Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

MGOR

Hi

I'm after some guidance re completing form N1. I am claiming for my family - me, wife and 2 kids re a 24 hour delay in August 2011. Therefore as there are 4 claimants cannot use MCOL.To avoid complications re 2 year argument I am now applying to Court. NBA sent and deadline expired last week.

Looking at the form there are 2 sections to complete:

Brief Details of Claim - I was going to give a bit of background similar to what others have done for MCOL.

Particulars of Claim - do need to complete this? There is a field suggestion to follow. This is the one which has stumped me.

Any thoughts please

Many thanks


Digging further it seems that brief details are a summary in 1 sentence - I am seeking compensation of £x on behalf of w,x,y,z as per article 7 EC 261/2004

Particulars of claim are the more detailed preamble

Is that a fair summary?

pymers

hi all
should i write to the CAA and send them my letter I got of Thomsons before I start to go to court
thanks

dxc_chappie

MGOR wrote: »

Hi

I'm after some guidance re completing form N1. I am claiming for my family - me, wife and 2 kids re a 24 hour delay in August 2011. Therefore as there are 4 claimants cannot use MCOL.To avoid complications re 2 year argument I am now applying to Court. NBA sent and deadline expired last week.

Looking at the form there are 2 sections to complete:

Brief Details of Claim - I was going to give a bit of background similar to what others have done for MCOL.

Particulars of Claim - do need to complete this? There is a field suggestion to follow. This is the one which has stumped me.

Any thoughts please

Many thanks


Digging further it seems that brief details are a summary in 1 sentence - I am seeking compensation of £x on behalf of w,x,y,z as per article 7 EC 261/2004

Particulars of claim are the more detailed preamble

Is that a fair summary?

Yes it is. In my claim I had 2 paragraphs in the brief details: what i was claiming, who for and why.
Then in the particulars I put more details, particularly about why I was claiming.
In the last para of this section I put:

The Claimants claim: a) compensation of EURxx.xx per Claimant; a total of EURxx.xx calculated as £xx.xx using the historical exchange rate of x.xx on the date of the delay. b) interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from xx/xx/xxxx to xx/xx/xxxx of £xx.xx and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of £x.xx. c) costs.

kivin

bazaar wrote: »

The N180, is the directions questionarre which is to determine which track it goes to, ( will be small claims ) youll also have the mediation paperwork too, so fill that out with yes.

Make sure you serve a copy on Thomsons as well, as sending to court ( recorded signed for)
Then you wait until the court gives an allocation to court. THEN, you get to shoot holes in their defence.
We are about the same timeline, just sent mine off last friday

Me too - sent off copies to the court and Thomsons via recorded delivery yesterday, now the wait.....

matt2baker

pymers wrote: »

hi all
should i write to the CAA and send them my letter I got of Thomsons before I start to go to court
thanks

Do you really want to waste your time with the CAA and then find that the fence they sit on is between you and Thomsons? Apart from the delay the CAA will cause, you are best off ignoring them as they really don't want to rock the boat and upset the airlines IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvIcKY5U1zA is worth a few minutes of your time, especially watching the laughable CAA interview

that will confirm your next move................

Vauban

pymers wrote: »

do you think I should write to the CAA first and send them a copy of the letter Thomson has sent me (previous post) or should I start court procedures
thank you

the CAA is a waste of time - many people have been waiting for well over six months for them to respond, and often they are not helpful. Court is the only way to go.

joolywooly

bazaar wrote: »

The N180, is the directions questionarre which is to determine which track it goes to, ( will be small claims ) youll also have the mediation paperwork too, so fill that out with yes.

Make sure you serve a copy on Thomsons as well, as sending to court ( recorded signed for)
Then you wait until the court gives an allocation to court. THEN, you get to shoot holes in their defence.
We are about the same timeline, just sent mine off last friday

I am a little behind you, have just completed my N180 and am sending with mediation paperwork tomorrow by recorded delivery to both court and Thomson. Having read previous posts I am not sending a fee (claim is for 800 Euros) - but just wanted to be sure that there is nothing else at this stage that I need to provide?

My flight was back in July 2007 (just got claim in in time) and Thomson have stated in their defence that I need to prove that I was on the flight so I am going to write to them for confirmation (crazy!). Thomson's defence is the standard 2 year one but then in para 10 they state 'in the alternative...' and proceed to say that in any case the delay was due to a technical fault, namely a 'problem' with one of the aircraft's engines.

