Spanair – and now what?

For those people who purchased a package holiday bought through a travel agent (flight and hotel or other service), the travel agent should be able to offer an alternative or refund.

If the flight was bought directly with Spanair, this company is subject, as are all airlines, to Spanish Law regarding compensation for the cancellation of a flight, with amounts ranging from 250-600€ depending on the distance:

• 250€ flights up to 1500 km (reduced to 125€ if an alternative offered with a delay of less than 2 hours).
• 400€ flights between 1500-3500 km, or more than 1500 km within the EU (reduced to 200€ if you are offered a flight up to 3 hours after the original flight should have taken off)
• 600€ flights over 3500 km (reduced to 300€ if an alternative flight offered up to 4 hours after original flight should have taken off).

Make sure you keep all paperwork including not only electronic tickets and boarding passes but also e-mails and any receipts from expenses arisen as a result of flight cancellation (hotel, meals, etc). Additionally, if you have to send or handover originals make sure you make a copy beforehand, in this type of situation where Spanair will be overloaded with claims they can easily say that your documents were never received.

In normal situations for those people whose flights have been cancelled refunds should take place within 7 days. However, as the cancellations are due to the company ceasing operations it is unclear at this time if and when any refunds will take place.

All claims should be made directly with Spanair and then if no satisfactory answer is received contact with AESA – Official Air Security Agency. During the past few days as people have gone to various airports in Spain to make their claim they have been met with the unacceptable situation that Spanair had run out of Official Claims Forms (Hoja de Reclamaciones) – in this case the Airport Authorities (AENA) has been supplying them.

Spanair has the following phone number available for enquiries: 900 131415 (free call) (from abroad: +34 971916047) or check their website for updated information.

The Spanish Ministry of Development is taking an interest in the situation and will be offering updates during the coming days.

 

 

 

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