Flight Claim battles for passengers

Startup chases compensation so you don’t need to

JBusiness Class acob Charbonneau had just completed an executive MBA and was looking for a business idea when his friend, Pierre Michel, was delayed on a return flight from Paris to Montreal. Michel applied for compensation from the airline, but was denied.

“I was working for an airline at the time, and I was aware of the regulations,” says Charbonneau. “I knew he was entitled to 600 Euro for the three-hour delay.” So, as a favour, Charbonneau resubmitted his friend’s claim, shepherded it through the process and finagled a settlement.

That’s when he began to develop the idea for a service to help wrestle compensation from airlines for disgruntled passengers. Last July, he cofounded Montreal-based although the air passenger bill of rights expected to be operational for 2018 should add clarity.

For now, Flight Claim pursues claims only for cancellations, delays and overbooking on flights between Canada and Europe, as well as claims for involuntary bumping (but not delays and cancellations) within North America. Passengers can register their complaints on flightclaim.ca right from the airport and be advised immediately whether their claim will fly.

If the claim is valid, the company files an application for redress with the airline and collects all the evidence based on historical claims data. It handles the administrative formalities, communications and followups with the airlines. “You usually get a response within 90 days,” he says.

And don’t worry that you’ve blown it if you’ve accepted a voucher or cash from the airline for being bumped involuntarily. “In the case of overbooking, airlines will sometimes offer passengers a few-hundred-dollar voucher for future travel,” says Charbonneau. “But in the States, for example, they might actually be entitled to as much as US$1,300.”

In that case, you have two years to claim the balance. “Take what they offer you,” advises Charbonneau, “You can always go back for more. It’s the law.” What’s more, he adds, you can request to have the voucher replaced with cash.

Flight Claim’s knowledge of the law, access to lawyers and relationships with the airlines have fuelled its success rate at managing compensation claims, Charbonneau says. But its service stops short of taking the airlines to small claims court for you.

That doesn’t sit well with air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs. He points out that travellers can submit a successful claim under their own steam and keep that one-fourth share. Most of the information needed is available on his Facebook page (Air Passenger Rights Canada) free of charge. Lukacs says Flight Claim may just be picking the “low-hanging fruit,” getting compensation that passengers could easily get on their own.

Nonetheless, for busy travellers weary at the mere thought of trying to get an airline to pay up, Flight Claim may provide an alternative. “Right now people don’t know their rights, and even if they do, they don’t want to fight with the airlines because it’s often a painful process,” says Charbonneau. “We take over that job.” RocketLab chief executive Peter Beck with The Rutherford rocket engine at the company’s headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand. The Rutherford, a battery-powered rocket engine printed on 3D parts developed RocketLab, is set to reduce the cost for companies to send satellites to space.