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Flight cancelled? You could be owed up to €600

Regulations mean that passengers are due compensation a sliding scale.

WAS YOUR FLIGHT cancelled or delayed in 2013? You could be owed part of a refund pot for Ireland totalling nearly €52 million.

That’s according to Airhelp, a service that recovers refunds and compensation for air passengers.

Its latest figures show that Irish passengers whose flights were delayed or cancelled in 2013, or who were denied boarding, are due refunds of nearly €52 million.

Compensation

An EU regulation was brought in back in 2004 to ensure that if flights are delayed, cancelled, or overbooked, the passengers are compensated. The compensation is paid on a sliding scale according the duration of the cancellation and distance of the flight.

You can get a refund of up to €600.

compensation flights

Airhelp has found that 8.1 million passengers were entitled to refunds in 2013 worldwide, but it asserts that less than 1% actually applied for their rightful compensation.

Its Irish country manager, Brian Whelan, puts this down to two reasons:

Firstly, people aren’t aware of the full extent and value of their entitlements and secondly, they are understandably put off by the obstacles to compensation which are placed in their path.

Whelan said that according to a recent study carried out by Airhelp across Europe, some airlines have failed to answer some claims within the six week deadline determined by the EU.

Whelan said that airlines are not liable to issue compensation in ‘extraordinary circumstances’.

airlines Airhelp Airhelp

In one case, Jet2 had an appeal rejected and had to pay compensation to a man after a flight to Manchester from Malaga was delayed. The court had said that ‘extraordinary circumstances’ did not apply in this case of technical difficulties.

A spokesperson for Aer Lingus told TheJournal.ie that they do not publicise the details of the number of refunds issued.

“In the event of flight cancellations Aer Lingus offers customers the choice of a full refund or the option to re-book free of charge at an alternative time or on an alternative date. The vast majority of customers opt to re-book free of charge. In the event that customers decide they no longer wish to travel, following the cancellation of their original flight, we provide a full refund.”

A comment from Ryanair said: “Ryanair complies fully with all EU261 legislation and deals with each claim on a case by case basis.”

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15 Comments
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    Mute SV3tN8M4
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    Feb 7th 2025, 1:57 PM

    Comreg asleep at the wheel for years in relation to this. It’s just another useless Quango draining Taxpayers money.

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    Mute Kieran Woods
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    Feb 7th 2025, 2:35 PM

    @SV3tN8M4: Absolutely. A gang call Yourtell scammed lots of older people to sign up to a service posing as a branch of Eir. When they received huge bills, they then got fake solicitors letters threatening prosecution. Comreg said it was out of their hands for months and didn’t even issue a warning. It’s only when the scam reached Joe Duffy that they decided to look at it. Absolutely useless.

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    Mute Donna Fallon
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    Feb 7th 2025, 2:11 PM

    The Amazon and E-Flow ones are the best… I’m well used them but constantly have to sort stuff out for my Mum she’s so trusting.

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    Mute Pupper Class Gifts
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    Feb 7th 2025, 1:58 PM

    Great idea. Maybe it’ll help to unmark the text msg I get from An Post – they’re always marked as potentially dangerous, not recommended to open

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    Mute A D
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    Feb 7th 2025, 4:14 PM

    Will this eliminate ‘number spoofing’, where a false number is displayed as the sender?

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    Mute thomas molloy
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    Feb 7th 2025, 1:59 PM

    If “the Bookie always wins” are all promotion/ads communications not scams. ?

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    Mute Athena
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    Feb 7th 2025, 2:28 PM

    Any decent supplier will filter them out.
    Question: what is that register actually monitoring? Is the spam thing a front to “get up close and personal”???

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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    Feb 7th 2025, 2:34 PM

    @Athena: The third-last and second-last paragraphs in the article detail what the register will be doing.

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    Mute Athena
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    Feb 7th 2025, 3:10 PM

    @Jerry LeFrog: I know that. You believe that. Just wait and see.

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    Mute Kieran Menon
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    Feb 8th 2025, 10:01 AM

    There’s scammers registered, and Comreg does nothing…

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    Mute Ned
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    Feb 7th 2025, 4:26 PM

    O lord what next?

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    Mute stefan epure
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    Feb 7th 2025, 10:06 PM

    We can spoof a MAC, IP, email address what makes them think that a lousy ID cant be spoofed either ?

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