Flight Landing Delay – Compensation?

A few months ago, a flight we were on had to head back to the airport due to mechanical reasons. We were about an hour into the flight before we turned back to the gate. We ended up getting on another airplane. Our original arrival time was scheduled for 6 PM. We ending up landing around 9 PM.

The airline sent us $125 vouchers (each person).

This was a US carrier and we traveled in the Continental US.

Some of us had paid tickets. I think the tickets were about $150 each (one way).

Does anyone know the rules for this situation?

Some of us flew on award seats. Are the rules different for compensation on award tickets?

A USATODAY article on the homepage today mentioned 400% compensation if a flight is delayed for 2 hours. Our original flight was not delayed - our landing was delayed.

A better place for this type question would be www.fliertalk.com Those folks know EVERYTHING regarding flights, compensation, etc. We know timeshares.

Passepartout said:

A better place for this type question would be www.fliertalk.com Those folks know EVERYTHING regarding flights, compensation, etc. We know timeshares.

Click to expand...

Agreed, but it is actually flyer talk.com...they will have all the details

s1b000 said:

Agreed, but it is actually flyer talk.com...they will have all the details

Click to expand...

Try it. It works either way oh picky one. The website administrators know some people spell like I do.

swj said:

A few months ago, a flight we were on had to head back to the airport due to mechanical reasons. We were about an hour into the flight before we turned back to the gate. We ended up getting on another airplane. Our original arrival time was scheduled for 6 PM. We ending up landing around 9 PM.

The airline sent us $125 vouchers (each person).

This was a US carrier and we traveled in the Continental US.

Some of us had paid tickets. I think the tickets were about $150 each (one way).

Does anyone know the rules for this situation?

Some of us flew on award seats. Are the rules different for compensation on award tickets?

A USATODAY article on the homepage today mentioned 400% compensation if a flight is delayed for 2 hours. Our original flight was not delayed - our landing was delayed.

Click to expand...

The article is about if you are denied boarding on your original flight (due to overbooking) and they put you another available flight and arrive more than 2 hours late. It is not about arriving late due to a mechanical problem. Also it seems to say that once you accept what you are offered, you don't have the option months later to ask for more. You need to demand it at the time (or I would think shortly thereafter).

In your situation I don't think there is any "required" compensation.

In a case like yours, compensation is normally the same for everyone. Doesn't matter if it's an award ticket or paid. The exception might be those fliers who have high status. They might get more.

I recently had a flight with a mechanical problem where I arrived home 3 hrs late. United would only give me $50. I wouldn't complain about $150.

Looks like the OP got a $125 voucher on a $150 flight for a 3 hour delay- in a safe airplane. Not bad in my book.

Here is the link to the article being discussed:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2014/04/07/flight-overbooked-compensation/7414701/


If you want to pursue it you have to go to the airline's website to get their written policy or contract of carriage and it spells out compensation for various problems the passengers face.

The credit you received seems to be standard.

My brother's flight was recently delayed over 6 hours on a flight from FLL to SWF because there was a problem with the plane and a new plane had to be flown in. JetBlue gave him a $100 credit.

My last sight-seeing adventure netted me a $450 credit on a $426 RT ticket.

Why do I call it a sight-seeing adventure?

We pushed away from the gate about 20 feet, required a mechanic to checkout something on the plane (6AM lots of mechanics I presume) and got to Atlanta where almost everyone else's plane was held for them EXCEPT my connecting flight (me and my new friends - 6 or 7 of us). Had to change terminals (Atlanta remember), walk the entire length and board a plane to Las Vegas (except we all were going to Phoenix). Walk most of the Las Vegas terminal to get to our NEXT connecting flight. No time for any food or drinks at either airport. And we got to be the last persons on FULL FLIGHTs - think Kevin Smith in a middle seat & SWA.

And did our luggage arrive in PHX with us --- last bags to arrive at baggage claim area - after all the golf bags had been offloaded.

And that 6+ hours addition on travel time netted us a $200 future flight voucher. I can tell you HOW many bags of pretzels I ate during those 12+ hours.

But the REAL inconvenience was the email the following day from SWA --- my return FLIGHT arrangements had been cancelled because I missed the connection flight from ATL to PHX.

Okay, 3 customer service agents LATER, I got to fly standby on my original return flight (SOLD out flight and SWA resold my reservation I had made 7+ months earlier -- suggest they cancel whoever they unrightly SOLD my ticket to the day before). And my boarding pass (standby) could ONLY be issued once I reach the airport on my departure day -- was again the last person to board the plane.

So, next day spent another 90 minutes on the phone to SWA and turned by $200 AirTran voucher into a $450 SWA voucher.

I earned that money - I was so over tired & hungry when I arrived in PHX - I was shaking.