TAKE WHAT THEY OFFER YOU. YOU CAN ALWAYS GO BACK FOR MORE.

Flight Claim with three partners. Passengers pay nothing up front, but agree to pay 25 per cent of whatever cash Flight Claim recovers.

Since launch, Flight Claim has collected $500,000 worth of settlements from the airlines for passengers from Canada (mostly Quebec thus far), the U.S. and Europe. About 96 per cent of the more than 2,000 passengers who submitted claims got compensation, Charbonneau says.

Charbonneau believes he has hit on a winning formula, given the high number of delays, cancellations and involuntary bumping. In 2016, 634 delays and 115 cancellations of flights between Canada and Europe were eligible for compensation under European law.

Although those disruptions impacted an estimated 187,000 passengers, only two per cent filed a claim. “More than $155 million in unclaimed damages was left on the table,” says Charbonneau.

The EU has the most clearly stated laws regarding cancellations, delays and bumping, but both the U.S. and Canada at least regulate overbooking. U.S. federal regulations specify what compensation passengers can claim. In Canada, compensation is decided on a case-by-case basis,