Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

lda01

Centipede100 wrote: »

I am starting this thread for those claiming flight delay or cancellation compensation from Thomson.

Any posts regarding any other airline in this thread will be ignored (at least by me).

Hi. In June 2012, we had a delay of 4 hours + coming back from Tunisia to Manchester. I sent a letter to Thomson explaining situation, in which they got back to me saying that the cause of the delay was due to the failure of the check-in system at Manchester which delayed the flight immediately prior to ours. They are saying it comes under extraordinary circumstances and are unable to offer compensation. Does anyone know if this is correct please?

retatco

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Thomson have a cheek to appeal with their stupid Montreal excuses.

A horrid company and even more of a dirty player stringing it all out for an appeal. Hope they get whats coming and the appeal is denied and get sued to within an inch of their lives by the thousands that are owed money

Where did the info on their Montreal appeal come from? I'm waiting for a court date at Bournemouth.

Vauban

From Coby Benson (of Botts solicitors) who was on R4's "You and Yours" yesterday.

dolphin_swimmer

In June we were delayed by 6 hours flying from Mahon to Gatwick (flight TOM311). 2 hours delay was due to a French air traffic control strike but 4 hours delay was due to towing gear breaking when our plane was being pushed back from our gate for departure. It was an easy fix but Thomson did not have an engineer in Menorca to fix the problem. There was an Iberian engineer that looked at the problem but was not sanctioned to fix a Thomson airline. They had to fly an engineer in from Majorca. Fortunately, they managed to sanction the Iberian Engineer to fix the plane in the end (quicker than getting Thomson engineer from another island). We arrived into Gatwick 6 hours late.

To me the French air strike was incidental and also under the 3 hours compensation claim limit so wasnt claiming for this. It was the 4 hours we were delayed because they didnt have an engineer on the island to fix their planes should something go wrong with them. Which it did.

I have written twice to Thomson's and both times they have rejected compensation because they said that delay was caused by French Air Strike and technical fault etc incidental and not the root cause of the delay. I believe this is incorrect. The French air strike had nothing to do with the towing gear breaking and Thomson not having an engineer available in Menorca. They said:

'Following the regulation precisely, we have to look at the root cause of the flight delay, when establishing if compensation is due or not. Industrial action conducted by French Air Traffic Control, caused widespread disruption to the flight programme, causing subsequent delays to your flight. Although I appreciate a technical fault caused a further delay, it's the root cause of the delay which determines if compensation is due or not.'

How can they say that the air strike was the root cause of the delay when that only caused the minority of our delay and didnt cause the planes towing gear to break and therefore doesnt have to pay compensation?

jojoeile

Hi, i am hoping someone could give me a bit of advice. I have sent a NBA to Thomson in respect of a flight from Man - Cancun that was delayed by 23 hrs due to a technical fault at take off. This is the response i received from them :

'Keeping an eye on the purpose and spirit of the Regulation and doing that while continuing to deliver real value to our customers is a challenge that can only be met by applying the law robustly and not making payments where there is no entitlement. If we didn't apply the rules in this way, prices would need to rise for you and all other customers.

Thomson Airways operates a fair and thorough process to deal with claims for delay in line with the regulation. The law in this area is complex and many situations will not result in an entitlement to compensation. We are not obliged to release any further internal information surrounding your delay. With that said, I am truly sorry if this wasn't the outcome you were looking for however this is our final position on this matter'.

Has anyone else received this reply? Do i now just lodge it with the courts? Thanks in advance.

Vauban

jojoeile wrote: »

Hi, i am hoping someone could give me a bit of advice. I have sent a NBA to Thomson in respect of a flight from Man - Cancun that was delayed by 23 hrs due to a technical fault at take off. This is the response i received from them :

'Keeping an eye on the purpose and spirit of the Regulation and doing that while continuing to deliver real value to our customers is a challenge that can only be met by applying the law robustly and not making payments where there is no entitlement. If we didn't apply the rules in this way, prices would need to rise for you and all other customers.

