AirHelp.com

Dear Sirs,

After a United Airlines 7-hour delay at Heathrow Airport, I was entitled to the EU 600 Euros (£520) compensation. I knew this. This was 13th August 2023.

When I arrived in New York, and after several attempts to contact United Airlines without success, I was tempted to file the compensation through Airhelp. However, as I was filling in my details, the online prompts requested me to provide more information.

In that moment, I changed my mind and did NOT submit my application. Nevertheless, a few minutes later, I received an email from Airhelp informing me they had received my application and were on track to investigate.

Because I had not submitted it, this made me immediately suspicious and even more determined not to deal with Airhelp. I immediately responded to the email stating I had not submitted the application and did not wish to be represented by Airhelp. I even took a photo of my non-submitted snapshot of the application.

On the 18th August, I received an email with Airhelp that "they had put a very strong case together" for my compensation. I respond to the email to state I was not interested in being represented by Airhelp. A few days later, an email from Airhelp responded to my emails claiming that the email box is not monitored, implying that my responses were not read or received.

I did not know what to do. There was no information on how or where to respond to. I send an email to Airhelp reporting that I did not wish to deal with them. But their emails kept coming. I filed my own complaint directly to United airlines and received a complaints reference.

In September, I received an email from Airhelp that the compensation was getting closer. I then read their Terms & conditions and discovered I could withdraw at any point after signing up. I also found the email address. I wrote to formally inform them (again) that I had applied for compensation on my own, did not wish to be represented by them, and had repeatedly tried to inform them that without success.

A few days later on the 21st September, a United Airlines (UA) agent sent me an email informing me that I had applied for compensation through Airhelp and that I should deal with them.

I informed the UA agent that I had not authorized Airhelp to represent me. I asked him to provide evidence of my authorization to Airhelp. He sent me a form with Airhelp's Terms & Conditions that I had purportedly read, agreed to, and signed! This is a fabrication. This is fraud! I never submitted a claim.

Airhelp then wrote me and informed me my compensation was ready. At first, I decided not to accept the £338 (35% Airhelp commission): But because I had used some money expecting to pay it back to my credit card, I accepted the payment. But I vowed to consider pursuing a Class Action against Airhelp as I am certain this is systemic fraud by Airhelp.