This startup will make those dreaded calls to airlines' customer service for you

On Monday, a power outage wrecked havoc with Delta Air Lines' computer systems, grounding flights and stranding thousands of passengers.

The Atlanta-based company said that customers who were booked for travel between Aug. 8 and 12 are entitled to a refund if there was a cancellation or significant delay.

While problems of this scale are rare, delays and cancellations happen all the time, and passengers are often forced to wait countless hours in airports or change their vacation plans.

On top of that, they often have to go through the added hassle of waiting on hold with customer service in an effort to get some compensation for that lost time and stress.

However, one company is seeking to ease some of the pain associated with that process by making those calls for you. 

AirHelp has received US$12 million in Series A funding from a group of investors, including venture capital firm Khosla Ventures and Medium CEO Evan Williams, according to TechCrunch.

The startup also received $4.7 million in seed financing two years ago.

Last week, CEO Henrik Zillmer told TechCrunch that the company is aiming to “take all that hassle and paperwork away” and get disgruntled passengers the money they deserve.

They claim to have helped more than 900,000 customers so far, sometimes going as far as filing lawsuits on their behalf.

“(We) saw an opportunity in automating the process so we could handle thousands of claims and not necessarily have to do it manually,” Zillmer told TechCrunch. 

Its services could come in handy for the thousands of Delta Air Lines passengers whose flights were grounded and were stranded because of a global system outage on Monday. 

And it could be especially helpful in Europe where passengers have a legally right to refunds for significant delays. Research from market intelligence company Zira indicates that compensation related to delays could amount to $6 billion there.

In Canada, the returns depend on the airline.

WestJet passengers are entitled to a meal voucher if a delay exceeds three hours, and a hotel voucher as well as air transfers if it exceeds eight or more hours and you’re not in your home city.

While Air Canada allows you to change your reservation at no cost to another date within the next week if a delay exceeds two hours.

A meal voucher is provided if a delay exceeds four hours and it is within Air Canada’s control, as in it is not weather related.

Meal vouchers and hotel accommodation are provided under the same conditions if a delay lasts more than eight hours.

But AirHelp also helps passengers when flights are overbooked. In the U.S., that customers are entitled to up to US$1,300.

While that dwarfs the potential payouts in Canada, where the Canadian Transporation Agency leaves compensation to individual airlines.

However, a 2013 complaint led to Air Canada changing its policy for passengers who were involuntarily bumped to C$200 for a delay of up to two hours, $400 for between two and six hours and $800 for six hours or more.

Two other incidents also saw Porter forced to match compensation given to U.S. passengers flying into Canada.

For their efforts, AirHelp takes a 25 per cent cut. It also offers a US$20 annual membership, where it monitors customers’ flights and opens claims for delays automatically.