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Monarch delays & Compensations. Listed flights denied in O.P.
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It's just speculation. They reported something like a £500 mill loss last year, and the way they are handing - or rather NOT handling - the EU claims gives rise to 2 + 2 = 5 ways of thinking.
This is part of the reason I started this thread, i'd like to find a single person that has had compo off them yet. 23 Oct ruling was pretty much 12 weeks ago now, that's almost 3 months.
And I can't find a single person with a settled case yet.
Surely there is ONE SINGLE CASE where Monarch have conceded that they are at fault and compo is due?
Seems not so far.
I'm sort of hopping on one foot as I have to give them 2 weeks to respond or stay silent before I can issue MCOL. They HAVE to respond to that within 2 weeks if they are to defend, and as IMO mine is an open and shut case, there can be no defence.
But wouldn't it be *funny* if they could not find the time to respond to me with some sort of C & bull story of EC's in 12 weeks, but all of a sudden find time to answer a court?
Just to refresh peoples memories of my case...
Majorca to gatwick 5 and half hour delay last Oct, the pilot, chief cabin crew, and people arriving on the preceeding flight, all told the same story.
Pilots arrived at LGW at 6 am ish to find no plane to take the (approx) 8 or 9 am flight to Majorca. They jumped in a taxi to heathrow and took a aer lingus flight to Cork Eire to collect the empty plane and fly it to gatwick, where the days flights then resumed, 5 - 6 hours late.
Monarch admin *forgot* to have the empty plane flown in overnight from Cork.
Monarch seem to reject all claims and decide to defend. Whether they do defend in Court or not I wait to see however this route must cost them (and their shareholders) less as the 'tactics' they employ put a lot, if not the majority, off claiming as does their wrong interpretation of extraordinary circumstances as outlined on THEIR claim form. With regard to this aspect alone I suggest claimants use the standard EU regulated claim form.
Thus Monarch are likely to save themselves a significant amount of money but alienate a few disgruntled delayed passengers. As many of these passengers, sometimes, have little choice in carrier the amount of traffic they are likely to lose is insignificant.
I therefore believe it is incumbent for the CAA and Courts to make sure Monarch do not use these underhand tactics to avoid paying legitimate claimants.
Good luck with the Court action. Lots of people behind you (in every sense).
To me, it's interesting that even in your case Monarch didn't actually reply to your correspondence and forms. You simply (understandably) got fed up with their tardiness and initiated Court proceedings. So to my knowledge Monarch are still to repy properly to anyone, outside of the legal process. Curiouser and curiouser ...
Monarch sent out email within days of the delay (and without prompting) in which they apologized, explained there had been a technical fault and suggesting we contact our insurers.
I wrote to claim compensation.
No response so sent a reminder some months later.
Without further delay Monarch wrote back to explain about the stay and invited me to write again when the appeal had been determined.
I left it a while as I knew they'd be inundated and eventually sent my second claim letter on 02.01.2013 along with all the docs which I thought they might need. Unsurprisingly not heard from them yet but hadn't expected to as it's early.
I just wanted to tell this so people know that at least Monarch has been in touch now twice. I'm not holding out much hope for a settlement without a fight but have to give some credit where it's due.
No need to apologise WPC: but I think you miss my point. I can quite see why Monarch might try to take the approach you suggest, but I think the Courts, the CAA and the media would take a fairly dim view of that strategem eventually, particularly if other airlines started to pay out (as they have begun to).
But my point is that Monarch has not (not) rejected any claims put to in since the ECJ's clarification, except when pushed to respond in the Courts. Everyone else - to my knowledge - has had no response at all - not even a refusal of compensation. Now I think that is a bit odd, even if you don't!
26 hour delay, Airbus 321 with around 150 legit claimants yet as far as I can make out from this and other forums I am the only one taking court action on our flight. During a 26 hour delay you get to know your fellow travellers and I have kept in touch with quite a few none of whom can be bothered to pursue. This is where the Monarch tactic wins unfortunately. Sending letters and or threatening action is one thing but I really don't believe the Court system will go into meltdown as a lot will back off before even MCOL and from what I can gather there are only 3 or 4 people on this forum who have cases pending. Even were I to 'win' my case it still leaves 98% who were entitled to compensation not getting any. The only way to sort this out is for the CAA (and possibly the Courts) to tell Monarch to recognise their obligations and stop bullying their clients. Bearing in mind the expense they went to in respect of the Sturgeon appeal in the European Court the chances of them even accepting an instruction from the CAA or the UK court system is extremely unlikely.