It can happen to anyone. Whether you’re flying from Dubai or travelling to the other side of Siberia – a flight delay. It doesn’t matter how well you’ve planned these trips in advance, how early you’ve woken up to get to the airport on time or how well-prepared all of your travel documents are, despite even the most meticulous of plans, delays that are often out of our control happen fairly frequently. When this occurs, it can be a very frustrating time for everyone involved. Not only does this mean you miss your flight, but it also means that you’re now stuck in the airport for an indeterminate amount of time. However, just because you’re delayed doesn’t mean you’re stranded, or powerless. In fact, if you find yourself in a very specific situation you might be able to take a lot of very lucrative actions.
Below we’ll take a look at what to do in the event that your flight is severely delayed or cancelled.
Know your rights
As it happens, as a passenger on a flight you actually have quite a few rights that protect against flight delays and cancellations. It’s important to brush up on these before you travel, so that in the event that something does occur, you’re clued up about what to do in that particular situation.
For example, if you do find yourself egregiously delayed, then it’s vital to know that if the delay is severe enough that you’re entitled to up to €600 worth of compensation – likely more than you paid for the flight in the first place. If you think you might be entitled to this compensation, then contact the airline in question or speak to a service representative and ask about it. Alternatively, you can contact a company such as AirHelp who can help you with a flight refund as well as additional compensation.
Check your connecting flights
A flight delay in one airport might upset your upcoming transfers at other airports. It’s therefore important that you check your future flight schedule the second you’re informed that your flight is going to be delayed. That way, if find out that your current delay is going to cause you to miss an upcoming connecting flight, you can ensure that the airline responsible for the delay reroutes you so that you end up at your destination as close to your projected arrival time as possible.
Ask about meals and free hotel stays
In the event of most delays longer than three hours, the airline in question will almost always supply you with some sort of food and drink vouchers that you can redeem within the airport. If no one has given you anything of the sort, then approach a member of staff and ask politely if you can have a few. They’ll most likely hand them out without too much fuss. If you find yourself delayed to the point where you have to stay overnight in the airport, then the airline in question has to, by law, provide you with a hotel room close to the airport for you to sleep in while you wait for your next flight. Again, if no one mentions this then simply ask a participating member of staff and they should sort you out.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.