CLAIM FOR DELAYS
Even the best-laid travel plans can go awry. From trains, planes and boats, here’s your ticket to getting compensation you deserve
STRIKES, bad weather and security alerts can all disrupt your travel plans. Follow The Mail on Sunday’s guide to who gets what compensation when a journey goes wrong.
TRAINS
EVERY commuter or regular rail passenger has experienced, at some point or other, the kind of frustrating delay that can ruin a journey.
Yet painful as it is, rail passengers hit by disruptions can take some consolation – so long as they can get to grips with claiming compensation.
Surprisingly, only 20 per cent of passengers claim the payouts to which they are entitled. Consumer group Which? has now blasted rail companies for failing to make clear to passengers their compensation rights.
Alex Neill, policy director at the organisation, says: ‘Train companies need to do more to ensure people are aware of their entitlement and how they can claim.’
Rules vary widely among train companies, but typically, if you arrive at your destination station more than 30 minutes late – an hour for Eurostar bookings – you can make a claim.
Overall, more than £25 million a year is handed out to passengers whose trains are delayed, according to figures from the Department for Transport.
Scotland has experienced a rail boom in recent years, with some stations today handling more than 100 times more passengers than 20 years ago.
Experts forecast passenger numbers will further increase from more than 90 million to 139 million the over next decade. And with the increase in rail travel has come an inevitable rise in problems.
For example, in April this year, almost three trains were delayed or cancelled every day on Scotland’s £350 million Borders railway. Arbroath, in Angus, was identified as the train station with the worst punctuality record in Scot- land, with only 9.7 per cent of trains arriving on time in the past year.
ScotRail allows rail users to claim compensation if they have been delayed for over 30 minutes on one of its services, as does Virgin Trains for passengers on its West Coast Main Line.
Like Eurostar, a few rail companies, such as Grand Central and Northern, compensate only for longer delays of 60 minutes or more. Check the company’s passenger charter online for its specific rules.
For delays of between 30 minutes and an hour expect a 50 per cent refund on a single ticket, or 25 per cent on a return. For longer delays of up to two hours you typically get a full refund on a single ticket, or 50 per cent on a return. If you are delayed for more than two hours, expect a full refund on a return too.
For season tickets and weekly tickets, compensation is calculated as a proportion of the daily cost of the price of the ticket.
If you have made a seat reservation and this cannot be honoured, you are entitled to a full refund of the fare and any reservation fee.
You can also claim a full refund if your train is cancelled and you do not use your ticket for a later train.
Remember that the train company’s policy on delay compensation is the minimum offered. If a delay or cancellation seriously affects you, ask for more and state your reasons why.
To ensure you can get compensation quickly, keep hold of your travel ticket and make a note of the journey details and delay.
Then get a ‘delay repay’ form either online or at a ticket office.
About 90 per cent of train companies are signed up to this compensation scheme. Other companies have their own arrangements, detailed on their websites. In this case, you will need to write to the company concerned to seek compensation.
Delay repay forms must be completed within 28 days of the journey. You will need to submit the ticket with the form, either by post or by scanning it and sending it online. If you are seeking a refund for a cancelled train, you should be able to obtain this at the station ticket office.
If you no longer have the ticket, try using proof of purchase, such as a bank statement or receipt. Some train operators may accept this as proof of your claim, although they do not have to. You should be able to claim either money or vouchers.
The Consumer Rights Act forces retailers to pay compensation in the form a ticket was bought in.
This did not originally apply to rail companies, but they will now start to be covered by these rules from October. Many rail companies offer cash compensation if you ask. Or you might be able to exchange vouchers for cash.
Some make it simpler to claim than others. Virgin Trains West Coast passengers receive money directly on to their cards within three days if their journey is delayed by at least 30 minutes.
This applies only to passengers who buy tickets in advance through the website or app. Great Western has different compensation schemes depending on the route.
ScotRail customers who have purchased a ticket to travel on a journey which is cancelled due to strike action are entitled to receive a full refund.
Alternatively, passengers can also travel on an earlier or later service on the same day, or travel one day either side of the date for which the ticket is valid.
Take an unresolved dispute to the watchdog. In Scotland, Transport Focus (transportfocus.org. uk) will help deal with on-going complaints about rail services.
Transport Focus says: ‘We ask that people check what the operator’s own response times to complaints are and then wait for that amount of time before chasing and then escalating to us.’
Rebecca Field, from Sheffield, has claimed hundreds of pounds in compensation for delayed trains over the past year. She says: ‘I wish I’d known about the scheme before – but I wasn’t aware it was possible to get money back.’
The 24-year-old project assistant in the post industry says she still tries to claim even if the delay is less than 30 minutes.
She says: ‘It takes two trains to get to my parents from where I live and missing a connection means I have up to an hour’s wait on a platform in the cold – so I’ll still put in a claim regardless.
‘I’m not always successful, but I quite often get a money-off
voucher for my next journey. Some of the rail company websites are an absolute maze. But tweeting the company usually gets them to help.
‘Sometimes I only get a partial refund, but it’s my opinion that I should get a full refund. I’ve had delays that have made me late for work, interviews, gigs and appointments and when a replacement train does come along it’s often so jammed you have to sit on the floor. It should be made more obvious how you go about claiming compensation.’
PLANES
AIRLINE passengers whose flight is heavily delayed or cancelled have the right to claim compensation under European law.
You are able to claim compensation of up to €600 per passenger (£500) under EU law, depending on the flight distance and length. Claims can be made for delays of at least three hours and you have six years to demand redress.
Airlines can only refuse to pay out if the delay was for reasons out of their control, classed as ‘extraordinary circumstances’. For example, in the case of strikes or bad weather you cannot make a claim. But they cannot argue that a technical fault falls under ‘extraordinary circumstances’.
You can claim up to a maximum of €250, or about £212, for a three-hour delay on flights up to 1,500km departing from an EU airport. This covers, for example, a trip from London to Majorca. The sum rises to a maximum of €600, or about £500, for a delay of more than four hours on flights over 3,500km.
Whether your ticket cost £100 or £4,000, the compensation remains the same. So it is possible you could claim more or less than the cost of the flight itself.
If you are stranded at the airport, you are entitled to subsistence costs on delays – typically from two hours. You should be provided with food, drink and accommodation if you fall victim to an overnight delay.
Compensation for flight delays falls under a piece of European law called EC Regulation 261/2004.
Whether this consumer law changes post-Brexit depends on negotiations over the coming years. But it should still apply to flights departing from other EU airports when Britain leaves the EU. It is worth making your claim as soon as possible after the event to ensure the greatest chance of a payout.
In terms of claiming, you must find out what caused the delay – to check you are entitled to compensation. Write to the airline’s customer services department, enclosing flight details, length of delay and any costs incurred as a result.
Regulator the Civil Aviation Authority has information on how to make a claim at caa.co.uk. Many airlines, such as British Airways, have online claim forms. For template claim letters, visit the Resolver website.
Compensation payments must be made by cheque or bank transfer. You do not have to accept vouchers for future travel if you are offered them. Be warned that airlines are notorious for wriggling out of paying compensation for flight delays. Typically, they claim ‘extraordinary circumstances’ outside their control, meaning they do not have to pay out.
If your claim is rejected and your flight was from the UK, take your case to the Civil Aviation Authority. If your flight was from another EU country, go to that country’s enforcement body for aviation.
You could also sign up to a ‘no-win, no-fee’ legal firm specialising in compensation claims such as Bott & Co. But remember the firm will take a fee plus a percentage payout if the case is won. For example, Bott & Co charges 25 per cent of the compensation sum plus VAT, and a £25 administration charge.