Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Thomas Cook ONLY

sging1

sging1 wrote: »

In December 2011, I was delayed for over 24 hours with thirteen other people in my party including two registered disabled and one 2 year old baby.

We were about to take off from Barbados and as we were about to lift into the air we came to a sudden halt and had to be towed back to the terminal. Apparently the pilot informed us the primary and secondary seals had gone on the hydraulics and the steering failed.

They kept us on the plane for over five hours as they tried to find spare parts and we found out they were even trying to take them off another plane. We also found out that the officials at Barbados airport were refusing to send steps and buses to take us off the plane as we would become their responsibility once back in the terminal.

So five hours later and one screaming hungry baby (they gave us one orange juice and one cake in this time) they had no choice but to take all 300 of us off. We got to the terminal and it was total chaos with one person from Thomas Cook and one desk trying to sort out hotel accommodation. We had to re-collect our entire luggage but I won’t go into the rest of the over the overnight escapade as that is not part of this claim.

I have sent the first template letter to Thomas Cook and got the normal “Extraordinary Circumstances" standard letter back. I have sent all details to the CAA and am just sending Thomas Cook the second letter giving them 14 days before court action, telling them not to send me another standard or holding letter and I have asked them to explain what the Extraordinary Circumstances are on this occasion in preparation for legal court action.

I also have legal cover on my home insurance so will be getting a solicitor to deal with it. Incidentally I am sure the extra legal cover most people have on their car insurance can also be used. Most people pay twice when they are both the same insurances.

I will let you know what reply I get from them. :mad:

Hi everyone

I'm just coming up to the 14 day deadline and have not yet had a reply, so it looks like straight to court action.
However, as I am claiming for 13 people in my party this equates to a large claim, what is the limit for small claims courts.

Just one other query, part of our 24 hour delay was spending 5 hours sat on the plane as it seemed the Barbados authorities would not bring the steps to the plane. In this time we were all given one orange juice and a cake. We asked for hot drinks or food as they had it on board ready for the flight so was going to waste anyway. Thomas Cook refused when the flight attendants requested this. What are the rules on refreshments? Did they give what they was obliged to?

blondmark

sging1 wrote: »

Hi everyone

I'm just coming up to the 14 day deadline and have not yet had a reply, so it looks like straight to court action.
However, as I am claiming for 13 people in my party this equates to a large claim, what is the limit for small claims courts.

Just one other query, part of our 24 hour delay was spending 5 hours sat on the plane as it seemed the Barbados authorities would not bring the steps to the plane. In this time we were all given one orange juice and a cake. We asked for hot drinks or food as they had it on board ready for the flight so was going to waste anyway. Thomas Cook refused when the flight attendants requested this. What are the rules on refreshments? Did they give what they was obliged to?

The financial limit in the small claims track is £5,000, but if both sides agree then claims above this limit can still be heard in this track. It would save TC a lot of court fees to agree rather than receive a dozen individual claims. BTW the baby can only claim if a fare was paid for him/her.

Refreshments should be commensurate with waiting time, so one orange juice and a cake for a five hour wait doesn't quite satisfy that requirement.

sging1

blondmark wrote: »

The financial limit in the small claims track is £5,000, but if both sides agree then claims above this limit can still be heard in this track. It would save TC a lot of court fees to agree rather than receive a dozen individual claims. BTW the baby can only claim if a fare was paid for him/her.

Refreshments should be commensurate with waiting time, so one orange juice and a cake for a five hour wait doesn't quite satisfy that requirement.

Thank you for the reply that’s helpful. The baby was charged as part of the package holiday, I think it was £600. It was for a cruise with P&O so not sure if part of this was for the cruise and he flew free or it’s partly for the flight.

Not really worried about claiming for refreshments but it may be interesting to show how everyone was treated if it goes to court.

Stephen

alberto2012

Mark2spark wrote: »

Use these details and claim for a delayed flight. You don't need to provide evidence to them of what happened.

Hi there, thanks for your replies.

After our holiday I sent a letter of complaint and requested compensation. Here's a few quotes from Tcook in the email..

"Delays have, unfortunately, become an accepted part of air travel...

I can confirm that as the fight number did not change, your flight was not cancelled, merely delayed....

there is no legislation that dictates that compensation should be paid just because a flight is delayed....."


I shall be sending my letter tomorrow, along with a copy of this email.

Do you think we stand a better chance this time of getting compensation?

Oh, and should a successfull claim be affected if it was booked through Canadian Affair?...

Thanks

blondmark

alberto2012 wrote: »

Hi there, thanks for your replies.

After our holiday I sent a letter of complaint and requested compensation. Here's a few quotes from Tcook in the email..

"Delays have, unfortunately, become an accepted part of air travel...

I can confirm that as the fight number did not change, your flight was not cancelled, merely delayed....

there is no legislation that dictates that compensation should be paid just because a flight is delayed....."

This beggars belief. Tell them that EU 261/2004 has, unfortunately, become an accepted part of air travel.

Mark2spark

blondmark wrote: »

The financial limit in the small claims track is £5,000, but if both sides agree then claims above this limit can still be heard in this track. It would save TC a lot of court fees to agree rather than receive a dozen individual claims. BTW the baby can only claim if a fare was paid for him/her.

Refreshments should be commensurate with waiting time, so one orange juice and a cake for a five hour wait doesn't quite satisfy that requirement.

I think I read somewhere that the limit is to be increased to £10,000. It might not be in force yet.

blondmark

Mark2spark wrote: »

I think I read somewhere that the limit is to be increased to £10,000. It might not be in force yet.

Apparently that's in the pipeline for April ... LINK

chili2001

Centipede100 wrote: »

I think you ought to read the MCOL website further to discover what this means. Whilst we could spoon feed posters on here, if you are considering or actually started legal action, it needs you to read up on what is required and what happens at each stage rather than ask here.

I think you have the wrong end of the stick Centipede. He's not asking a question. Thomas cook had already sent him a letter agreeing to pay one of his compensation claims while he was taking court action for both. Now they are defending the whole thing! He was just saying that he wonders if anyone at Thomas Cook knows what they are doing!

MiniEgg

Hi. Im new to this forum and wondered if anyone could help. I was delayed 19 hours coming home from Tunisia last August due to "unforeseen operationally significant defect". We were taken to another hotel for the night and flew home on a different flight number (TCX0977) the following day. Half the people on our original flight (TCX1325) flew home on a smaller plane but it seemed to be those that arrived at the airport first. I had paid and pre-booked my seats but was told that because my flight number had changed, my pre-booked seats no longer applied and the flight had no meals or beverage/duty free trolley. Just wondered if anyone else has had any luck with compensation for this flight and if anyone could confirm whether this is comes under a delayed flight or cancelled flight.

jacksback

chili2001 wrote: »

I think you have the wrong end of the stick Centipede. He's not asking a question. Thomas cook had already sent him a letter agreeing to pay one of his compensation claims while he was taking court action for both. Now they are defending the whole thing! He was just saying that he wonders if anyone at Thomas Cook knows what they are doing!

Thank you chili the post has now gone as I was about to answer it. You have stated exactly my point,, nowhere on the MCOL site is there a provision for if this happens!! It doesn't look like I'm going to get any advice on here either!