Air travel is on the rise. The number of projected flights could double within the next two decades. This increase would see billions more planes taking to the skies every single year. What this means for your claims management company is a corresponding rise in the number of flight claims you have to manage.
As the volume of flights goes up faster than an ascending plane, so too will flight claims. With airports getting busier, turbulence and weather getting worse, and flights filling up fast, problems are inevitable. But as both flights and the flight claims industry boom, what can your business do to make the most out of the opportunities available for claiming client compensation?
Know What Flight Claims Customers Can Claim on
One important aspect of making the most of your flight claims is knowing what cases you can take. There is no reason to expend time and resources on flight claims that won’t go anywhere, so what is available to you and your clients?
The most common type of flight claim is a delay. Delays count as anything over two hours for short-haul and up to five for the longest flights. Available compensation rises depending on the length of the delay and how the response of the airline. Flight delay claims are big business for your company. There are nearly 1 million claimable flight delays in the UK every year.
Similar to delay flight claims, you can also manage cancellation flight claims. These flight claims occur when an airline cancels a flight. Compensation is available if the flight is cancelled 14 days before scheduled departure, with compensation increasing dependant on time frames. For example, a flight cancelled 13 days in advance will yield less compensation than one cancelled five days in advance.
Another well-documented cause for a flight claim is denial of boarding. The Civil Aviation Authority states anyone bumped from a flight without their expressed permission is entitled to compensation of up to 600 Euro, even if they are provided with a later flight.
Compensation for flight claims are not part of goodwill by airlines but are part of complicated laws set out by the EU. Therefore, providing your clients fall within the parameters set out by the EU, they are entitled to compensation. Airlines cannot flout these rules, making flight claims a great earner for claims management companies, as there is a minimal grey area.
Automate Your Process When Possible
Automation is an incredibly powerful profit-building tool. In general, it can increase productivity and develop your workforce in a way that ensures employees are using their skills to their fullest potential. When it comes to flight claims specifically, automation supports faster and more efficient claims management. It stops your staff unnecessarily spending time on basic and time-consuming tasks such as data recording. But how do you introduce automation into your claims management company?
LogiClaim claims management software from Logician has a variety of features that can benefit CMCs, including automation of processes. You can easily develop automated practices for your business, such as sending out reminders to clients or airlines for information or submitting questionnaires to consumers about flight claims that allow your systems to update records with all the details you need automatically.
Investigate Multiple Flight Claims at Once
Because there are so many potential flight claims, there is a high probability that clients — especially frequent flyers — may have multiple claims. You must investigate the possibility that there could be more than one avenue of compensation to be looked into. If you can work on multiple flight claims on behalf of one client, then it is recommended you do so.
Through the use of our LogiClaim software, you can create a centralised client record to track and manage multiple claims. This record allows your claims management company to optimise its practices and follow several claims at any one time. Being able to double-up on claims in this way does not create twice the workload, as it would if you managed each one separately.
What this means for your business is much more efficient processing of flight claim cases, enabling you to follow multiple lines of enquiry at once. Effectively, you can get more done and take on more cases.
Understand Airline Rules and Flight Claim Process
Different airlines have different regulations and processes when it comes to paying compensation. Some are more amicable with flight claims than others. For example, British Airways, EasyJet and Virgin all have policies that allow flight claims for any incident within the last six years. However, other airlines such as Thomson and Jet2, as less helpful. Historically, the courts have been known to force them to payout on flight claims as old as two years, having protested against older claims through the use of a legal loophole.
What this means for your claims management company is not all flight claims are going to be equal. You may expend a great deal more resources on one claim than you would on another. So it’s important to understand which airlines are going to be easiest to achieve flight claims from, and also which flight claims may not be worth the investment. While it’s tempting to take on all flight claims that come your way, if they aren’t going to be profitable, they shouldn’t be considered.
The best way to make your claims profitable is to cut down on the resources required to acquire payouts. LogiClaim is custom-built to do just that. Save on costs, save on time, and make more money with our claims management software. Why not get in touch with our team today to find out exactly what we can do for your claims management business?
