Quicktip: Travelling around the EU? Keep your EC261 rights at hand…

If you ever travel around the European Union, then you will probably be covered by the EC261 EU Regulations when things go wrong. They cover all sorts of modes of transportation: Air, Marine, Railways, Road. In most cases you need a significant delay, typically 2-4 hours for flights depending on distance, before the EU regulations kick in. These regulations apply to anyone travelling, not just EU citizens.

But if you cannot be bothered to learn all the fine print in detail, you should probably download the EU's app onto your mobile device. Occasionally you might find airlines trying to make you sign a waiver of rights when they offer what seems like a nice compensation, until you realise it's only half of what you are legally entitled to. At least if you can study your entitlements at the scene then you will not get caught out!

I do rate the app very well, the text is clear and easy to understand, and the different circumstances are logically laid out.

Although the web pages are available in other EU languages, I do not know if the app itself is. To find out, take the link address: “http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/mobile.html” and replace the “en” which I made red to the two letters which represent the language you want. For instance NL for Dutch, DE for German, IT for Italian etc. Most major languages are available, but don't expect something like Latvian or Slovenian!

So give it a try, and store it in the list of apps of “I hope I never have to use it, but just in case things get Foxtrot Uniform-ed then I'm glad I listened to Tim”.