Rights and disruption

Terms on this topic

• Alternative dispute resolution body: An alternative dispute resolution body is a recognised organisation that settles disputes between travellers and providers out of court, usually free for the traveller.
• Baggage allowance: The baggage allowance is the weight and number of bags a ticket includes without an extra charge.
• Baggage liability: Baggage liability is an airline's obligation for delayed, damaged or lost luggage, capped at a maximum amount per passenger.
• Cancellation: A cancellation is the withdrawal of a scheduled flight; a diversion or substantial rescheduling can legally count as one too.
• Carry-on rules: Carry-on rules are an airline's limits on the size, weight and number of bags that may be taken into the cabin.
• Chargeback: A chargeback is the reversal of a card payment through your own bank when a paid-for service was not delivered or not delivered as agreed.
• Conditions of carriage: Conditions of carriage are an airline's general contract terms, setting out the rights and duties of both sides for every ticket it sells.
• Denied boarding: Denied boarding is the refusal to carry a passenger who holds a valid booking and arrived on time, typically because the flight is oversold.
• Document check: A document check is the airline's verification of passport, visa and travel authorisation before departure, based on an immigration requirements database.
• Duty of care: Duty of care covers meals, means of communication and, where needed, accommodation and transfers that an airline owes during a wait.
• Electronic travel authorisation: An electronic travel authorisation is an online pre-clearance for visa-free travellers that has to be in place before departure.
• EU passenger rights regulation: The EU passenger rights regulation is the European law governing claims for cancellation, long delay and denied boarding, regardless of ticket price.
• European Small Claims Procedure: The European Small Claims Procedure is a simplified court route for cross-border claims up to a statutory ceiling, with no need for a lawyer.
• Excess baggage: Excess baggage is luggage beyond the allowance, charged by the airline per piece, by weight or by dimensions.
• Extraordinary circumstances: Extraordinary circumstances are events outside an airline's control that remove the entitlement to statutory compensation.
• Flight compensation: Flight compensation is a flat statutory payment owed by the airline for cancellation, long delay or denied boarding, scaled by flight distance.
• Involuntary downgrade: An involuntary downgrade is being carried in a lower class than booked, for instance when business class is oversold or the aircraft was swapped.
• Irregular operations: Irregular operations describe a situation in which an airline's schedule breaks down broadly, through weather, strikes or a systems failure.
• Lithium battery rules: Lithium battery rules are safety regulations for batteries on aircraft: power banks and spare cells belong in hand luggage, never in checked bags.
• Misconnection: A misconnection is missing an onward flight because the previous one ran late; the legal consequences depend on whether both flights sit on one ticket.
• Montreal Convention: The Montreal Convention is an international treaty governing airline liability for baggage, delay and personal injury on international journeys.
• No-show clause: A no-show clause is the condition that the rest of a booking is cancelled if a passenger fails to take one flight segment.
• Operating carrier: The operating carrier is the airline that actually flies the aircraft, as distinct from the airline whose name sold the ticket.
• Overbooking: Overbooking is the deliberate sale of more seats than the aircraft has, because airlines plan for a predictable number of no-shows.
• Passport validity rule: A passport validity rule is the requirement of many countries that a passport remain valid for a minimum period beyond departure, often six months.
• Property irregularity report: A property irregularity report is the record filed at the airport for missing or damaged baggage and the basis of every later claim.
• Provider insolvency: Provider insolvency is the financial failure of an airline, hotel or agency, leaving booked services undelivered.
• Re-routing: Re-routing is the airline's obligation after disruption to get the passenger to the booked final destination, if necessary by another route.
• Rebooking on another airline: Rebooking on another airline is transferring a ticket to a different carrier so the passenger reaches the destination sooner after disruption.
• Refund: A refund is the repayment of the fare when a flight is cancelled or the passenger no longer wants to travel after a disruption.
• Schengen 90/180 rule: The Schengen 90/180 rule limits visa-free stays to 90 days within any rolling 180-day period across the entire Schengen area.
• Secondary security screening: Secondary security screening is an enhanced additional check, flagged on the boarding pass, that takes extra time at the airport.
• Single reservation: A single reservation is a journey whose sectors sit on one booking, which is the precondition for passenger rights to cover the whole route.
• Special drawing right: A special drawing right is an international unit of account used by the IMF, in which baggage liability limits are expressed.
• Transit visa: A transit visa is permission to pass through a country while connecting, even when no stay there is planned.
• Travel voucher: A travel voucher is credit with the airline offered instead of a repayment, redeemable only against that airline's own services.
• Trusted traveller programme: A trusted traveller programme vets passengers in advance and gives them an expedited lane at security or border control in return.
• Unaccompanied minor: An unaccompanied minor is a child travelling without an adult, for whom the airline requires or offers a chargeable escort service.
• US airline consumer rules: US airline consumer rules are Department of Transportation regulations covering refunds, baggage fees and denied boarding on flights in the United States.
• Wet lease: A wet lease is the hire of an aircraft together with its crew by an airline that then sells the flight under its own flight number.