Austrian Airlines Entschädigung bei Flugannullierung

Austrian cancellations: what is specific

Austrian’s cancellation e-mail or app message is the notice; its timestamp decides the 14-day rule. Cancellations announced as “schedule changes” months ahead carry no compensation, but the refund-or-rerouting choice remains yours.

If Austrian re-routes you on another Lufthansa Group flight arriving within 2, 3 or 4 hours of your original schedule (depending on distance), compensation is halved or falls away; if the alternative arrives later than that, the full amount is due. Care in Vienna while you wait is owed whatever the cause.

The three questions that decide a Austrian Airlines cancellation claim

1. When did Austrian Airlines tell you? Informed 14 days or more before departure: no compensation, but a refund or re-routing and care. Less than 14 days: compensation is due unless a replacement flight met the windows below or the cause was extraordinary. Austrian Airlines must prove when and how it informed you — keep its cancellation e-mail or app notification with the timestamp.
2. What replacement did Austrian Airlines offer? Between 7 and 14 days’ notice, no compensation if the re-routing departed no more than 2 hours early and arrived less than 4 hours late; under 7 days’ notice the margins shrink to 1 hour early and 2 hours late.
3. Why was it cancelled? Weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, security and external strikes are extraordinary; Austrian Airlines’s technical problems, crew shortages, rotation planning and its own staff’s strikes are not.

What you always get, whatever the reason

Compensation may depend on the cause, but three rights never do. Austrian Airlines must offer you the choice between a full refund of the unused ticket (within 7 days, in cash or bank transfer — a voucher only with your agreement) and re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or on a later date of your choice. While you wait for the re-routing Austrian Airlines must provide meals, refreshments, two calls or e-mails and, when an overnight stay becomes necessary, a hotel and transport to it. If it leaves you to arrange this yourself, keep receipts and claim the reasonable amounts.

How much Austrian Airlines owes when compensation is due

€250, €400 or €600 per passenger under EU261, set by the distance of the flight (or of the whole journey on one booking). Austrian Airlines may halve the long-haul amount to €300 when the replacement flight it offered arrived within the reduction windows (2 hours late for short flights, 3 hours for medium, 4 hours for long).

How to claim a cancellation from Austrian Airlines

1. Keep the cancellation notice, the original booking and the details of any replacement flight offered (departure and arrival times).
2. Ask Austrian Airlines in writing for the reason for the cancellation.
3. Submit the claim through Austrian Airlines’s official channel (https://www.austrian.com/at/en/passenger-rights), stating the notice date, the replacement offered (or not) and the amount per passenger.
4. If Austrian Airlines refuses or stalls for 8 weeks, escalate to apf (Austria), then to the courts within the limitation period of the departure country.