Rights of the passenger in cases of delay, cancellation, overbooking and lost luggage (2):
Plane: Delay, cancellation or overbooking
Conditions of transport agreements are subject to different regulations depending whether the travel was national or international, and largely depend on the airline service agreement. While the EU set minimum level of compensation, in many other countries (USA and Canada for example) compensation will be exclusively set in the transport agreement.
The minimum compensation level in the EU is defined by Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of The European Parliament and of The Council of 11 February 2004, (you can download at the http://eur-llex.europa.eu/ web site by searching for law n261 year 2004.) This regulation applies to airlines registered in the EU or for flights departing from the EU.
Plane Luggage
For luggage lost, damaged or delayed, the compensation is set by the Montreal convention of 1999 (that supersede the Warsaw convention). Under this treaty the maximum liability for the airline is of 1131 SDR per passenger regardless of weight. SDR means Special Drawing Right and is not a currency but a foreign exchange reserve measurement unit defined by the IMF (it’s a weighted currency basket of the Euro, the US dollar, the British Pound and the Japanese Yen). On July 6th 2012, 1SDR = 1.22€ making 1131SDR equivalent to 1,377.60€.
1131 SDR will cover for material and non-material losses.
For luggage returned within 21 days most airlines won’t give any compensation, while for delays over 21 days the luggage will be considered lost. Compensation will only be paid if there are clear signs of damage to the luggage. Without external signs of damage any broken item inside the suitcase won’t be compensated under the argument that it was not properly packaged.
Some airlines will give an immediate one-off payment to cover the initial emergency purchases while few others will compensate a set amount per day. Do not expect this type of treatment from low cost airlines.
Claiming from transport companies
Many transport companies will compensate passengers without excessive trouble. This, however, is different for air transport as often the airlines will fail to compensate passengers according to the law and the transport agreement, as most air passengers do not know their rights (several airlines make a business out of it, preferring to pay occasional fines to the EU rather than to pay compensation.)
In case of complaints it is better to try to find a solution immediately by negotiating with the company representatives at the departure point or immediately at arrivals.
If the trip was part of a package there is the additional possibility of complaining later to the tour operator.
If an agreement cannot be met then there is the possibility of using the consumer arbitration system
(see articles http://www.velascolawyers.com/travel and http://www.velascolawyers.com/arbitration).
The legal option should be taken as a last resort.