5 hour flight delay

skywalker1

Hi all,
just wondered if anyone could advise me on a flight delay -

We were delayed just over 5 hours coming back from Cuba flying with Virgin. I understand that I should be eligible for some kind of compensation, but the snag is - we were informed before leaving the hotel that there was a problem with the plane and that it was still in London - the 5 hour delay was known in advance. The hotel weren't able to extend us a room for the following 5 hours, (we found out literally as we were waiting with our bags at reception, already checked out.) but it was only 1pm ish, so no over night needed.

In these circumstances am I due some compensation?
I emailed Virgin regards the matter (back end of April when we came back) but never heard anything.
Just wondered if it was worth writing a letter, or whether I dont have a leg to stand on.

thanks!

budgetflyer

I think Ill slash my wrists.

skywalker1

Lovely stuff. That's me told then I guess, cheers.

Doshwaster

It's difficult to see how you have a case.

You didn't suffer financially, you had an extra 5 hours on holiday (you could have dumped the bags and gone out for a few hours) and they got you home safely. It doesn't look as if Virgin did anything wrong. I would rather they made sure the plane was OK.

How much compensation do you think you should be entitled to? £5, £50, £500? No wonder the cost of travelling is rocketing if people expect to be compensated for the smallest thing.

It always makes me laugh when you hear people say "the flight back was delayed and our holiday was ruined". What? You had to spend some extra time in the holiday location of your choice! What torture!

paulwellerfan

a few years ago i was delayed at the airport in turkey for like 9 hours.
i didnt expect or get any thing more than a free lunch from the holiday company ( well a sandwich)
fine by me- all part of the holiday experience i guess.
you was lucky- least you wasnt stuck at the airport.

skywalker1

Yep, I've never been on this section of the forum before, so aren't fully swotted up on it all as it appears I should have been. I just read about potential laws in place regards delays and I wondered whether it was worth me doing anything about it. My life isn't ruined, and I didn't have any mind for what specific compensation, was just wondering is all!

babyfruitella

At most, you may be able to request some costs back for food.

misshighlander

Part of the info they give on their website I found, regarding delays:

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/customerrelations/euregulationsno2612004.jsp

We want to assure you that in the event of a disruption to your flight schedule, we will be taking steps to minimise the inconvenience to you and make any waiting time as comfortable as possible. All our actions meet the requirements of the European Union’s Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights.

If your flight is delayed:

• For more than 4 hours

We will provide you with meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, plus 2 short telephone calls, or telex, or fax, or e-mail messages.

• For more than 5 hours

In addition to the above, you have the choice

To cancel your booking and receive a refund of your unused ticket, and for the part of the journey already made if the delay means your flight no longer serves any purpose in relation to your original travel plans. Where relevant if you have already completed one or more segments of your flight we will also offer you a return flight to your first point of departure at the earliest opportunity.

Inclusive/package tour passengers should be aware that a refund would only relate to the airfare portion of the package and not the whole cost of the holiday. Your Tour operator should be contacted for further advice before you cancel your booking.

• Until the next day (local time)

In addition to the above If you have chosen not to cancel your flight we will offer hotel accommodation.

The care detailed above may be limited or declined if the provision of refreshments, meals and hotel accommodation would itself cause further delay.

YourLocalGP

@DoshWaster

It always makes me laugh when you hear people say "the flight back was delayed and our holiday was ruined"...You had to spend some extra time in the holiday location of your choice! What torture!

To say a holiday was ruined is a bit strong, I agree. But delays are delays, and surely it's your or my prerogative to get where we booked, on the time that was planned. If I had to get back from a holiday for work, and it was delayed so cumulatively I lost a day's work (this is quite common from reading forums, it seems) then that is a ballache. It's not like the extra five hours can be spent sipping a cocktail on a beach, they're usually involving being stuck in a crummy airport. In my case (below) they were in an airport from 10pm to 2am on a Sunday night when nothing was open.

I was just travelling with my other half, but if you had a large family that you've got to entertain, feed and water for X number of hours, then if that does have to happen quite frankly I'd rather it happened in the first airport when I'm in my home country, if anything. Just my two centimes.

We had a flight delayed coming back from the US to Switzerland via Houston. The first leg was delayed for 5.5 hours, irritatingly pushed further back from originally a 4 hour delay (this would have just about been ok to make another connection). We eventually arrived in Switzerland about 9pm, around 10 hours after the proposed time.

I checked this article: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays and the corresponding page on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004) which seems to indicate that for flights over 3500km, landing in an EU country (UK) delayed for more than five hours, and not due to force majeure, are entitled to compensation.

I wrote to BA accordingly. They responded today with this:

"Thank you for your letter regarding EU Compensation for your flight, BA0196.

Regulation 261/2004 states that compensation is payable in some instances of cancellation and for denied boarding. It does not provide for payment of compensation for delay. It is our view that the Sturgeon judgment has given a meaning to Regulation 261 that was never intended when the legislation came into force. Furthermore, the Sturgeon decision directly contradicts another European Court of Justice decision pre-dating the Sturgeon case, in which the European Court of Justice stated that compensation was not payable in respect of delay.

For these reasons we now consider the legal position relating to compensation for delay is unclear. Therefore, we have issued proceedings in the English High Court and questions have been referred back to the European Court of Justice under case reference C-629/10. The details of this case can be viewed on the Europa website, by searching for the case number at http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/. Until such time that the position has been settled by a further ruling from them, we are of the view that we are justified in not paying claims for compensation for delay."

So, this contradicts the MSE page, and other information I can find. I suppose I should just wait?

Any advice much appreciated.

YLGP

richardw

YourLocalGP wrote: »

I suppose I should just wait?

Yes.

BTW http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&alljur=alljur&jurcdj=jurcdj&jurtpi=jurtpi&jurtfp=jurtfp&numaff=629/10&nomusuel=&docnodecision=docnodecision&allcommjo=allcommjo&affint=affint&affclose=affclose&alldocrec=alldocrec&docdecision=docdecision&docor=docor&docav=docav&docsom=docsom&docinf=docinf&alldocnorec=alldocnorec&docnoor=docnoor&docppoag=docppoag&radtypeord=on&newform=newform&docj=docj&docop=docop&docnoj=docnoj&typeord=ALL&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100&Submit=Rechercher

YourLocalGP

Merci!

YLGP