flight delays

[bond]

my flight on a charter airline was delayed by over 3 hours and the destination was was no further than 3500km. I read on the net that based on this, the airline should have provided free meals and drinks at the time, but all i was offered was a warm bottle of water. having complained to the airline on return, they have apologised but have offered nothing, not even a token gesture. How can I be sure if they broke the EU regulation 261/2004? The delay was due to their (own) computer system failing. I lost an evening of my holiday because of this.

[dzug]

Well the wording is free of charge....meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time which is open to a degree of interpretation.

And the regulation provides no specific sanction if it's not complied with. Each member state is supposed to set up a system - I've no idea what the UK has done. Nothing I suspect.

[sitges]

Have had a similar event but with the plane delayed 6 hours due to lack of personel to fly it. It was a charter also and my undersatanding is that they do not have to abide by the same rules as a commercial flight. At least that is what we were told. They did offer a $200.00 off coupon if we booked another trip with the booking agency.

[KARL]

The regulations are there but, certainly in the UK, they are pretty meaningless and the airlines regularly flout them - some are worse than others. If you know your rights you can insist but when they do not comply you are left with court as the only recourse. KLM blatantly refused me boarding onto a connecting flight at Amsterdam when they were still accepting other passengers. Over the course of time they gave three different reasons for this on three different occasions, the last one being in effect that "the computer said no". The UK watchdog gave up and said I could go to court - there are EUR600 at stake, according to the rules. All those put into this position should know that they are entitled to hard cash and are advised never to accept any vouchers or anything else such as "a gift" (which I was offered).