During our Gondo trip we had some inconveniences with flights. We missed our connecting flight both ways because the first leg of our flights was late.
This is mainly a climbing blog and I don’t usually write about this kind of things but now I’ll make an exception. I don’t think there are too many experienced climbers around who have never missed their flights. I’ve personally experienced delayed luggage three times and I’ve missed my connecting flight twice. It’s fairly often considering I don’t travel that much.
There are big changes to be seen in the European airline industry if the European Court of Justice holds it’s opionion in cases C‑581/10 and C‑629/10. On May 15th they gave their Opinion of Advocate General which is in line with the Sturgeon Bock C-432/07. The final judgement will come out in about four months but as of now it looks like everyone with delayed flights of more than three hours are entitled to the same compensation as with denied boarding or cancelled flights.
The compensation depends on the flight distance and it is either 250€, 400€ or 600€. It applies to flights within Europe or with one point in Europe. Of course, the airlines are not too willing to pay this money and they are very reluctant to speak about it.
More reading on the issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004
http://curia.europa.eu/
Excerpt from C-581/10:
“passengers whose flights are delayed may rely on the right to compensation laid down in Article 7 of Regulation No 261/2004 where they suffer, on account of a delayed flight, a loss of time equal to or in excess of three hours, that is to say, when they reach their final destination three hours or more after the arrival time originally scheduled by the air carrier”
