One of the biggest technological advancements of the modern era is the development and growth of new ways of traveling. Society has gone from traveling by horse or on foot, to carriages, cars, trains, boats, and finally airplanes. According to ACI Europe, more than 2.6 billion passengers fly in and out of air ports in Europe every year. According to the 2016 Census, there are only 741.4 million people in all of Europe, so this means that millions of Europeans will be traveling through airports multiple times per year as well as millions upon millions of tourists will be traveling through European airports. This is an amazing thing not only for modernity’s sake, but also for the economy of many European countries that rely on tourism as a large source or revenue each year. While this increased air travel is a truly incredible thing, it does bring about one very frustrating occurrence. The influx of travelers into Europe’s airports has also unfortunately increased the number of flight delays and cancellations.

A cancelled flight is one of a traveler’s worst nightmares. Travelling is often done on a very tight schedule between work, school, kid’s events, family needs, special occasions, and many more factors that people have to take into account when traveling these days. When a flight is  cancelled, it throws a wrench into all these plans because there is a potential to miss a connecting flight, miss a train you were supposed to catch, miss the important event you were going to inconvenience family and friends who were heading to the airport to pick you up, not to mention the potential to miss work if your flight home was  cancelled, as well as the need to now pay for more meals in the airport, a hotel room, and any other necessities as a result of this  cancelled flight.

What to do if your flight is cancelled?

If you or a loved one has experienced any of these unfortunate events, you may be wondering what to do if your flight is cancelled. The semi-good news is that most airlines will automatically reschedule your flight for the next available time without you having to do anything. The bad news is, this is often hours, if not a whole day later. If the proposed time of the next flight does not work for your schedule, you can request a full refund or rebook your flight on your own on the next available flight that does fit your schedule. In some cases, the airline will provide accommodations for the travelers whose flights got  cancelled, but this is not always the case. Also, airlines typically only take responsibility for cancellations that they feel could have been prevented such as understaffing, equipment failure, a crew delay, or something along those lines.

Thankfully, for European travelers, in February of 2004 the EU passed Ruling 261/2004 which gives passengers the rights to the compensation they deserve for any flight that has been  cancelled, delayed more than three hours, or overbooked. What is cancelled flight compensation explain here. In the event that a flight is  cancelled, the traveler must keep all of their travel documents such as their boarding pass and passports. Next, they should find out the reason for the cancellation because often this will determine if they will receive compensation or not. The travelers can also ask for a meal and refreshment from the airline while they are waiting for their next flight, or waiting for the airline to provide them with a hotel room in the event that they have to stay overnight while waiting for their next flight. It is important that travelers know their rights so they are not taken advantage of by airlines in the event of a flight cancellation.

After learning that a flight is  cancelled, the passengers can decide if they want to fight the airline themselves by filling out the EU261 disruption compensation and expense claim form that can be found here, or they can take a much easier route and hire a flight compensation company to fight for them. This can seem daunting because there are so many flight compensation companies out there to choose from, but thankfully we have provided 10 flight compensation companies of 2020 list for our readers to reference when searching for the perfect company for them. We took the time to do extensive research to ensure that our customers know the pros and cons of each company, as well as their charge, so they could find the company that best suits their needs. Using these companies makes getting the compensation you deserve much easier than going through the process of filling out the EU261 disruption compensation and expense claim form yourself, as well as going through the long legal battles against the airlines.