Yeah I tried that. People at the counter laughed "you can't do this here" (we were all right there and delayed by the same amount, why not just hand us the cash? Wire it to the accounts from which we paid the ticket? Sign us up automatically and send us the forms?). Okay, I said, where can I do this then? "On our website probably." Okay I open the website, after navigating a horrible attempt at a mobile site for fifteen minutes I found the form and filled it out. Never heard from them again. Guess I should take them to court now?
Railways (NL, DE) pull the same sort of crap. In NL there is a centralized billing system, they know exactly what path you took and when, so also that you were in the delay. Credit it to your transport card automatically? Nah. You need to fill out paperwork and then get a few euros for missing half of your evening. Germany is even better: whenever there's delays, you see long queues at the service center because (according to my colleague with whom I was there) you need to get something stamped IRL as proof that you were really there during the delay. And the amount you get back is still peanuts.
Incentives like these to be on time don't work. I can't imagine more than a handful of people per trainload/planeload go through the hassle. At least for planes iirc it was a reasonable amount, at least for short delays where you don't have to book an entire holiday around. If you'd get it without a legal battle.
I got fobbed off after a 24 hour delay on a long haul departing from London several years ago. I then sent a friendly email to the Civil Aviation Authority and not long after that the airline sent me a cheque.
Railways (NL, DE) pull the same sort of crap. In NL there is a centralized billing system, they know exactly what path you took and when, so also that you were in the delay. Credit it to your transport card automatically? Nah. You need to fill out paperwork and then get a few euros for missing half of your evening. Germany is even better: whenever there's delays, you see long queues at the service center because (according to my colleague with whom I was there) you need to get something stamped IRL as proof that you were really there during the delay. And the amount you get back is still peanuts.
Incentives like these to be on time don't work. I can't imagine more than a handful of people per trainload/planeload go through the hassle. At least for planes iirc it was a reasonable amount, at least for short delays where you don't have to book an entire holiday around. If you'd get it without a legal battle.