For the statutory eu compensation you didn’t need to hire anyone, the process is super easy, the airline by law has to have the form online, you submit it, and if they don’t answer in 3 weeks you file the complaint with the faa equivalent in the country you were traveling to, and let the airline know.
I had to do it with Icelandair, and once I told them I had filed a complaint with the government they started answering emails.
It took like 2 months from start to finish, but I got it.
> and once I told them I had filed a complaint with the government they started answering emails.
This still suggests there's a problem - companies can choose to break the law and only start following it when a tiny minority actually reports them to the regulators.
The regulation should be changed so that any regulator involvement regarding the matter implies an immediate and significant penalty, so companies are better off giving out refunds directly than waiting for them to complain to the regulator.
Yeah, this doesn’t always work. I applied for compensation from Lufthansa and they just keep replying with a “Covid times are busy” message despite threatening legal action. In the end, using a service made sure I got my money back.
I had to do it with Icelandair, and once I told them I had filed a complaint with the government they started answering emails.
It took like 2 months from start to finish, but I got it.