{"id":442872,"date":"2026-05-11T07:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442872\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T07:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:50:08","slug":"paula-was-disappointed-with-irelands-premier-airline-but-aer-lingus-followed-the-rules-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442872\/","title":{"rendered":"Paula was \u2018disappointed with Ireland\u2019s premier airline\u2019 but Aer Lingus followed the rules \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flying is by any measure a hideously complicated business involving the ferrying of millions of people and their bags all over the world every hour of every day and scheduling timetables across multiple time zones.<\/p>\n

On top of that, airlines have to organise food, fuel, airports and all the rest with the best laid of plans potentially disrupted by weather, strikes, wars, technical issues, personal tragedies and a whole lot more besides. <\/p>\n

Given all that is going on, it is hardly surprising then if sometimes things go wrong, and equally unsurprising when those who are most impacted want to find out who is responsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am hoping you could help me with a complaint I have ongoing with Aer Lingus<\/a> relating to compensation I feel that I\u2019m entitled to, but Aer Lingus are not inclined to agree with me,\u201d begins the mail from a reader called Paula.<\/p>\n

Paula was due to fly from Izmir, Turkey into Dublin with the airline last October with a scheduled departure of 10pm. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t to be. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe flight was delayed by several hours and rumours started to spread among the passengers that the inbound flight from Dublin was diverted to Sofia,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

While in the airport in Izmir she was able to use the Flight Radar app to track the incoming flight and sure enough the rumour mill was on the money and the Turkey-bound flight had been diverted to Sofia and had only taken off for Izmir hours after it was supposed to arrive. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0What do sky-high jet fuel prices mean for travellers?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The flight tracking app said the plane was due to arrive in Izmir at 2am \u2013 some four hours after the plane was supposed to leave with Paula on board.<\/p>\n

The rumour mill in the airport went into overdrive and word on the concourse was that the flight had been diverted because of a disruptive passenger. The plane duly touched down and passengers eventually started boarding at 3am.<\/p>\n

\"AerAer Lingus said a pilot had to divert an inbound flight to Sofia to offload a disruptive passenger which ultimately resulted in the cancellation of her flight from Izmir. Photograph: Oli Scarff\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

But just as the plane began to taxi down the runway the passengers were told that it could not go any further because the \u201ccrew had exceeded their flight hours for the day and for them to continue would be illegal,\u201d Paula says. <\/p>\n

So she and everyone else on the plane disembarked and \u201chad to wait to collect luggage, get refunds for any duty free that was purchased and finally be bussed to a nearby hotel. We were not in our rooms until 5am,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A new flight was arranged for 2pm the following day and it eventually took off at 4pm. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt check in, each passenger was provided with a copy of Regulation EC 261\/2004 and it was suggested that we would all be entitled to compensation,\u201d she says. \u201cMy understanding is that where a flight is delayed over three hours you may be entitled to compensation of up to \u20ac400 where the distance of the flight is between 1,500km \u2013 3,000km. To qualify, the delay must be the airlines fault (eg technical issues or staffing problems). <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Aer Lingus flight cancellations: have you been affected?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we had been advised that the reason for the delay was that the crew had exceeded their flight hours (ie an operational issue) and we had been provided with a copy of the regulation along with instructions on how to make a claim, I assumed that we would all be entitled to this compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since last November, she has pursued the same complaint on multiple occasions. \u201cThey\u2019re declining my request on the basis that my flight was delayed due to a disruptive passenger, when this was clearly not the case. Granted, there was one on a previous flight (apparently), but there must be a distinction between these flights. I feel they are relying on a bit of a domino effect here and I wonder how far you can take it?\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she is \u201cnot able to accept their version of events and asked for a copy of their flight report which would outline their case. I feel that they must have to prove to me their version, surely?\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she has reached the point where \u201cthe compensation isn\u2019t that relevant (though who couldn\u2019t do with an extra \u20ac400 these days?), but about the injustice of their actions. Their response is not reflective of the spirit of the regulation and has left me really disappointed with Ireland\u2019s \u2018premier\u2019 airline.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of things strike us about Paula\u2019s mail. <\/p>\n

While she might think the airline should provide her with a copy of their flight report, we can think of no situation in which any airline would comply with such a request. And while we understand where she was coming from when she says that the reason for the delay in her flight taking off was operational, it seems reasonable to us that if the flight that was due to bring her home was delayed for reasons that were beyond the airline\u2019s control then a delay in her flight was both inevitable and unavoidable. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s most complained-about companies: there\u2019s a new top offenderOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

We have attended small claims court hearings where passengers with other airlines have similarly argued that they were due compensation because delays they faced were not as a result of their flight but a previous one that had a knock on effect and the judges have ruled in the airlines\u2019 favour. <\/p>\n

We did highlight the story to the airline and a spokeswoman said Aer Lingus \u201csincerely regrets the inconvenience caused by this disruption to Paula\u2019s journey. The pilot had to divert the inbound flight to Sofia to offload a disruptive passenger which ultimately resulted in the cancellation of her flight. Customers affected by the cancellation were provided with care and assistance, including hotel accommodation. As the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances that were outside the airline\u2019s control, compensation under Regulation EC 261\/2004 is not payable.\u201d <\/p>\n

We also heard from another reader who had a considerably more distressing story involving interactions with Aer Lingus. <\/p>\n

The partner of this reader\u2019s sister died suddenly earlier this year at a time when she was travelling with another family member in Spain. \u201cOur parents were also away on holidays,\u201d she says. \u201cI contacted Aer Lingus straight away to get us all on to the next available flights home.\u201d <\/p>\n

Our reader was told that while she would need to pay the fare difference and change fee for the flights, it \u201cwould be refunded once I was able to submit a death certificate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost was \u20ac700 to change our flights home, and \u20ac763.60 to change our parents\u2019 flights home,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She paid the required fees and sent Aer Lingus the death certificate but was dismayed when in response Aer Lingus said it would only refund 10 per cent of the fare difference, which amounts to \u20ac60.<\/p>\n

In our experience, Aer Lingus tends to be very good at handling bereavement cases and so it turned out when we contacted the airline. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the airline said: \u201cWe deeply regret the issues this family encountered after changing their travel plans due to a bereavement. We have now processed a full refund of the change fees and fare differences paid by the customers. Aer Lingus understands that this was a difficult time for this family and we apologise that we fell short on this occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flying is by any measure a hideously complicated business involving the ferrying of millions of people and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,72,943,61,60,9825,3791],"class_list":["post-442872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aer-lingus","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pricewatch","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}