Compensation for claiming a business travel, where the passenger suffers a delay, cancellation, overbooking or loss of baggage, is payable by the passenger.
However, the costs incurred as a result of this incident (such as a downgrade or change of class, or the cost of a new flight) and the damages that the air company has to pay must be paid to the company.
3 examples of company flights and compensation :
1- Example of a company flight with one-off compensation for the passenger:
In this first case, let’s imagine that a company buys each flight for 2 executives in economy class from Madrid to New York for €1,000, with a scheduled arrival time of 4.00 pm, and the passenger arrives more than 3 hours late. However, this delay causes no more inconvenience than the late arrival at the destination and goes no further.
In this case, compensation under the European Regulation would be €600 per person and would be for the passenger, not the company.
2- Example of claiming business travel with reimbursement of expenses only for the company:
In this second case, let’s imagine that the company flight is in first class for a value of €3,000 per flight and when the passengers get on, they cannot be accommodated because there are no free seats in this class and they are downgraded to economy class.
We can claim that 70% of the ticket price paid by the company should be refunded. In other words, €4,200 should be refunded to the company if it is the company that pays.
If the passenger had paid, the 70% would be refunded to the passenger and not to the company. Some companies ask the employee to pay for the flight and then the company adds it to their pay.
3- Example of claiming business travel with compensation for the passenger and reimbursement of expenses to the company:
Three executives purchase a first-class Bilbao-Madrid-Mexico booking with stopovers.
The Bilbao-Madrid journey was delayed and, seeing that they could not find a solution, the executives took a flight on their own to Madrid in order to arrive at the original reservation in time to continue on to Madrid-Mexico.
Once in Madrid, they went to the Madrid-Mexico flight of the first booking and discovered that it had been cancelled.
Seeing no other solution, the company bought another flight. The three executives had to attend an extremely important meeting in Mexico and could not wait for solutions the following day. They decided to buy a new flight from Madrid to Mexico.
What can be claimed for the business trip:
- 3,500 for the original flight for 3 people paid for by the company = €10,500
- New flights paid for by the passenger from Bilbao to Madrid: €320 per person = €960
- New flights paid for by the company from Madrid to Mexico City in economy class: €2,400 for 3 people = €7,200 In addition to the expenses, these passengers suffered a delay, which would have caused them to miss the stopover and the airline ended up cancelling the flight, so in addition to the expenses, each passenger is entitled to €600 per person. The compensation and expenses would therefore be as follows.
Compensation to the passenger :
- 600 € per passenger + cost of flights of €320 each = €920 per person.
Reimbursement to the company:
- The company will be able to recover the cost of the first cancelled flight (as it is the most expensive) of €3,500 per person as it was not used. In other words, €10,500.
So the only thing the airline will not refund is the cost of the new flight to the company that was used. The cost of the second flight will not be reimbursed.
5 years to claim corporate theft
Have you been in a similar situation? Contact us, you are still within the time limit to claim.
Does the employee have to hand over the compensation to the company?
No, the compensation is to make up for his stressful and disruptive flight experience. The passenger is the beneficiary.
NOTE: passenger compensation does not depend on the cost of the ticket, but on the km of the flight. Passenger rights are explained below.
