Know Your Fundamental Rights When Booking Flights

Alexander Sumin, Marketing and Business Development Director at ClaimCompass and Travel Massive Berlin member, helps passengers receive compensation when their flights have been delayed, cancelled or overbooked.

According to EU Regulation 261/2004 airline passengers may have a right to a compensation in the case of a cancelled flight, a delayed flight or denied boarding. Did you know that?

That’s why we had a little chat with Alexander Sumin to get the scoop of what ClaimCompass is all about and how they built up their business.

Who is your startup for?

We have something for anyone: from the frequent traveler, to those who are about to take their very first trip. In terms of services, our focus is mainly on assisting passengers to ensure they get the compensation they deserve when their flight has been delayed, cancelled or overbooked.

What gap did you find in the travel industry that inspired you to create this startup?

We found out that over 95% of passengers were unaware of some of their fundamental rights, and it didn’t seem that airlines did much to inform them. Quite the opposite: some carriers engaged in unfair and border line legally-questionable tactics, only to avoid paying the compensation that their passengers are legally entitled to.    

How did you build your startup?

Our CEO, Tanya, is an experienced social entrepreneur and comes from a legal background. She came up with the idea and approached Veli – our CTO, and myself. We liked the business model and the fact that it had a social element to it, and a few weeks later we got our first MVP. Ironically, my flight to Zurich was delayed by 4.5h that same week.  

How is your startup disrupting the travel scene today?

We’ve basically narrowed down the tedious process behind filing a formal claim to three simple steps. This takes no more than 5 minutes, even if you’re not very computer savvy. We’re very keen on automation and our CTO is obsessed with process optimization. Seriously, he now drinks everything with a straw, because this way both of his hands are free and he can write something like 13% more code.

How is your startup changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

Flight delays will always happen – that’s just part of air travel and we’re definitely not there to fight the airlines on it, especially because sometimes it really is a safety concern. We simply want to see a travel sphere where passengers are treated with respect and have their rights acknowledged.

So what’s next for ClaimCompass? I heard you guys have something interesting in the making, can you fill us in?

I really like the Travel Massive community, so I’ll tell you: we’re a few weeks away from launching our Unlimited Claims membership. As a member, you’ll now be able to file as many claims as you want, and we’ll process them for free and pay you your compensation in full. There will be other perks as well, so make sure you sign up to stay tuned!  

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. You can connect with Alexander and ClaimCompass on Travel Massive, Facebook and Twitter.