Fee for claiming with a firm

sadinlondon

Hi there,

I used one of the websites recommended on this website to check eligibility for flight delay compensation and submitted a form to check eligibility filling in my details.

I then received an email with the T&Cs of the company and saw that they have a fee of over £100 per passenger if the delay claim is successful. As this is per passenger, the fees do add up, especially if the compensation you are claiming for is at the lower end.

Is anyone able to comment on how easy it is to make the claim yourself vs a company as the fees would amount to over £400 in our case.

Thank you!

eskbanker

It's very easy to claim compensation yourself, it should just be a case of accessing the airline's claim form on their website, fill in the details, and off you go.

It may become a bit more challenging if the airline refuses to pay, so if you first share the details on here about the flight, the delay and (importantly) why it was delayed, then posters can offer guidance about the chances of success....

sadinlondon

Thank you very much for the reply, Eskbanker.

The flight was not delayed for weather reasons, in fact I am not sure what the reason for the delay was but may have been staffing as our pilot said he had been asked to fly the flight at short notice if I remember correctly. 

It might be worth me giving this a go on my own and seeing what happens. The firm who I appear to have instructed today have included a form which allows me to withdraw from the contract with them. I didn’t expect such a big fee to be charged by them per passenger. The delay was around 3 hours for a European flight.

eskbanker

sadinlondon said:

The delay was around 3 hours for a European flight.

The delay needs to be at least three hours, as measured by comparing the scheduled arrival time with when the first door was actually opened - 2 hours 59 minutes wouldn't qualify.

The reason for the delay is crucial, in that "An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the [delay] is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken", and the airlines do tend to hold the aces here, given the lack of public domain data about reasons, i.e. if they assert extraordinary circumstances, it can be difficult to counter, without assembling corroborating evidence.

sadinlondon

I understand the delay needs to be three hours later than the originally advertised arrival time. According to the check I ran on the website recommended here, this might have applied in our case but as you said, difficult to know the reasons for the delay as these are not fully disclosed to passengers.

I have now written to the firm that I mentioned in my original message advising them I’m withdrawing instructions and will fill in the form on the TUI website and see what happens.

Thank you @eskbanker for the advice!