Interesting News: Law EC 261

I routinely read New York Times travel when I stumbled upon an article that I think everyone needs to know about! It is about how airlines, including US Airlines, are REQUIRED by European Union law to cover meals and hotels if they cancel your flight for any reason.

This comes as a shock to me as I was in London the big volcanic ash crisis happened and I remember reading about people who went broke trying to pay for hotels. The article states that any carrier is required to cover people of ANY nationality flying from the EU. It even states that if the flight is cancelled for mechanical reasons then they have to pay penalties to every passenger up to 600 Euros!

I think that this goes a little overboard personally. The airlines had no control over the volcanic ash, but I wish I had known as I had to pay an extra nights hotel for having my flight on Emirates to Dubai cancelled due to the ash. I wish I had known this was the law! I even asked the airline if they would do something and they said no! Appears like they lied to me...

I hope spreading the word about this helps someone else, even if it didn't help me!

The details can be found at NYT here!! This is a must read if you fly in and out of Europe!