7/19/2024

What are your rights and what you should demand from airlines and rail companies beacause of the tech outage travel chaos?

As the global tech outage is 'extraordinary' airlines have fewer obligations to passengers in the event of delays and cancellations.

With the tech outage impacting transport systems worldwide, many find themselves experiencing delays of unknown duration and possible cancellations.

If this were two years ago as travel reopened after COVID-19 lockdowns there's a good chance travellers could claim back from airlines for trips those companies cancelled due to capacity issues.

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But as this is an extraordinary (and indeed unprecedented) circumstance, compensation is not payable for flight delays or cancellations.

Airlines, however, do have a duty to take care of passengers caught up in the chaos

That means providing meals and accommodation if it's needed.

Journey rerouting should also be offered but may not be of benefit or even possible given the global nature of the glitch.

What to do?

If you're yet to check in the advice from airlines and airports is to arrive early and avoid dropping off a bag to avoid long queues.

"If you do check-in bags, make sure you keep medication, keys and any other essentials in your hand luggage," the editor of Which? Travel Rory Boland said.

No one knows how long the disruption is going on for and when a fix can be implemented so keep an eye on what your airport and airline are saying.

Train woes

While most trains are running across the country there have been short-notice changes and cancellations to service.

Refunds and compensation are due once a train is late. Most operators will issues compensation for a 15-minute delay, others 30 minutes.

If your journey is cancelled you are entitled to a full refund.

Customers have to get a claim submitted within 28 days. Keep the journey ticket to send it in as proof.

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