This is how you get money back for your flight delay

(or that overbooking or that cancellation)

I was sitting on my butt celebrating a vacation on a Greek island, sipping on a good wine accompanied by snacks loaded with garlic, when I received a message. The entire airport is on strike including everyone who has anything to do with the airport. No flights in, no flights out, on the day we were supposed to go home. Oh... You get clenched buttocks from that.

There you are. The plan was to ship us to Turkey and take off from there, but fortunately, it didn't come to that. I did sit at Schiphol once, waiting and waiting and waiting, with little flying as a result. The gate remained closed, but I had already checked in and gone through customs, so you couldn't go anywhere. Five hours later, I was finally allowed to head to Australia, which seriously ate hours off my trip. But when I heard the story of our Daan, my pants really fell down. She had booked a weekend in London with her daughter, three days to be exact. Awesome, we thought. Excited, they were. Flight canceled, the airline sent. Two hours in advance. Without giving a reason, they were already packed and on their way to Schiphol. Of course, there was a new flight available. One. Whole. Day. Later. If you're only going for three days, that's significant, I can tell you.

Then you would think that there is nothing to be done or that it costs a fortune to see any of the euros back, but that's not the case. Within three minutes, you know if you are entitled to a compensation of 250, 400, or 600 euros. Look, that's cash. The good news is that you can do that too. That compensation is a European right, which you are also entitled to. Both for cancellations and delays. You go to www.vlucht-vertraagd.nl, fill in your flight details, and an expert finds out if there is compensation involved. They work on a ‘no cure, no pay’ basis, and if it works out, you pay 25%. So you get 75% compensation instead of (probably) nothing. If it ultimately goes to court, the experts still take on the work and the success fee remains the same. Good news: they have a 98 percent win rate.

Also handy to know...

1. 563,267 users have gone before you (and the counter keeps ticking).
2. The average compensation is 943 euros.
3. They do business daily with over 100 airlines.
4. The service is available in 8 languages.

So if you have a delay, they cancel everything without reason, or your seat is occupied? Just give it a try.