I'm with Bewva on this one. We were delayed for 11 hours going out on the 26 August - a real pain in the butt, for us just an inconvenience because we were going for a long time. However, it would be very different for people on a one week holiday. We were given £30 vouchers for food, free meals on the plane and a free drink. We only paid £60 for the flight so for us to be able to claim £400 each seems absurd.
Just saying......
MoneySavingExpert.com creator Martin Lewis says:
"The law behind this is clear cut, the ethics far less so. My usual focus for these type of issues is on reclaiming; asking for money back that was wrongly taken from you. This, however, is compensation, and like many I worry about a growing compensation culture.
"This EU ruling has certainly swung the pendulum against airlines. As the cost of the flight is irrelevant to the payout there will be some who paid £20 for a cheap flight, were delayed a few hours that didn't really bother them, yet are entitled to a disproportionate £348 compensation for it.
"If everyone did it, this could cripple budget airlines' pricing models and possibly hasten the financial troubles of airlines already struggling in a tough economy. Therefore balancing this on the see-saw of right and wrong isn't easy.
"Yet, equally there are many for whom this is valuable financial justice for substandard service on an expensive product. People who paid £1,000s for flights and spent a dozen hours trapped with upset young children, sleeping on chairs in overheated airports or on planes waiting to take off.
"Therefore each individual must make their own ethical choice of whether to take up the cudgels and go for the compensation. While the impact on the airline is no reason not to do it, for me it is a reason to first examine whether the compensation you could be due would be truly fair or excessive."
