[zahrc]

The best advice I can give people who struggle to claim something from an airline and get exhausted of getting rejected, use flightright.com. (No - not affiliated with them)

I had a claim rejected and initially it was rejected when flightright attempted to claim it. It went to court and even after commission I ended up with more money than I paid for the tickets.

All I had to do was sign a few documents and have patience.

[koyote]

I used a similar service when I was told by KLM (same company as AF) that a cancelled flight of mine was outside of their control (it wasn't).

It was a special case because they cancelled the first out of 3 connecting flights and rebooked me onto a flight leaving the day before on that very day (had to stop what I was doing and rush to the airport to make it).

All other flights were on time and I technically arrived at my destination on time.

Luckily there had been a prior case that was tried at the EU court and the court ruled that you would get compensation if you end up leaving early.

After KLM rejected I decided to use one of those services as it seemed like a complex case to argue and lo and behold, about a month later I got my compensation (minus the fee I had to pay the service).

As far as I understand they have a group of lawyers and immediately threaten with legal action. I wouldn't be surprised if the airlines simply auto-approve the majority of claims made by these companies as that's cheaper.

I'd still try and claim the 'normal' way first as the fee for using such services is quite high (20-30%).

[azov]

From their FAQ:

> How do I enforce my rights in case of a flight problem? To enforce your claims, it is advisable to seek professional assistance.

This makes me reluctant to trust them or their advice.

I'd expect an honest answer to be "you can totally do it yourself, but we will help you for X% commission".

[Fogest]

Probably just there for legal reasons. They do mention their compensation on the site however.

> If successful, we transfer your money to you immediately. If the airline refunds your ticket within 7 days, our service is free of charge. After that, you only pay if we are successful (commission 14-28% plus VAT). For compensation claims, the commission is usually 20-30 % (plus VAT).

[lazyasciiart]

I have used a similar-sounding service called AirHelp, and it was absolutely worth the (tiny) effort on my part. I believe they took 1/3 of the compensation I got, which seemed very fair since they got through the request process and denial and all the way to lawyers sending letters to each other: I would probably have given up with nothing.

[phs318u]

Wow. Just checked them out. Hadn't heard of them before. Will definitely be bookmarking this one. Thanks.