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What to do if your flight is changed and you can no longer travel

Passengers can request a full refund if the airline reschedules their flight

Everyone loves a bargain and will jump on a cheap flight when it comes up, but most of us are also tied down to certain dates when we can go on holiday due to work or family commitments. Unfortunately, unrest between airlines and airports and their staff have been a common occurrence for years and when workers go on strike, many flights are naturally cancelled or delayed.

So you’ve booked your flight well in advance only to receive an email from the airline informing you that the date has been changed. Your summer holidays haven’t even started and you’re already experiencing turbulence. In this situation, if you can’t travel on the new dates, it’s important to know that you are entitled to a full refund of the ticket price.

However, lawyer Nidia Rodeo reminds passengers that small schedule changes are common and compensation can’t be claimed unless the new flight has a real impact: “If the original schedule of your flight is only altered by a few minutes, and this does not affect any other connecting flight that you have booked, it could not be understood that there is a real loss for the passenger.”

Change in flight date = cancellation

If your airline moves your flight to a different date, your original trip has effectively been cancelled. In this scenario, passengers do have rights, but it all depends on when the airline announced the change.

Notice of two weeks or more:

In this case, if the new flight date doesn’t suit you and you want to cancel it, you will have the right to:

Reimbursement of the ticket price.
Compensation for the material damages that this cancellation causes you, such as non-refundable bookings of hotels, car rental, day trips etc.
On the other hand, if you decide to book another flight so as not to waste your planned trip, you’ll be entitled to the price of the new ticket.

Less than two weeks’ notice / no notice

Passengers have the right to:

Economic compensation of between 250 and 600 euros, depending on the distance of the flight.
Compensation for demonstrable moral and material damages derived from the cancellation of the flight.
Alternative transport.
Assistance and information.

What information should the airline notice contain?

The regulations state that whenever passengers are informed of a cancellation, the airline must provide them with details of alternative transport options. And it also stipulates that it is the airline that must prove both the fact of having informed the passenger and the moment at which they were informed.

It’s important to note that if the airline announces the cancellation through a third party i.e. a travel agency, and that third party fails to notify the passenger of the cancellation, it is the airline that is ultimately responsible and the traveller will be entitled to compensation.

What happens if a flight is brought forward?

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in 2021 that a flight is considered ‘cancelled’ when the air carrier in charge of the flight advances it by more than one hour.

In this case, passengers are again entitled to compensation.

To be on the safe side, Ms Rodero recommends that passengers always keep both the documentation related to the original flight reservation and all subsequent emails and correspondence regarding schedule changes.

“In the same way, the passenger must keep all the proof of additional expenses that could be claimed in case of cancellation (accommodation, excursions, rental cars, alternative tickets...),” she added.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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