About Us
Hello! My name is Derrick Flanagin, and I’m a journalist. I guess this is more of an “About Me” than an “About Us,” but SEO and all that…
Anyway.
I started investigating air passenger rights around 2014 when I moved to England and discovered the incredible EU 261/2004 law. At one point, I even wrote an article about it for the my school’s paper that went viral!
Coming from the US, I hadn’t even heard of the concept of passenger rights. Back in the States, if your flight was late—well, that’s just tough luck!
In the EU, on the other hand, an explicitly written law is in place to protect passengers from avoidable inconveniences. EU 261/2004 is simple: if your flight is late, delayed, or canceled, you are due compensation. The amount you are due depends on the length of the delay and the distance between the two ticketed airports.
I noticed that this law wasn’t common knowledge, even among EU/UK citizens. The airlines don’t offer up compensation the moment something happens; you have to chase it down—and they’re not exactly telling you how to do that. It can take months of back-and-forth with customer service and the Civil Aviation Authority until you get a compensation claim deposited into your bank account.
The confusing information continues online. Instead of helpful websites, I found money-extracting operations targeting folks who were less knowledgeable about the law. There are many websites that position themselves as the #1 source of air compensation and EU2 61/2004 expertise, but in reality, they use AI to automate the assessment process and then take a significant cut of your compensation if they like what they see.
I don’t think that’s right. Generally, the only thing standing between you and your claim being resolved is usually two very carefully worded emails and the correct documented proof. I’m adding another step to that approach: the name and shame element.
So, are airlines denying or not responding to your request for due compensation? Let me look at the case, and if it’s legit, we can take the aggressive route together. Once we get what we’re after, I’ll write about it here to expose common airline denial tactics.