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FLIGHT DISRUPTIONSDisruption to flights, such as cancellations and delays, or missed connections, can cause considerate annoyance and inconvenience. But there are no regulations on compensation payments whatever the circumstances of the disruption. Typical airline terms and conditions include clauses which state that schedules and timings (and even dates!) are not guaranteed.Most airlines follow a Recommended Practice on “General Conditions of Carriage” from the International air Transport Association (IATA). The Recommended Practice is updated from time to time. The clauses on delays and cancellations in the most recent versions give passengers the choice, in the event of cancellation or failure to operate “reasonable according to schedule”, of a later flight on the same airline, or some other “mutually agreed” alternative transportation (“within a reasonable period of time”), or a refund. But you have to know to insist on your choice! Cancellation and delayIn practice, many airlines will provide refreshments or overnight accommodation for passengers whose flights have been cancelled or subject to a long delay. Or they may transfer passengers to other flights. But very few will voluntarily pay compensation in addition.Nevertheless, under provisions in the Warsaw Convention, an airline is liable for “damage occasioned by delay” (Article 19), although not if “he and his agents have taken all necessary measures to avoid the damage or it was impossible for him to take such measures ” (Article 20). In practice, any payment that an airline is prepared to make for a delay will at best be reimbursement of expenses that it accepts were directly and necessarily incurred as a result of the delay (such as meals or overnight hotel accommodation). Airlines generally do not accept any liability for inconvenience, stress or any consequential losses arising from the delay, unless they are required to do so as a result of court action. When a flight is cancelled, an airline is contractually obliged to provide alternative transportation (not necessarily by air) or a refund. But most airlines’ conditions of carriage specifically exclude liability for any consequential losses. In theory, it should be possible to argue that a cancellation is the same as a delay for the purposes of making a claim under the Warsaw Convention (because the Convention simply refers to “delay in the transportation by air”: and a passenger can be delayed as a result of cancellation). But in practice, the two are generally taken to be different. Schedule changesAll airlines change their schedules from time to time. This can result in significant changes to the time or even date of a flight, but these changes are not the same as flight cancellations. Details of schedule changes should always be notified to passengers in advance. For significant changes, most airlines will give a refund if the new flight times are not acceptable to the passenger.Missed connectionsMany air journeys involve changing between flights in order to get to the final destination. Sometimes they involve making a connection between two or more flights on the same airline; sometimes there may be more than one airline involved in providing the transportation. In either case, if the different legs of the journey are on the same ticket you should not be abandoned or lose out financially if disruption to one flight causes you to miss your connection with the next one.Most airlines follow guidelines under which the airline whose flight is late or cancelled, causing you to miss your connection, is responsible for rearranging your flights and for providing meals or overnight accommodation if appropriate. If you arrange your own flights using two or more different reservations, these are separate contracts and you will be on your own if things go wrong . Some of the no-frills airlines Websites specifically advise passengers of the dangers of this. It is good advice. Diverted flightsSometimes airlines are unable, for any number of reasons, to fly to the destination printed on the ticket. If your flight is diverted, the airline must get you to the destination airport on your ticket or reservation* - at no extra cost to you. Sometimes the airline may arrange buses or ask you to take a train and send in the receipt to be reimbursed. The AUC would prefer that passengers were not asked to make the initial outlay in this way, but accepts that it may sometimes be unavoidable. The important point is that it should, in the end, not cost you any extra to get to your destination. However, if the airline arranges a bus and you choose to go by other means you will have a struggle to get the airline to reimburse you.* The main exception to this would be if a flight was disrupted to avoid war or civil strife.
Trading Standards Division, 3rd Floor, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, Wirral CH44 8ED
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