You know I love talking about simple ways to save money. Last week I talked about thrift-store coupons and a free replacement suitcase. Yesterday I talked about cash-back rewards and free chocolates from Lufthansa.
And those were all awesome frugal wins.
But I left one thing off the list because it was too exciting to squeeze into a random roundup. If you haven’t already taken the time to read the title of this post, here’s the summary:
We ended up receiving ~$4,000 CAD in flight cancellation compensation.
Yes, you’re reading that right. FOUR THOUSAND BUCKAROOS.
Let’s back up a bit…
Our London-to-Halifax Flight Was Cancelled
At the end of our stint in Europe, we were scheduled to fly directly from London to Halifax.
A direct flight home after months of travelling sounded delightful, and John takes this exact route all the time coming back on work trips.
We booked our train tickets from Cardiff to London and felt very smug about how smoothly everything was going in terms of our return itinerary.
And then we got up at 4:00 am to catch said train, checked our emails, and learned that while we were sleeping… our flight had been cancelled. Harumph.
Thankfully, we were automatically rebooked on a new itinerary that redirected us through Toronto before continuing on to Halifax.
We were disappointed, but it wasn’t the end of the world. I texted Joy and she graciously agreed to come pick us up later in the day. Aside from the route change, everything went smoothly on our return journey, and we touched down in Halifax about five hours later than originally scheduled.
Granted—thanks to the wonder of trans-Atlantic flights and time zones—by the time we got back to our house, we’d been up for 24 hours. So don’t get me wrong: those extra five hours were definitely annoying.
But were they worth $4,000?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Why We Didn’t Think We’d Qualify for Compensation
Originally, we thought that the cancellation was related to an unexpected maintenance issue and assumed that meant it was outside the airline’s control. BUT, ordinary technical problems don’t usually count as extraordinary circumstances under UK flight-compensation rules.
I probably would have assumed we weren’t eligible and left it at that. Thankfully, John is much more likely to investigate these things.
How We Applied for Flight Cancellation Compensation
John submitted a claim directly to the airline (in our case, Air Canada), which is admittedly a nuisance. You need things like your exact ticket number, date of the flight, and flight number.
John has talked me through the process and he stressed it’s important to be aware that sometimes flights are “operated by” a different provider from where you originally booked. For example: he regularly flies AC9091 from Frankfurt to Helsinki. It’s booked through Air Canada but it’s operated by Lufthansa, so his flight is technically LH848. This means there are two different flight numbers referring to the same operated flight. In terms of compensation, you generally need to report the operating carrier and operating flight number.
We Received £520 Per Person (UK261)
Eventually, we found out that the claim had been approved and that we were getting £520 per person.
Since there were four of us travelling, that brought the total to £2,080. This is a rare time the horrible exchange rate helped us; after the dust settled in terms of currencies, that comes out to almost $4,000 CAD.
The total retail cost of our four return flights—Halifax-Toronto-Munich; London-Halifax—was $5,400 CAD. So that reduced the overall ticket price to $1,400.
Flight Compensation Isn’t Based on Ticket Price
One important detail is that this type of flight cancellation compensation is not calculated according to what you paid for your ticket.
Because our original flight departed from London, UK passenger-protection rules applied. In general, European transport is much more passenger-centric with regard to compensation, so keep this in mind if you have issues with a flight departing from an EU or UK airport.
We received less than seven days’ notice about the cancellation, and our replacement itinerary got us to Halifax more than four hours later than originally scheduled. For a flight of more than 3,500 kilometres, that combination can qualify for £520 per person, provided the disruption wasn’t caused by extraordinary circumstances. (If you’re so inclined, here are the specific requirements on the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s flight cancellation page.)
We ticked all the right boxes.
It’s Always Worth Checking
This is not the first time we’ve received compensation after a disrupted flight! Long-time readers might remember the unexpectedly profitable ending to our Barcelona trip.
Apparently we have a talent for creating flight disruptions while coming home from Europe and getting money for our trouble??
The biggest lesson in all of this is to check.
Don’t assume you’re ineligible because the airline rebooked you!
Don’t assume you’re ineligible because you eventually reached your destination!
Don’t assume you’re ineligible because you didn’t pay full price for the ticket!
Don’t count on the airline automatically sending you money.
With regard to the last point, you almost always have to apply. Both times we’ve been compensated, the airline didn’t send any notifications about eligibility. John submitted both claims—with the ticket number, flight date, and the operating flight number (remember, that’s not always the same as the number you booked)—not really expecting anything.
This time around, the process took John about 20 minutes; most of those were spent searching Outlook for the original ticket numbers! And the result was nearly $4,000.
$200/minute is a pretty good return on investment!
So… that’s our huge frugal win this week!
Your turn:
- What’s your “biggest” frugal win to report?
- Have you ever applied for compensation after a delayed or cancelled flight?
- Would you be okay with an extra connection and a five-hour delay in exchange for $4,000? (Go ahead and guess my answer, haha!)
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No reimbursement policy like this exists in the US, to my knowledge. So I have never been compensated for a canceled or delayed flight. I wish that was the case! What a windfall for you all. I’d say the annoyance of a delay/extra connection was worth $4k CAD!
I often take overbooked flights where they offer $$ to take a later flight but I never have the flexibility to do so as it’s usually on an outbound flight. And if it’s on a return flight, it usually means getting back quite late so I turn it down because a late flight/bad night of sleep really throws my schedule off. If I didn’t have kids or a job, I’d be more apt to take it as I could sleep in if need be, but that’s not my reality at all. Phil would probably take a late flight/late arrival but he seems less sensitive to sleep disruptions. But he also takes zero prescriptions and has zero health problems so that is probably why!
Our frugal perk of the week is that I’m getting a free chipotle burrito bowl for lunch as Phil has Chipotle points that are expiring. His office orders lunch for their employees once/week and he often places the order so that he gets points + it goes on his credit card so he gets points on his credit card as well (it’s a very small company so they don’t have corporate credit cards like I do).
I so appreciate the reminder. We had a delayed flight from Split to London in late June. I just submitted the claim.
You are doing a public service! 🙂
Would paying off a mortgage early count as a frugal win? I know we saved tens of thousands of dollars by doing so. I never have had a big rebate, and an delayed flights I’ve had, I’m just happy to make it home eventually.
And 5 hours delay for $4000? Sign me up!
Hats off to you and John for navigating the bureaucracy and claiming your refund.