Flybe Cancellation 21 February

scottiepaul

Hi guys, really sorry to ask this but I don't know much about these things and was hoping someone could help me out?

Arrived at Belfast City for my 18.45 flight to Edinburgh, upon arrival it had been delayed to 8pm. The flight was pushed back to 9, and then we were given the dreaded "further information will be provided at 8.30", and were then told it was cancelled due to "adverse weather conditions."

Before, at the same time, and after flights were taking off and landing into the airport, including other FlyBe routes.

Upon cancellation I was put onto the Edinburgh flight that evening, a bit strange, as to get to Edinburgh from Belfast you have to fly over Glasgow, so quite how the Glasgow one could be cancelled for weather I'm not sure.

Anyway, the Edinburgh flight took off 3 hours late, and they put on a coach back to Glasgow.

I also believe its the incoming Newcastle flight that is turned around for Glasgow, and it was heavily delayed, so the problem may have been there, however that flight landed 10mins before I boarded the Edinburgh flight.

I'm thinking I won't be entitled to the £250 on the basis they will argue its weather (even though thats rubbish as every other flight including the Flybe ones were going, and if it was so bad they shouldn't of put me on a flight going in the same direction for a few hours later).

Can anyone confirm? Is it even worth an email and letter off to them?

Cheers

Caz3121

scottiepaul wrote: »

Upon cancellation I was put onto the Edinburgh flight that evening, a bit strange, as to get to Edinburgh from Belfast you have to fly over Glasgow, so quite how the Glasgow one could be cancelled for weather I'm not sure.

(even though thats rubbish as every other flight including the Flybe ones were going, and if it was so bad they shouldn't of put me on a flight going in the same direction for a few hours later).

Weather problems normally impact the runway conditions affecting takeoff and landing, the fact that you may have to fly above Glasgow in the air is not relevant. I don't know the situation yesterday but for example if the Glasgow runway was closed because of the weather the plane would have been unable to land.
You would need to provide evidence that no other aircraft were affected by this weather in Glasgow before you would be able to argue that it was not due to this

Cityboy_2

scottiepaul wrote: »

Hi guys, really sorry to ask this but I don't know much about these things and was hoping someone could help me out?

Arrived at Belfast City for my 18.45 flight to Edinburgh, upon arrival it had been delayed to 8pm. The flight was pushed back to 9, and then we were given the dreaded "further information will be provided at 8.30", and were then told it was cancelled due to "adverse weather conditions."

Before, at the same time, and after flights were taking off and landing into the airport, including other FlyBe routes.

Upon cancellation I was put onto the Edinburgh flight that evening, a bit strange, as to get to Edinburgh from Belfast you have to fly over Glasgow, so quite how the Glasgow one could be cancelled for weather I'm not sure.

Anyway, the Edinburgh flight took off 3 hours late, and they put on a coach back to Glasgow.

I also believe its the incoming Newcastle flight that is turned around for Glasgow, and it was heavily delayed, so the problem may have been there, however that flight landed 10mins before I boarded the Edinburgh flight.

I'm thinking I won't be entitled to the £250 on the basis they will argue its weather (even though thats rubbish as every other flight including the Flybe ones were going, and if it was so bad they shouldn't of put me on a flight going in the same direction for a few hours later).

Can anyone confirm? Is it even worth an email and letter off to them?

Cheers

Scottiepaul

Can I just confirm that your flight was the 18.45 Belfast to Glasgow flight BE131 scheduled to arrive at Glasgow at 19.30? Can you also confirm that your re-routed flight to Edinburgh landed late at 22.51 before you had to get a coach back to Glasgow?

Assuming that these are indeed the flights concerned, this appears to be the only cancelled flight scheduled to land at Glasgow during the period between 6pm and 9pm on Sunday! Furthermore it was the only flight cancelled during that same time period departing from Belfast City! This information is available on www.flightstats.co.uk You need to register on there but once you have done that it is esy to navigate around.

It seems that you were delivered to Glasgow approximately 5 hours later than originally scheduled?

That being the case is good news for you. Under Articles 5 & 7 of EC regulation 261/2004 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML) which governs delays and cancellations, you are entitled to 250 euros for this inconvenience. The airline won't necessarily pay out automatically as they will doubtless claim 'extraordinary circumstances' (in this case weather) played a part in the cancellation. Nevertheless you now have the knowledge to ask the airline to prove that your flight was cancelled as a direct consequence of weather. You will need to be determined, patient and persistent as ultimately you may have to take this to the small claims court.

The fact that all other flights at Belfast City and Glasgow were operating normally at the time in question is your proof that weather was not directly impacting your intended flight.

Write to Flybe snail mail (recorded delivery or signed for) and state your case and request the compensation in line with Articles 5 & 7 of EC261/2004. Ask them why they cancelled your flight and give them a timetable for them to respond (14-21 days).

This is likely to be the first in a chain of correspondence with the airline but don't be put off.

Post back here with the airline's response or if they fail to respond in your timetable.

Any questions just ask.

scottiepaul

thanks guys.

Yup no other flight from Belfast City or into Glasgow was cancelled that evening, either with flybe or any other airline.

have sent off a letter by fax and recorded delivery.

I have also sent a copy of the letter to Air Transport Users Council.

scottiepaul

got this generic email back (also sent letter by email - 3 prongged attack!). 28 days is way to long, so will pursue again if no reponse after 14days.

Dear Sir / Madam

Thank you for your email.

I would like to assure you that your comments have been forwarded to a member of the Customer Relations Team and you will be receiving a response to your query/complaint, in due course. Unfortunately due to the high number of contacts received as a result of the exceptional weather conditions, we apologise in advance for any delay in response. We will be responding to you however, this will take up to 4 weeks.

Thanks

[SIZE=+0][/SIZE][SIZE=+0][/SIZE]
Yours sincerely

Customer Relations Admin
Flybe.

bcl999

Could the reason for the delay of the incoming plane from Newcastle been due to "adverse weather conditions" and they then gave that as the reason for cancellation of your flight ( assuming that it would indeed have been that same plane for your journey had it been on schedule)?

Cityboy_2

bcl999 wrote: »

Could the reason for the delay of the incoming plane from Newcastle been due to "adverse weather conditions" and they then gave that as the reason for cancellation of your flight ( assuming that it would indeed have been that same plane for your journey had it been on schedule)?

It may very well have been the same aircraft tasked with that purpose but that should not impact on Scottiepaul's claim.

By looking at Flybe's arrivals and departures from Newcastle on Flightstats, it seems that an earlier Belfast to Newcastle flight was late into Newcastle by 64 minutes. If that was the same aircraft then flown to Belfast it lost a further 2 hours 25 minutes on the ground at Newcastle for some other reason before departure to Belfast, but this is all speculation at this stage.

Hopefully Flybe will come back with their version of events before too long and we can examine all options at that stage.

scottiepaul

Didn't hear back so faxed them again on Friday, amazingly, a letter dropped through my postbox yesterday, dated from Friday, acknowledging my original letter and stating it was taking 28 days to respond to queries and they would write again in due course.

Bearing in mind that reply was sent 25 days after my initial complaint, and we are now over the 28 days they stated, not really sure what the point of that letter was.

They clearly got my second letter, realised they hadn't even acknowledged my first one (I sent them a copy of proof of receipt) and sent that shoddy thing out.

I understood it would take 28 days to hear back in full, not get a three line letter.

Copied the ATUC in again on my letter, gonna give them another 2 weeks and contact again.