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If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have experienced a lot of flight delays over the past few weeks. Regardless, these delays were huge hassles, involving getting stuck overnight in El Paso and getting home after midnight two nights. CNBC reported here that U.S. airlines canceled 2.4% of their schedules in the first six months of the year, up from 1.7% a year ago. On-time arrivals fell to 73.3% in June, down from 76.4% a year earlier. Delays take time either away from your destination or away from home and your time is valuable. If you are delayed, you may be entitled compensation. In this #WanderlustWednesday post, I want to review how to get compensation for delayed flights.

If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

The rules are different in the EU and the US. The EU has much stronger passenger protection for delayed or cancelled flights going to or coming from the EU. However, this article will focus on the US based travel.

When you are not entitled compensation

When you learn that a flight is going to be delayed or cancelled, it’s important to find out the reason why. This will help you figure out if you will or won’t be compensated for your frustrations. Once you learn the cause, the first important distinction is when you will NOT be able to get compensation for your delayed flight.

Weather — We have all seen when massive storms shut down entire airports, hopefully on the news and not in person. Safety is a huge priority and not all weather is safe for flights. Weather delays can happen even when it looks like the perfect day outside to you as it can be related to a weather problem with the incoming flight. As safety is important, don’t expect airline compensation for these weather related delays.

Air traffic/ground control — If there are delays in the air or on the ground while taxiing, this is likely not the result of the airline but instead that of air traffic controllers. They have the ultimate say on ground and air operations. If the pattern is full, don’t expect compensation for a delay.

Multiple schedule changes — If an airline alerts you that your flight is delayed, it’s important to note that you’re still responsible for being at the gate at the originally scheduled departure time. Flights can delay and revert back to the originally scheduled time with minimal notice. You should never risk leaving late for the airport or staying in the lounge a bit longer. If this happens and you miss your flight because it ended up leaving before you thought, do not expect compensation from the airline.

When you should request compensation

If your situation does not fall into one of the above categories, you may be able to request compensation for delayed flights. Here are some scenarios where you will likely be effective.

Broken seat/environmental equipment — This is a situation that is important, especially because a broken seat or charging device affects passengers on future flights as well. In addition, the airline may not know that a seat is broken unless a passenger speaks up. Every aspect of the flight from inflight entertainment to headrests, footrests, armrests and all the fancy utilities on business and first-class seats should be working properly. Often in this instance, the compensation will be in the form of airline miles.

Delays and cancellations due to the airline — Maintenance, equipment swaps or overbooking that causes involuntary bumps and changes in crew availability all fall underneath this umbrella. When I got stuck in El Paso it was because they found a piece of metal in the engine and maintenance had to be called. This ended with me needing to get a hotel which was covered by the airline and taking a flight that was 12 hours later.

In most cases the airline won’t automatically reach out to you in this instance but it is still an opportunity for compensation. In the instance of my El Paso delay, I requested additional compensation for my time and received $375. For this delay and the others that I experienced in the past few weeks, I was given a total compensation of $825. This certainly offsets the cost of my next few trips!

How to request compensation for delayed flights the right way

Be succinct. — Everything may have gone wrong with your flight but with too many unrelated details will begin to discredit your complaint. Be brief. Stick to the single item or two that most negatively impacted your flight.

Remove the emotion. — Customer service agents get to deal with angry customers all the time. If you have ever worked in this realm yourself, you know that calmly stated facts in person or in writing will bring a sense of professionalism and sincerity to your complaint.

Know what you want. — Airline representatives need to know what will rectify the situation that you experienced. Present the problem, and make the customer service agent’s job easier by also presenting the solution. Do you want $150? Do you want 20,000 miles? Know what you want and state this.

Document everything. — You will need specific flight numbers and times in order to request compensation. Having the specifics — including boarding passes, baggage claim tickets and original booking confirmations – can be really important pieces of getting you the compensation for delayed flights that you need. You can usually upload these in the complaint forms as well.

While it’s often best to get the situation settled while it is happening, sometimes they will not address the situation until the trip is completed. So if your delay happens on the way to your destination, you might not be able to request compensation until you get back home. You can ask gate agents and customer service representatives while in the airport itself.

If you aren’t able to request compensation in person, the next best option is online through customer service or through the social media team. With these avenues you can upload documentation to go with your request as well.

Have you recently experienced a flight delay or cancellation and gotten compensation? Please share the details in the comments. Looking to book a flight for cheap? Check out how to find cheap flights using Google Flights here.

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