Today I received a check in the mail for €500 from SATA - Azores Air.
Seven months and two days of paperwork and waiting finally paid off.
On 23 July last year our flight from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (Spain) to Ponta Delgada, Azores (Portugal) was delayed for twelve hours. Here is my original post.
Five hundred euro is $542 USD at today's exchange rate. We originally paid €300 for the two tickets, but it is not like we "made money" on this deal. However I do feel satisfied that the airline was finally held accountable.
Here is how we received the compensation, and things I learned.
When the original delay happened I started taking photos: the plane sitting on the tarmac, the flight board, the changing delay times, the paper handed out by the airline, the crowd of passengers standing around, and getting on the plane at midnight. I made sure the photos were all time and date stamped.
I saved every scrap of paper: the ticket stubs, "passenger rights" information sheet passed out by the airline, original emails and PDFs of the ticket vouchers.
This is the European Union website that not only outlines your travel rights (air, ship, train) but has the forms to download and fill out, and the contact information for each country and their regulatory commission. They also tell you the basics of what to do, time lines and so on.
I downloaded the Passenger Rights Form, filled it out and contacted SATA Air directly. They denied my claim. Well, OK, they did not deny it right away. They kindly "looked into it" for two months and then they denied it.
So using the EU website, I contacted the Portugal and Spain National Authorities (I was not sure which country held the authority: we originated in Spain, but landed in Portugal. Also, SATA is a Portuguese Airline). I filed the complaint with both, sent along the supporting documentation, and made sure to copy it all to SATA.
- SIDE NOTE* This is the point I won compensation in 2017 from the Greek Ferry. They too ignored me until I contacted the Greek National Authority. When I copied it to the ferry company, I got an apology email and refund that day.
But not SATA !
SATA again denied any responsibility. I was contacted by both the Portugal and Spain National Authorities, and so now I just had to wait.
On 21 January, six months after the delayed flight, I received an email from the Spanish National Authorities, informing me that they ruled in my favor. We were entitled to full compensation of €500. They also sent the judgement on to SATA Air.
The problem now became how to collect the money.
SATA made a reasoned bet that I was not going to fly over to Europe to take them to court, so they denied the claim yet again.
I made a reasoned decision to contact a legal firm in the UK, FlightRight. I spent about five minutes on their website answering questions, and sent them the copies of my judgement. We emailed back and forth twice, they contacted SATA and BOOM!
I received an apology, and paperwork to fill out to receive the full compensation.
I owe FlightRight €125, so we pocket a full refund plus some extra in the end.
We had the option of having the money wired to our bank, or to receive a check. With bank fees for the wire, it was much more cost efficient (but slower) to have them send a check.
Well, this makes me two for three on delay compensation.
Two years ago we received full compensation from a nine hour ferry delay in Greece. But back in 2014 when Air Canada failed to deliver us to London on time so we missed the connection to Marrakesh, we were simply shit out of luck.
God bless the EU regulations.