Some of our savvy readers may know their exact rights when it comes to delayed or cancelled flights. However, most of us (speaking for myself here) don’t, or if we do, we can’t always be bothered chasing it up. It’s also tricky with rules being changed for Covid to know where you stand.
With it looking more likely that we can fly again in a few months time, we thought we would take a look at a new kind of travel compensation app.
Rights and compensation practices can vary widely depending on departure or arrival city, airline and how long the delay is for. And, even if you do qualify for a claim, getting compensated is a whole other debacle.
In Europe, the EU261 legislation outlines what travellers are entitled to for delays of three hours or more, with compensation ranging from €250 to €600 depending on the distance.
That is part of what makes the new travel app Colibra interesting – opening up the way for consumers to take advantage of the compensation laws, without having to cut through all the red tape.
The app allows passengers to add their flight information, right up until 20 minutes prior to take-off, before any delays have occurred. They can then choose from a sliding time-delay option, choosing whether or not to be paid out for delays of one, two or three hours, with the potential pay-out increasing as the hours do.
So, essentially, it’s like a betting app but for your own flight delays. Colibra allows users with shorter delays to get a piece of the pie, but the downside is that if you choose to use the app, you waive your right to the larger payout you may be entitled to if your flight ends up being delayed by 3 hours or more. Obviously this is something of a gamble, so you need to make sure you fully understand what you are signing up for.
The sliding payout option allows passengers to customise their pay-out likelihood vs the amount
For example, a few years ago my Easyjet flight was delayed (big surprise) flying from London to Marrakech. We were delayed for 2 hours and 48 minutes, meaning that I did not automatically qualify to receive any compensation even though it was still a lengthy delay. However, if I had used Colibra, I would have received at least some money back.
According to the company, their system results in more frequent pay-outs for the average passenger, with one-hour delays obviously more probable than three-hour delays. Pay-outs range from €20 to €110, and are usually paid within 24-hours (rather than weeks or months).
It also allows for any delay reason, whereas the EU legislation doesn’t pay out for ‘severe weather events’ or other unexpected events that may be outside of the airlines control. For more info on how the Coibra system works, head here.
Colibra takes a management fee of 30%.
The app is clean and easy to use, with a convenient ‘travel wallet’ function that allows you to track and view all of your flights, as well as getting up-to-date notifications with real time flight data, making it pretty great even without the added flight-delay ‘insurance’.
Flight information can easily be added in a range of ways, such as scanning in, adding a flight number or manually entering flight details.
I feel that if I was able to start travelling around Europe or the UK again, I would definitely use it, particularly when flying short-haul on low-cost carriers, or from busy airports.
It is available for both iOS and Android devices via this page.
Let us know what you think, will you use it?
What’s your favourite travel app? Let us know what you think we should feature next.
3 comments
Am i being slow? Why would you predict and nit wait to see how long is the actual delay ?
It doesn’t quite work like that. It’s like gambling in effect. If your delay is less than 3 hours, normally you get nothing. This means that you get something if it is less than that if you predict the delay. Obviously, they are not going to pay you once you know the delay or they would pay everybody! By getting a small amount on short delays, it means that if the delay was over 3 hours, the Colibra get your compensation. So as I said, you are gambling on a shorter delay which is statically more likely
It’s an interesting idea
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