, leaving tens of thousands of holidaymakers twiddling their thumbs and waiting for answers.
Posting images of crowded departure lounges on social media, they complained of ‘absolute carnage’ as their dreams of late-summer sunshine were put on pause, or in many cases, destroyed.
“Accept technical fault beyond British Airways control but the lack of comms and information is shocking,” wrote one person, while a second fumed: “As usual Heathrow totally unprepared for anything.”
Even though this headache is a tough one to shift for those on the receiving end, Anton Radchenko (CEO of AirAdvisor) previously willed all cancellation victims to go to their gate agents as soon as the unfortunate news gets announced over the tanoy.
Over 1,000 trips abroad have been delayed across UK airports this week (Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
But what are you entitled to, exactly?
Citizens Advice pinpointed the four eligibility factors for those looking for cancellation compensation:
- Leaving from the UK – this is with any airline including Ryanair, easyJet, TUI, Jet2, British Airways and Emirates.
- Leaving from the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland – again, the airline does’t matter
- Arriving in the UK and was with a UK or EU airline
- Arriving in the EU and was with a UK airline
For delays of three or more hours, and travelling less than 1,500km, you can put in a claim for £220.
Less than four hours but over 3,500km distance? That’s £260. It’s £350 for three or more hours and between 1,500 and 3,500km.
And finally, four-hour delays and over 3,500km in the air potentially gets you £520 compensation.
Citizens Advice says: “Contact the airline – this needs to be the airline operating the flight, even if you booked it through another airline. The airline’s customer services department will usually help.
“Be ready to give all your flight details and booking reference numbers. Write your claim – say what went wrong and what you want the airline to give you. Include copies (not originals) of your tickets and any receipts.
“Keep records – keep copies of your claim and any response from the airline. Take notes if you speak to anyone from the airline – this could be useful if you decide to take your claim further.”
British Airways got it in the neck from disgruntled passengers on social media (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the National Air Traffic Service has some promising news for travellers affected by this week’s ‘technical issues’.
“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped,” its announcement read. “Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.”
It comes after monitoring service Flightradar estimated that four per cent of total UK air traffic had been bruised by technical problems.
British Airways went on to share in a statement of its own: “We were forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday afternoon. We’re doing everything we can to keep our customers updated and make arrangements for them to continue their journeys.
“We ask customers whose flights have been cancelled not to travel to the airport and to bear with us if they’re trying to get in touch, as our call centres are incredibly busy at the moment.”
Somehow, people flying in and out of Liverpool John Lennon and Nottingham East Midlands airport managed to avoid the mess, while London City Airport was forced to terminate 60 per cent of its scheduled journeys.Speaking to The Sun Travel, a woman from Manchester named Sarah revealed how flyers waiting at Lisbon Airport had been left ‘confused and upset’ by the whole thing.
“We arrived at the correct time for our 4.30pm flight to Heathrow but were then told our flight was four hours delayed,” she said.
“The queues are backing up at the BA check in desks with confused and upset people and crying babies.”
Let’s hope this fully resolves itself in the next 24 to 48 hours.
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