There are countless claim agencies in the European Union that specialise in pursuing airlines for compensation owed under the EC261/2004 regulation. Their promise is simple: They’ll chase up airlines for money owed under EU laws for flight delays, cancellations and instances of overbooking on behalf of airline passengers who lack the time or expertise to do it themselves. If they are successful, the agency will keep a portion of the payout. If they are unsuccessful, there is no fee to the customer.

But as it turns out, these services may not be entirely without risk! In this podcast, we meet multiple Finnair passengers who ended up personally owing the airline thousands of Euros after their claim agency, IfDelayed, lost their court cases and subsequently went bankrupt. This is despite being told by the claim agency that “under no circumstances will you be liable to pay any costs or other penalties if we do not win your case”.

This episode explains in detail the unfortunate series of events that led to these Finnair passengers having to pay up to $13,000 out of their own pocket, through no fault of their own. Perhaps surprisingly, nobody seems to have broken any laws along the way.

Also in this episode, the latest Australian airline news & how to maximise the value in Virgin Australia’s latest “double status credits” promotion.

Episode contents:

Links:

Frequent Flyer Gazette articles referenced in the fortnightly news round-up: