Works meetings at Austrian Airlines - These are your rights as a passenger

Vienna. The trade union vida has announced works meetings at Austrian Airlines for today, March 7, 2023. As a result, Austrian Airlines flights may be delayed and canceled.) Agency for Passenger Rights provides information on what passengers need to pay particular attention to and what rights they can assert as passengers.

The vida trade union has announced that it will hold works meetings with AUA cabin crew on March 7, 2023. As announced, this may lead to delays and flight cancellations. The EU Passenger Rights Regulation offers protection and a clear legal framework for affected travelers.

If a planned flight for which a ticket has already been purchased is canceled at short notice, passengers have the right to a refund:

• reimbursement of the ticket price taxes and fees
  
  
• the return flight to the place of departure at the earliest possible time
  
  
• alternative transportation to the destination under comparable conditions at no additional cost to the passenger (at the earliest possible date or, at the passenger's request, at a later date)
  
  
• Compensation that depends on the route booked and can amount to up to EUR 600 per person. As this is a company meeting of the carrier itself, not of a subcontractor (e.g. ground staff), this does not constitute an "extraordinary circumstance" that releases the airlines from the obligation to pay compensation.

"It is important to contact the airline first before booking alternative transportation on your own. As a rule, alternative transportation should be offered proactively," advises Maria-Theresia Röhsler, Managing Director of Agency for Passenger Rights.

The guidelines issued by the European Commission further discuss that an air carrier must reimburse the cost of re-routing if it does not comply with the obligation to offer re-routing under comparable travel conditions. If the air carrier does not offer a choice between reimbursement or re-routing, but unilaterally decides to reimburse the original ticket cost, passengers are entitled to reimbursement of the additional cost of the new ticket under comparable travel conditions.

If the flight takes place but is delayed , passengers are entitled to the following benefits:

• Care services from a two-hour departure delay (meals and drinks or hotel and transfer costs for delays of more than one day).
  
  
• Compensation payments if arrival at the destination is delayed by more than three hours. Passengers receive up to EUR 600 per person depending on the route booked.

Passengers who are affected by a cancellation or flight delay as a result of the AUA works meetings can find a sample letter on the apf website with which they can claim their passenger rights from the airline: https://www.apf.gv.at/de/musterbriefe-entschaedigung-fluglinie.html

If they receive no reply or no satisfactory reply from the airline within a period of six weeks, apf will help them to assert their rights free of charge and commission-free.

Further information is available at www.passagier.at

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