Manipulating arrival time: airlines' trick to deny compensation

Arrival time definition: what you need to know

The right to compensation applies when a flight is delayed by at least 3 hours upon arrival at the final destination. Naturally, airlines will try anything to keep the delay under three hours. It is important to know how this delay time is calculated: The European Court of Justice has ruled that the official arrival time is when the doors open and the passengers can exit the plane. This means that even if your flight is delayed by two hours, but your plane remains taxiing for an hour before opening the doors, you would still be entitled to compensation!

Manipulating the arrival time

Since airlines want to deny as many compensation claims as possible, they have many cards up their sleeve. One of these is manipulating the arrival time. Our team at Flight-Delayed.com has dealt with some unbelievable cases when it comes to this trick and today we share one with you.

After a flight from Eindhoven to Bologna landed the airline immediately opened the airplane doors to decrease the arrival delay to 2 hours and 53 minutes. This meant passengers were not entitled to compensation, since it is less than 3 hours. However the airline then put tape in front of the exit, so no passenger could leave the plane for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes passed the tape was removed and passengers were allowed to leave. This meant passengers actually arrived with a delay of 3 hours and 3 minutes. Therefore, passengers were entitled to compensation. Below is a picture of this flight.

The importance of proof of a flight delay

Without proof, the airline would have shown the doors open time and be exempted from the obligation to pay compensation, leaving the passengers angry and empty handed. Luckily, one of the passengers thought to take a picture, and the meta data specifies the time it was taken at!. This proof was used in court to show the arrival delay was 3 hours and 3 minutes rather than the 2h and 53 minutes the airline claimed. Thanks to this, Flight-Delayed.com was able to win the flight compensation they were owed!

What can you do if an airline denies compensation?

When your flight is delayed, make sure to get some kind of proof if the delay was around 3 or 4 hours. This helps to exercise your right to compensation. Furthermore, remember the information the airline provided surrounding the delay or cancellation to build your case, for example the reason for the delay or if there are technical issues. Lastly, whenever they deny your boarding, make sure you get a document which says you have been denied boarding. Airlines are obliged to hand this out. Another solution is to take a picture to show you were at the gate in time, the picture will save the timestamp in the metadata.

How to take legal action against an airline?

For passengers it is often difficult to get compensated as airlines generally deny compensation claims without sufficient evidence or reasoning, knowing most passengers will not continue to pursue the case legally. This means that, often, in order to enforce passengers' rightful compensation it is necessary to take the airline to court. By submitting a claim with Flight-Delayed.com you have higher chances to get compensated because our legal teams have 15 years of experience in pursuing passenger compensation. We will take care of the court costs and risks while you can lean back and wait for the court case to reach a conclusion.

Flight compensation for delayed and cancelled flights

Under EU and UK regulations, if your flight was delayed by 3+ hours or cancelled within 14 days of the scheduled departure, you could be entitled to compensation of up to €600 per passenger. This applies if the disruption was the airline's fault and not due to extraordinary circumstances like ATC restrictions.

Think this might apply to you? Use our Claim Calculator to check your eligibility and file your claim online!

Check compensation

We hope you find this information useful, have a safe and amazing trip!

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