With the great Christmas getaway just around the corner, festive travellers who experience flight delays could claim back their Xmas spend thanks to the launch of a new app.
Last year, around five million Brits flew abroad for the Christmas break, as well as domestic passengers heading home for the holidays, and while a delayed flight is hardly a great Christmas present, unfortunately it could happen to many travellers.
Now with new app airFair, the first of its kind in the UK, passengers delayed by over three hours could claim up to £500 compensation, and with research* showing that the average Briton spends £300 on gifts – Christmas could be taken care of.
The app offers consumers a free, no obligation check to see whether they are eligible for compensation from flights delayed for more than three hours within the EU in the past six years, and could even be downloaded while passengers are in the airport.
To use the app, consumers only need a booking reference or flight number to launch a claim, but even without this information, a check can still be made using a departure date and destination airport.
Steven Bell, managing director at airFair, said: “No one wants to be delayed over the festive period but unfortunately many people will be affected when they travel this Christmas. A surprising amount of people do not realise that they are entitled to claim compensation for delayed flights and therefore miss out on money that they are owed. The airlines put money aside for compensation purposes, so if you don’t claim when you are delayed that money just sits there.
“Claiming compensation through an airline can be time-consuming and confusing. The airFair app is designed to make it an easy, hassle-free process, to help consumers get money that they are entitled to. Our service is no win – no fee, so if claimants aren’t successful, they won’t pay a thing.”
While airFair version 1.1 is a straightforward flight checker, work is underway for the app to include geo-fencing, calendar scanning and rich notifications in the future.
Bell added: “airFair is the first of its kind in the UK, and we’re already working on version 2 which is due to be available for download early in 2017. We will integrate geo-fencing so people will get a notification if they are identified as being at an airport for more than three hours, making them aware that they could launch a compensation claim.”
AirFair is available for iOS and Android and is free to download and use. For more information visit www.airfair.com.