Air Passenger Rights: - European Commission - Europa

there were additional expenses for car parking in
Salzburg for an extra day and for an evening meal.
Even after the case was referred to the Irish ECC,
the air carrier refused to refund the sum claimed,
stating that under its contract terms and conditions
the consumer wasn’t entitled to compensation as
the airline was a “point to point” airline and
therefore did not accept any liability for lack of
connections to another flight.
There are also a number of cases where the delay
in one flight means that a subsequent connection
is missed with all the additional inconvenience
and expense that that can involve. The first air
carrier has responsibilities under the Regulation
261/2004 as noted above in terms of provision of
refreshments and possibly hotel accommodation;
but a claim for the additional expenses would
have to be under the Montreal Convention, and
this can be extremely complex, with success
being difficult to achieve.
5.8 Air carrier’s handling of
complaints
Outside of complaints about specific pieces of
legislation, the ECC Net also receives complaints
from passengers concerning air carriers’ general
complaint handling process.
An item which appears regularly in ECC in-boxes
relates to the time it takes an airline to deal with
complaints, which consumers feel is unreasonably
long.
A German passenger flying with a UK low cost
carrier in April had an item of luggage damaged.
He made a claim and was told by the carrier that
he would receive reimbursement for the damage
in May. The UK ECC was contacted in December,
as payment had still not been made. The ECC went
on to write four times to the carrier over the period
from December to March of the following year,
without receiving a response. In the end the client
gave up on his claim.
Several ECCs commented that they believe such
delays actually form part of the airlines’ customer
service procedure, in the hope that many passengers
will just give up their claim.
For many passengers the first hurdle can be
establishing just how to complain and to whom.
With many carriers the customer service information
given on web sites is poor to non-existent. There may
only be the option of an email feedback form, which
can be very frustrating – especially for passengers
whose first language is not the one used by the
website. Other air carriers give a phone number for
customer queries, but these can be charged at
premium rates and so involve a passenger in
additional expense when trying to take up a
legitimate complaint or query.
31