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Have you claimed yet?

Published: 04/07/2008 - Filed under: News »

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BA and Virgin have agreed to fund an advertising campaign reminding passengers of their rights to claim compensation resulting from the carriers’ price-fixing scandal.

Earlier this year the airlines were forced to pay £73.5 million to fund compensation claims for overcharged flights purchased between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006 (see online news February 19).

So far around 100,000 individuals have registered for partials refunds, but it is thought there are as many as 8 million UK and US passengers who could be eligible for compensation.

To encourage more passengers to make their claim, advertisements will appear over the next few weeks in UK national newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines, booking sites such as Expedia and Lastminute, and in BA and Virgin’s in-flight publications.

On July 14 claim forms will also be sent to all those whose contact details have been provided at airpassengerrefund.co.uk, and from the same date passengers will be able to make claims directly on the website. Refunds are expected to begin being processed in October of this year.

Commenting on the advertising campaign, Anthony Maton, partner at Cohen Milstein (the UK lawyers acting on behalf of claimants in the case) said:

“Since we announced this settlement in February the website has received over 1,200 registrations from businesses ranging from SMEs to blue chip firms as well as 100,000 registrations from individuals.  However, in granting its approval the US Federal Court has taken into account the fact that UK businesses and consumers are unlikely to have previously come across a settlement of this type. Accordingly, it has therefore sanctioned a robust, multi-pronged notification programme designed to deliver plain and easy to understand information about the Settlement. The programme is estimated to reach almost 90 per cent of those passengers who are entitled to make a claim.”

For more information visit airpassengerrefund.co.uk.

Report by Mark Caswell

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