IBERIA flouting EU261. Any recommendations or success?

[Berlin]

This is nothing out of the ordinary and one of the main reasons I call the entire EU scheme a scam (we could get political here and highlight that this is in the nature of most EU legislation but let’s stay on topic). Plenty such stories about Lufthansa and Air France/KLM too, not up even mention the likes of Ryanair or Wizz.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Iberia's response to my claim was pretty much identical to the one in post #1 of this thread, and they just stonewall you until you go away. It's disappointing to see that nothing has changed in all this time.

This is nothing out of the ordinary and one of the main reasons I call the entire EU scheme a scam (we could get political here and highlight that this is in the nature of most EU legislation but let’s stay on topic). Plenty such stories about Lufthansa and Air France/KLM too, not up even mention the likes of Ryanair or Wizz.

An airline shirking their obligations under the law is nothing new. Corporations are not people, they do not have morals or ethics, they will do whatever they can get away with to turn a buck. And by the way this doesn't necessarily mean that it is a flaw of the law either. After all, they want to minimize their liability when they screw up and so long as there is no penalty in them stringing you along, why not drag out the process? Now if there were timelines and strict penalties for such tactics, things would change.

One recent example that comes to mind is when American lost my luggage for nearly a week. I went out and bought some stuff (including antihistamine that was in my checked bag) and claimed it back to them. They responded agreeing to everything except the antihistamine as they claim that their contract of carriage disclaims liability for those things. But here's the deal, the law (Article 26 of the Montreal Convention which governed this international trip) explicitly states that the airline is not allowed to disclaim any liability covered under the convention. So technically if I wanted to, I could demand they reimburse me the ~$30 USD I spent on the antihistamine (including suing them in small claims court). Ultimately, I decided against it and will simply claim it back from my credit card company.

As for @Matt Graham, it may be worthwhile engaging one of the no win no fee outfits to pursue the matter. You will lose a percentage of your compensation, but at least Iberia will be force to do what it is supposed to.

Another example (related to passenger rights) was when Air Canada incorrectly claimed that my delay of 14 hours due crew scheduling was within their control but required for safety and thus ineligible for the $1,000 compensation I was owed under Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulation. Ultimately, I complained the Canadian Transportation Agency and 2 years later they reviewed the case, the airline was forced to provide evidence, and I spent about 3 hours writing a rebuttal to their "defence" using the evidence they provided against them. Ultimately the agency ruled in my favour and ordered Air Canada to pay me $1,000 CAD (which they did 24 hours prior to the deadline they had to pay up). Was it worth me going through all those hoops to get what was owed? Perhaps. But I think there is some value in agencies like AirHelp, especially when the process can be slow and full of paperwork. My understanding (at least in Europe) is the process of "appealing" such decisions depends on the EU state and not all of them are as expedient as even Canada's slow complaint process. 70% of something is still better than 100% of nothing!

-RooFlyer88