Success Story - claiming compensation for a cancelled flight that... wasn't in the plan
The heroes of today's story covered about 1,000 kilometres, but did not leave Poland and were considered as air passengers liable for damages, even though they travelled only by car, and the flight they were supposed to be on was never included in Enter Air's routes. So why is there an aviation theme in this thread? Well, a Polish court has awarded compensation to our clients for the cancellation of a flight that the carrier was not even aware of.
The story of the AirCashBack clients
The awaited exotic holiday in Turkey turned out to be a not-so-successful round trip on Polish roads. The aforementioned heroes, a family of three from Jasło, had booked a two-week trip to Antalya, purchased through a travel agency. On the day of departure, they travelled to the airport in Wrocław, from where a charter flight was set to depart. However, the employees at the airport had not heard of such a plane, but even more surprisingly, also the employees of the airline marked on the passenger reservation.
Based on the received travel documents, it was impossible to pass through the first security gate at the airport or to receive any assistance from the persons responsible for the flight to Turkey. Shortly afterwards, the travel agency sent the holidaymakers information about the change of the date of departure for 'operational' reasons.
Course of the dispute
The exclusive fault of the travel agency is obvious here. However, in the described case, the carrier was obliged to pay compensation. The heroes of the story, who contacted AirCashBack only to receive a refund from the travel agency for unnecessary fuel costs, were surprised in this matter. However, they were entitled not only to reimbursement of the indicated costs, but above all to compensation under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 in the amount of 400 euro per person for the cancelled flight. And that's entirely from the airline, not the travel agency responsible for the whole event.
Enter Air did not want to agree with this view, which led to the resolution of this dispute only in court. The court's ruling was in line with our lawyers' interpretation and passenger rights regulations. Our clients received compensation in total over 6,000 pln from the entity, which in fact was not even aware of the passengers' rights to claim for compensation.
The legal basis
How did this situation arise? Probably the travel agency (perhaps on the basis of initial talks with the carrier) made its own determination of the final flight number, its route and the date and time of the flight, but these arrangements were not confirmed by the carrier.
However, Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 can only be used as a basis for a claim against the airlines, as a result of which any faulty actions on the part of the travel agent in relation to a given flight will be borne by the carrier indicated on the travel document. The Court of Justice of the European Union commented on this issue in its judgment of 21st December 2021 in associated cases C-146/20, C-188/20, C-196/20 and C-270/20.
Travel documents issued by travel agencies are, in the light of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, confirmed air reservations. The risk of providing passengers with false information by tour operators is borne by the carrier, because the passenger cannot be required to independently obtain or verify information about the flight from the carrier. It is worth mentioning that in a given situation, the carrier may claim compensation from the travel agency, but this is outside the interests of the passenger making the claim.
If you have ever experienced a similar situation, remember that you are entitled to compensation. We can fight for this together! Fill out the damage report form available on our website or click the button below, and we'll take care of the rest!