Thomson Airways operates a fair and thorough process to deal with claims for delay in line with the regulation. The law in this area is complex and many situations will not result in an entitlement to compensation. We are not obliged to release any further internal information surrounding your delay. With that said, I am truly sorry if this wasn't the outcome you were looking for however this is our final position on this matter'.

Has anyone else received this reply? Do i now just lodge it with the courts? Thanks in advance.

Yep - green light for court action. And make sure you put this before the court when/if you need to make your submission.

I love the part about Thomson honouring "the purpose and spirit" of the Regulation. Actually - don't bother: just honour the letter of the law please - that'll be plenty;)

JPears

dolphin_swimmer wrote: »

In June we were delayed by 6 hours flying from Mahon to Gatwick (flight TOM311). 2 hours delay was due to a French air traffic control strike but 4 hours delay was due to towing gear breaking when our plane was being pushed back from our gate for departure. It was an easy fix but Thomson did not have an engineer in Menorca to fix the problem. There was an Iberian engineer that looked at the problem but was not sanctioned to fix a Thomson airline. They had to fly an engineer in from Majorca. Fortunately, they managed to sanction the Iberian Engineer to fix the plane in the end (quicker than getting Thomson engineer from another island). We arrived into Gatwick 6 hours late.

To me the French air strike was incidental and also under the 3 hours compensation claim limit so wasnt claiming for this. It was the 4 hours we were delayed because they didnt have an engineer on the island to fix their planes should something go wrong with them. Which it did.

I have written twice to Thomson's and both times they have rejected compensation because they said that delay was caused by French Air Strike and technical fault etc incidental and not the root cause of the delay. I believe this is incorrect. The French air strike had nothing to do with the towing gear breaking and Thomson not having an engineer available in Menorca. They said:

'Following the regulation precisely, we have to look at the root cause of the flight delay, when establishing if compensation is due or not. Industrial action conducted by French Air Traffic Control, caused widespread disruption to the flight programme, causing subsequent delays to your flight. Although I appreciate a technical fault caused a further delay, it's the root cause of the delay which determines if compensation is due or not.'

How can they say that the air strike was the root cause of the delay when that only caused the minority of our delay and didnt cause the planes towing gear to break and therefore doesnt have to pay compensation?

No point arguing, Small claims route and let a Judge decide. So you pushed back after 2 hours? Then that wasn't the main cause of a 6 hour delay and would have been under the 3 hour compo limit.
Nowhere in the regulations or case law has any distinction been made as to "root cause of delay" so ignore that Thomson "make it up as we go along" excuse and press on with legal action.

cluckie7

I originally wrote to Thomson 8/11/12 regarding a flight delay in Sept 2011 from East Midlands to Dominican Republic delay was 5 hours for 4 of us (2 adults and 2 kids) they eventaully replied 8/1/13 asking for claim forms to be completed. I did this and returned them 12/1/13 after chasing them for another 5 months they replied 30/5/13 stating I wasn't entitled to any compenation as the delay was due to "a technical defect being detected prior to a previous scheduled flight. This then caused a knock on effect to your flight. The aircraft is unable to be legally dispatched with this defect. Therefore the cause of this delay sits under Extraordinary Circumstances, as the technical issue with the aircraft was not due to poor maintenance and is not something that could have been foreseen." I had left it at that but there seems to be a lot about claims at the moment and was wondering if it is worth persuing and if so what are my next steps? Has anyone had any luck taking things further?

jojoeile

Thanks for the reply. Off to court i go :-) !

bazaar_2

jojoeile wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Off to court i go :-) !

its a long process, so have a good read up on the legislation, keep to your timescale, not theirs. this is your case remember, so any delaying tactics by the airlines, needs to be met with you taking control of the situation.
when you make your claim, they will certainly defend. they will send the defence in most likely a day or so late.
This is all part of the game, so dont get frustrated, just get even