The flight cancelled the night before: the written walkthrough

Myth · Activate the €60 voucher: better than nothing.

The myth: a voucher is already something A travel voucher only replaces your compensation if you have given your SIGNED agreement to it. The Regulation sets the opposite order to the one this email suggests: compensation is paid in money, and the voucher is merely an option, and it is yours. With that click, you traded a fixed sum for credit in their shop.

“The compensation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques or, with the signed agreement of the passenger, in travel vouchers and/or other services.”

In plain words: money is the default. A voucher only becomes valid with your written agreement, and you are never obliged to give it.

Myth · Confirm Thursday's flight: from then on there is nothing left to ask for.

The myth: I took another flight, so it is settled Accepting a replacement flight closes the other two transport options, and nothing else. The official EU page says it in one sentence, then immediately follows it with a however that is the most useful word of your day.

“As soon as you have chosen one of these three options, you no longer have rights in relation to the other two options. However, the airline carrier may still have to provide compensation”

In plain words: you lose the other two transport options, not your compensation. That is worked out separately, from the distance and from how late you finally arrive.

Myth · Ask for the ticket to be refunded AND for Thursday's flight: both are owed to me.

The myth: I can stack the refund and the new flight Reimbursement and re-routing are two branches of the same choice, not two rights that add up. Getting that wrong costs time and credibility, while the real sum to claim is elsewhere, and it is larger.

“As soon as you have chosen one of these three options, you no longer have rights in relation to the other two options.”

In plain words: one of the three, not two. The right move is not to stack them, it is to choose quickly and claim the compensation separately.

Myth · Care is for delays. For a cancellation there is nothing: sleep in the concourse.

The myth: hotels are only for delays The Article that deals with CANCELLATIONS points to the right to care itself, hotel included, as soon as the replacement flight leaves the following day or later. That is exactly your situation. A night in a concourse was not inevitable, it was a right nobody exercised.

“[…] in event of re-routing when the reasonably expected time of departure of the new flight is at least the day after the departure as it was planned for the cancelled flight, the assistance specified in Article 9(1)(b) and 9(1)(c)”

In plain words: new flight the next day or later, therefore hotel and transport to the hotel. The word cancellation is in the title of that Article.

Myth · Pay for the hotel and the taxi out of pocket and say nothing: without their approval it is lost anyway.

The myth: paid out of pocket, therefore lost Making yourself known to the airline is still the right move, because organising care is its job. But fronting the money does not cancel the right: the official EU page provides for reimbursement of expenses that were necessary, reasonable and appropriate. The only item that could have been missing was the receipt.

“If assistance is not offered and you paid for any of the above items out of your own pocket, the airline should reimburse you, provided the expenses were necessary, reasonable and appropriate. You should keep all receipts for this purpose.”

In plain words: keep every ticket. What was necessary and reasonable gets reimbursed; what has no receipt cannot be proved.

Myth · €42, the price of my ticket: they cannot give me back more than I paid.

Europe's most expensive myth: never more than the ticket price Compensation is not a refund: they are two different things, in two different Articles. A refund gives back the price of the ticket. Compensation makes good the disruption, and its amount is a flat sum set by distance. A €42 ticket and a €420 ticket open exactly the same compensation.

“passengers shall receive compensation amounting to: (a) EUR 250 for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less; (b) EUR 400 for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres; (c) EUR 600 for all flights not falling under (a) or (b).”

In plain words: the text fixes sums, not a percentage. The word ticket appears nowhere in that calculation.

Myth · Half of it, €200, since they offered me another flight.

The myth: I was re-routed, so it is half price The fifty per cent reduction does exist, and it is fenced in: it only applies if the replacement flight gets you in within a very narrow window after the scheduled time, three hours for your distance band. You arrived 23 h 30 late. No reduction is possible.

“When passengers are offered re-routing to their final destination on an alternative flight pursuant to Article 8, the arrival time of which does not exceed the scheduled arrival time of the flight originally booked […] (b) by three hours, in respect of all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres […] the operating air carrier may reduce the compensation provided for in paragraph 1 by 50 %.”

In plain words: half is only possible if you arrive almost on time. Past that window, it is the full amount.

Myth · A technical problem is an extraordinary circumstance. Let it go.

The myth that makes people give up: technical, therefore extraordinary The official EU page lists what is NOT an extraordinary circumstance, and technical problems that come to light during maintenance are named in it. It is not an automatic guarantee, the page writes most: but it is enough to knock down the argument as it was served to you, and to remember that the proof is on the airline.

“Situations which are not considered as extraordinary circumstances include: most technical problems which come to light during aircraft maintenance or are caused by failure to maintain an aircraft […] strikes by air carrier staff (internal strike action)”

In plain words: a technical fault found during maintenance is hardly ever an extraordinary circumstance, and neither is a strike by the airline's own staff.

Myth · Its reply is final: when an airline says no, it is no.

The myth: the airline has ruled An airline's reply is the opinion of one party to the dispute, nothing more. The Regulation expressly provides that each passenger may complain to the body designated by a Member State about an alleged infringement. A refusal is therefore not the end of a file: it is the moment you change who you are talking to.

“Without prejudice to Article 12, each passenger may complain to any body designated under paragraph 1, or to any other competent body designated by a Member State, about an alleged infringement of this Regulation at any airport situated on the territory of a Member State […]”

In plain words: after the airline, there is an authority. The text itself provides for it, and it is the passenger who complains to it, about an infringement at any airport in the Union.