I too have made the mistake when I completed the online claim form of not naming my partner as the second passenger so the defence refers to 'Mrs Joolywooly (not my real name!') AND then a blank. I intend to contact MCOL tomorrow to check how to rectify this. Have I missed anything - do I now just sit back and wait? Bit scared....:eek: !!!

rajivsingh100

hi.
have recedived my notice of proposed allocation along with thomsons defence.
They are depending on Cases Nelson and Tui (C581/10 and C629/10) any advice on these? my case involves thomson diverting our plane to another flight and delaying us for 24 hrs. I am going to depend on the fact that this is in no way an EC? any advice
Also- I ve heard that some people choose not to give all their questions to airline at this stage (in effect it gives them time to make a defence and they will have lawyers who are good at this I assume) however how will it look in court if you only start to reveal your case at that late stage?
much obliged.

Vauban

rajivsingh100 wrote: »

hi.
have recedived my notice of proposed allocation along with thomsons defence.
They are depending on Cases Nelson and Tui (C581/10 and C629/10) any advice on these? my case involves thomson diverting our plane to another flight and delaying us for 24 hrs. I am going to depend on the fact that this is in no way an EC? any advice
Also- I ve heard that some people choose not to give all their questions to airline at this stage (in effect it gives them time to make a defence and they will have lawyers who are good at this I assume) however how will it look in court if you only start to reveal your case at that late stage?
much obliged.

Not para 39 of Nelson/Tui by any chance? Have a read of it: it's not very helpful to them ...

Up to you whether you keep your powder dry - on balance I would, but the airlines know what you're basically going to argue.

Kaiser_06

So after months and months, I have received the following response from Thomson after being delayed due to their check in system being down all day at GLA airport. Looking for advice on next steps. Any advice really appreciated.

Dear Mr Kaiser_06,

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your flight delay.

Here at Thomson Airways, we are committed to on-time performance across our flying programme. It sounds trite, but doing everything we reasonably can to get our aircraft to their destinations, and you on holiday, safely and on time is really important to us.

In terms of on-time performance, for the past few years Thomson Airways has consistently been one of the best performing airlines in the UK and we work hard to maintain the title of most on-time charter airline.

Delays are always a real disappointment for us, not only in respect of the effect that they have on passenger enjoyment and comfort, but the real financial cost that they cause us in circumstances which are almost always not our fault. That costs makes offering the best value fares and holidays more of a challenge than we would choose.

Very occasionally, though, and despite our very best efforts to prevent delays, they can occur and we are truly sorry that your flight was delayed in the way that you have described.

Now that we've received your form, we've looked in detail at the circumstances that surround the delay that you experienced. So let's look at the specific cause of your delay.

Upon investigation into this flight delay it came to light that there was a system failure with check in. This issue is unforeseen and therefore is classed as extraordinary circumstances in which no compensation is owed. This issue unfortunately caused a knock on effect onto your flight which caused the delay.

As confirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the judgment on Nelson v Lufthansa and C629/10 TUI, British Airways, EasyJet and IATA v UK CAA, the question whether a specific delay triggers an obligation to pay a measure of compensation pursuant to Article 7 of the Regulation requires consideration as to whether the long delay is a result of extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. It's important to note that the "all reasonable measures" test applies to the occurrence of the EC not the delay that may have been its effect.

"In the light of the foregoing the answer to question 1 in Case C 629/10 is that Articles 5 to 7 of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that passengers whose flights are delayed are entitled to compensation under that regulation where they suffer, on account of such flights, a loss of time equal to or in excess of three hours, that is, where they reach their final destination three hours or more after the arrival time originally scheduled by the air carrier. Such a delay does not, however, entitle passengers to compensation if the air carrier can prove that the long delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, namely circumstances beyond the actual control of the air carrier."

Plainly speaking, some passengers may be entitled to compensation for a delay that results in those passengers reaching their destination airport in excess of three hours after their ticketed arrival time. However, if the cause of the delay was not the airline's fault (i.e. the result of Extraordinary Circumstances), there is no requirement to pay the compensation.

The definition of what amounts to "extraordinary circumstances" is stated in paragraph 14 of the preamble of the Denied Boarding Regulations 2004, which states:

".obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier." [Underline is author's emphasis]

In the case of your flight, the delay was the result of delays to other aircraft caused by the airport in question being closed due issues with checking in.

As the cause of the delay to your flight was the result of clear Extraordinary Circumstances, we are unable to offer you compensation under the Regulation.

We understand that delays are often frustrating, but we hope that you can see that while we take all reasonable steps to ensure your flight leaves on time, circumstances, such as, airport closures, are out of our control.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We sincerely hope, and in fact are doing all we reasonably can to ensure, that your future flights with Thomson Airways arrive on-time.

Yours sincerely,