Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Thomas Cook ONLY

jamit

I have been chasing Thomas Cook Airlines since October 2010 for a delay of over 5h on a flight from Paphos to Glasgow. Initially they denied all responsibility, then claimed EU investigation was holding up my claim. I asked them to keep it open. After the October 2012 EU judgement I contacted them again and got the standard 'extraordinary circumstances' letter. I reminded them of the CAA ruling but still nothing. I informed them I was now referring to CAA (which I have done) and later to Scottish Small Claims Court.

I got a letter last week admitting their fault and apologising and giving me a voucher for over £600 for TC Group holidays. I have returend this pointing out that I am due 1200 euro compensation.

The CAA have now started their investigation but warn it may take some time.

I now wait for my money.

The sad thing is that I have always had good service from TC in the past and in fact complimented them on their handling of our holiday in the volcanic ash crisis in a letter published in The Herald.

y-o-r-k-y

judygb wrote: »

Dont talk stupid, do you expect individual letters for everyone, when the answer is going to be the same, it would take years to get a response.

Isn't it stupid for TC to send out exactly the same letter to all when individual flights have differing reasons for delays. No one in their right mind is going to accept any of the points given in this letter and are going to challenge it. This gives TC more work writing a more specific letter in answer.
DONT GO CALLING PEOPLE STUPID JUDY , IT DOESN'T EXACTLY MAKE YOU LOOK CLEVER AND CAUSES OFFENSE AND BAD FEELING. Engage brain before typing !

Cat_3

Hi - I applied to TC for compensation of 400 euros using the standard letter from this site. Was delayed by 5 hours coming back from Antalya to Gatwick on 18.6.10. Send letter off on 4th Jan. Had a reply within two weeks saying they were looking into it, and received vouchers for £320 today I am very happy. Having read this thread I understand I can ask them to replace the vouchers with a cheque, so will be doing that tomorrow. Thanks MSE (and thanks Centipede for all your useful posts). Hope this helps someone else.

DJMSJM

R.E.S.U.L.T. (sort of)!!!

I have today received a voucher from Thomas Cook for £1086.00 for our delayed flight TCX879K on 7th Aug 2010 Gatwick - Izmir, Turkey.

I was expecting the Sterling equivalent of EUR1600 which with the exchange rate as at date of flight (I think this is the correct date to use) which according to https://www.exchangerates.org was 1.2012
This means, according to my calculations, that I am entitled to GBP1304.50

I know I should be grateful I have rec'd anything at all, but what is the point of the law stating a compensation figure if Thomas Cook just pay what they want to?

So.....I have phoned them this evening, told them I don't know what exchange rate they have used, but it was the wrong one, and they have opened up my case again, giving me the 28 days deadline before I may receive any reply!!

Have I done the right thing or should I have just said thank you very much and paid off this years holiday with it?

DJMSJM

Cat_3 wrote: »

Hi - I applied to TC for compensation of 400 euros using the standard letter from this site. Was delayed by 5 hours coming back from Antalya to Gatwick on 18.6.10. Send letter off on 4th Jan. Had a reply within two weeks saying they were looking into it, and received vouchers for £320 today I am very happy. Having read this thread I understand I can ask them to replace the vouchers with a cheque, so will be doing that tomorrow. Thanks MSE (and thanks Centipede for all your useful posts). Hope this helps someone else.

Well done. You got a much better exchange rate than me.
You got 1.25 I got 1.473297 and our flights were 2 months apart.
Work that one out!!!

Cat_3

Thanks DJMSJM. I suppose it could be as simple as someone at TC not being that great with a calculator? Good luck with improving your compensation. Feel free to quote my details if that helps.

trumpylad

I have received the claim form from Monarch and am in the process of completing it. They are asking for the booking reference or boarding passes, neither of which I have. Is this a basis for them dismissing my claim?
I know the flight number and date etc but I have no proof that I actually boarded the flight, just wondering if it is worth pursuing if they will just throw this straight back at me?
thanks

Mark2spark

trumpylad wrote: »

I have received the claim form from Monarch and am in the process of completing it. They are asking for the booking reference or boarding passes, neither of which I have. Is this a basis for them dismissing my claim?
I know the flight number and date etc but I have no proof that I actually boarded the flight, just wondering if it is worth pursuing if they will just throw this straight back at me?
thanks

This is a Thomas Cook thread.
Please repost in the Monarch thread... but read the FAQ's sticky first!

chili2001

minhug wrote: »

I received this response from TC this morning


Your response is in the final stages of completion, and should be with you in the next 7-10 working days.

Yours sincerely

Judy
Customer Relations Executive

"Your response is in the final stages of completion"? What a joke. Does it take them an extra 7-10 working days to lick a stamp? :rotfl:

chili2001

amat_endura wrote: »

TCX929, Naples to Gatwick 27/06/2008, over 3 hours delay.

I started my claim on the 12th November last year and it is still ongoing with these clowns. First I got the usual "extraordinary circumstances" excuse, then when I rebutted this and also asked for the actual reason for the delay I've had a total of 6 knock-backs telling me the case is so complicated it has taken all of this time to get to the bottom of it! Finally yesterday I got an explanation that is identical to the first one except that an EC excuse is given;
................................................
Dear Mr xxx,

Regarding your flight from Naples on 27th June 2008.

I understand that you have queried what extraordinary circumstances are in relation to payments under the ECJ ruling. I can inform you that extraordinary circumstances are situations where the cause of the delay could not reasonably been foreseen and /or prevented. There was an issue with another aircraft having a defect that required fixing and as a consequence the plane that was used to transport customers back home from Naples was delayed due to needing the aircraft. Since the delay you
experienced does fall under that remit, (we could not have foreseen this defect occurring and therefore could not prevent the knock on effect) no compensation is payable.

All information regarding a delay takes time to be confirmed. We are reluctant to give out information until we are sure of the reason behind it, as most guests do not like to be given conflicting information several times over. We have attempted to withhold information in the past, until final clarification on departure details can be given, but this does cause customers to feel that we are
not communicating with them. Similarly, we have also passed all information onto passengers, which then changes, which can give customers the impression that they are being lied to. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to get a happy medium. I am
sorry that you felt we did not offer you the information you wanted but I would assure you that details were passed on as soon as they were confirmed.

Yours sincerely

Vanessa Harding
Customer Relations Team
Customer Relations Executive
..................................

This is my reply;
...................................
Dear Vanessa

I am afraid your assertion that the delay was caused by an exceptional circumstance and is therefore not covered by the directive regarding compensation is simply untrue. Please see attached explanation. In summary, defects to aircraft are part of normal operations and not exceptional.

My first complaint was made in November and it has taken until the end of February to receive a short statement that simply reiterates the original judgement that this flight is not covered by the regulations and the legal judgement. It is covered, and I do feel very strongly that Thomas Cook are aware of this and are simply using stalling tactics. You should know that last week after not receiving a satisfactory response from yourselves I entered a complaint with the Italian authorities on this matter. I am also willing to open a case with the small claims court. Obviously this all takes time and effort, so if you are prepared to step up and meet your legal obligations in a upright and moral manner then it would make life simpler for all concerned.

I hope that you make the decision to do the right thing.

Yours sincerely
..............................

I'm a bit annoyed that I used the term exceptional rather than extraordinary but other than that I still hold out hope that this can be resolved. If all else fails there is the small claims court.

They can't use a knock on effect as an excuse. See: Point 37. Finnair Oyj v Timy Lassooy Case C-22/11

You also given them a 14 day time limit to reply or they will give you the runaround for months!