Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Thomas Cook ONLY

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

the remaining 2hr delay was caused due thunderstorms that closed the airport (to such an extend that it was necessary to disembark passengers)

Now this seems familiar...... we were in Cuba last week and caught the bus to Holguin Airport for our flight back scheduled for a 5.05pm departure, we arrived at the airport to see the plane come in from Manchester and land without issue and park in front of us, with passengers disembarking and all the usual loading of food etc..
So, as usual the sky grey's over at this time of day, a crack of thunder and lightening, nothing that we haven't had before, but there seems to be a delay in boarding, we wait for a couple of hours and the Cuban guys on the ground finally start waving for the passengers to start the walk from the terminal to the plane, the thunder has quietened down now, it's just very hot and humid.
After the disabled passengers have been boarded, the rest of us board and once we have all boarded, the usual things happen, (loading hand luggage etc) but we notice that there is a noise, similar to pre engine noise (hard to explain but I'm sure most have heard this on flights) going up and down all the time, it's the first thing I mentioned to my wife when we sat in our seats. So after about 30 minutes on the plane with no movement, but still the pre engine noises, the captain comes over the speaker, "we have had a problem with the starting of the engines, but we seem to have overcome that issue now, but, we have another issue, lightening has struck the runway and I am going to have to delay the flight until I get instructions from Manchester, in all my flying experience, I have never come across this" he came on about half an hour later and said he'd personally inspected the runway and it was touch and go and Manchester would have the final say. In the mean time people were sweating, there was no aircon and cabin crew were dishing out the in flight meals and water to those who asked for it, can't blame them, they did a sterling job. After about 2 hours (give or take) the captain said we are to disembark to the airport and officials there would sort out some accommodation and we would return tomorrow as the airport had been closed because of the lightening strike, the Cubans don't start work until 8am and the repair of the runway would take 4 hours to set (has anyone seen construction overnight in Cuba? I know I have!)
When we boarded the buses back to our hotel, the 1st thing that happened was a letter issued to us all, apologising for the delay and that it was an 'Act of God' and under section *** there would be no compensation, how nice of them to take the time to do this while we were boiling our ***** off sitting on the runway!
So, next day (Tuesday) we arrive at the airport for the flight at 3pm, which was then delayed until 4 pm, but more interesting, we saw the Thomas cook flight come in from Gatwick, when it came to stop, the usual happened but either the captain, or attendant of that flight went across to our plane for a while before leaving with the rest of the crew (doesn't bringing a spare part for your sister aircraft come to mind) then we were all called to board the plane and left for England.
I have searched for info on a lightening strike on the runway at Holguin airport (they must get these all the time, no big deal) and there were no delays to other flights coming in or going out.
All in all we had a 23hr delay and when we got back to Manchester they were handing out letters to give to your travel insurers to claim, wow, how nice of them.
Now where do we start lol, and thanks for taking the time to read this:)