Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

happychap7

I've had the letter from Thomsons yesterday stating they wont consider the claim because its over 2 years ago. I've now prepared the letter to send to the CAA. I will wait for their response and then take Thomsons to court. Both my outbound and inbound flight were delayed and I've worked out they owe me over £3400 in total so far(4 of us in family), this includes interest. I wont be giving up !

blondmark

blondmark wrote: »

That's the logical conclusion anyway - there's little point in them spending money litigating a claim when the law is against them, particularly when you're legally represented. Best of luck.

I must take back the above comment. Thomson Airways are apparently prepared to defy logic by running absurd and hopeless defences to my claim, as I discovered in yesterday's post from the court.

Firstly they're still trying on their luck with the ludicrous defence of a 2 year limitation to bring a claim, which the world and his dog now knows was overruled last year by More -v- KLM (Case C-139/11). Then, despite perfect weather the entire day of my flight, they're citing "meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned". Finally an unheard of "incident with a third party aircraft". I've asked the court to order the defendant to fully particularise and evidence every aspect of their defence, and if they're foolish enough to go to a hearing I shall ask for costs for the defendant's unreasonable conduct in wasting the court's time with hopeless and bogus defences.

Interestingly, Thomson's defence is padded out with literally pages of wholly irrelevant nonsense about 261/2004 and the Montreal Convention that have absolutely no bearing either on my claim or on their defence. I can only assume that all these irrelevant paragraphs are a ploy calculated to confuse claimants who may be unfamiliar with court proceedings and with their rights under the Regulation. Lost on me though.

So if you're also on the receiving end of this kind of unconscionable and oppressive conduct (AKA 'dirty tricks') don't be in the least bit put off. Put your evidence in order, and the court will see straight through Thomson's tricks and lies.

Wight_Rabbit

BlondMark. Who has signed up to the defence on the Thomson side? Is it TUI Customer Legal or is it their outsourced litigation team? The person in charge of Customer Legal is called Pete Baxter. Is there a phone number on the paperwork you have or a name?

Perhaps they have decided to defend all claims come hell or high water. Some companies seem to work on brinkmanship. Perhaps there are the sort.

blondmark

Wight_Rabbit wrote: »

BlondMark. Who has signed up to the defence on the Thomson side? Is it TUI Customer Legal or is it their outsourced litigation team? The person in charge of Customer Legal is called Pete Baxter. Is there a phone number on the paperwork you have or a name?

Perhaps they have decided to defend all claims come hell or high water. Some companies seem to work on brinkmanship. Perhaps there are the sort.

Am away for the weekend and don't have the papers, but from memory I think he calls himself "Tony Moron, Litigation Executive", or something similar.

Lozza123

Well 12 weeks on Monday since my claim forms were signed for. I was advised by cab to send a NBA letter addressed to the secretary which I did and was signed for on 7th March. I had sent a NBA previously by e-mail but was advised that this might not be accepted by the courts. I had sent numerous e-mails to which I got no replies. Anyway I got a reply yesterday from the directors office saying she will be looking into it for me. I replied that this was not acceptable and I wanted something done now. She then sent another e-mail saying they will conduct a thorough investigation. Well furious was not the word. I sent a very angry reply saying they have had well enough time to conduct a thorough investigation, I also stated that if they had any decency about them then someone could pick up the phone and give me an explanation. Lo and behold she rang at 5.10 yesterday on the home phone left a message saying she would be there until 5.30. I do not know why she did not try my mobile as both numbers were given. Will wait now and see what she has to say on Monday morning. I told her in no uncertain times if this was not resolved by 20th march then court it is without any further delay. I just wish I had taken it to court a lot sooner.

Mark2spark

I believe the penny is dropping for a lot of others Lozza, it should have been court at a much earlier stage.

Lozza123

Mark2spark wrote: »

I believe the penny is dropping for a lot of others Lozza, it should have been court at a much earlier stage.

100% agree with you. I was a fool to let it drag on but believe me the gloves are now off. To say I'm lived is an understatement.

Camaro3

Morning all, just received my "2 years & out" letter from Thomson. Will reply with LBA pointing out their "error". This will be accompanied by a letter to the CAA and also to my local MP.
Time for court me thinks. Wonder what the national papers would make of their tactics?

Mark2spark

Well it won't be long before someone picks up on it Camaro, there must be thousands out there that are being duped like this with Thomson.
Deplorable.

Littlenix

I went ahead with the court action against Thomson on 27/2/13 via MCOL. The papers were issued to Thomsons on 28/2/13 and deemed to have been served on 5/3/13.

In the post today, I have received an acknowledgment of service from the court where Thomsons have ticked the 'I intend to defend all of this claim' box! The claim is for the full 600 euros each so £1100 including the court costs of £70.

The only defence I think they could use is the old faithful 'exceptional circumstance' but as they gave everybody a letter when we got off the plane, stating the plane was delayed 24 hrs + due to technical faults and crewing issues, I don't think they are particularly exceptional, more like poor maintenance and bad rostering of staff.

Of course, they have just bought themselves another 28 days so it could just be yet more delaying tactics? Who knows?

I will now write to the CAA and see if they can assist.

Will post again when there is anything to update!

Littlenix wrote: »

We were delayed by more than 24 hrs on the above flight and on our arrival in Cancun on 14 Dec, the cabin crew gave everybody a letter explaining the delay was due to a technical fault (a sensor that they couldn't fix, so 'borrowed' a part from the plane we eventually flew in the next day!) followed by crewing issues (they ran out of hours, poor diddums, what a hard life they have). The letter was to use if we needed to make an insurance claim (the insurance paid £50 per person and does not make up for a 24 hr delay and a night in a disgusting 1 star hotel in Stockport!).

Using a template letter from the CAA website, I wrote to Thomson on 2 Jan 13 making a claim for the full 600 euro per person for me and my Husband due to length of journey and time delay. I heard nothing from them so wrote again on 16 Jan 13 reminding them under the EU regulation we were entitled to the compensation.

I received a letter from Thomsons on 26 Jan (dated 18 Jan) which was marked 'without prejudice' along with 2 claim forms. I completed the forms and attached photocopies of all the documents that they required including 3 sets of boarding cards which I had kept hold of and enclosed a letter saying I was not prepared to wait for the stated 56 days but as they already had all of the information that I had just supplied again which I had already given it to them in my first letter of 2/1/13, I required a response in 14 days as they were just using time wasting tactics. This letter along with the claim forms, was posted 1st class recorded delivery on 28 Jan 13

Not surprisingly, there was no response so I wrote again on 13 February, saying that I was not happy at their lack of response and if I heard nothing from them within 7 days, I would commence with small claims court action.

I was going to start the court action this weekend but just wanted to know, has anybody actually managed to claim from Thomson? Should I wait the 56 days stated which works out to be early March if I work from 18 Jan before starting court action and at least be seen by the court to be acting fairly and within timescales?

Not sure what to do for the best and would really appreciate advice whether to just pay the £70 or £80 court fee (depending on the euro/£ exchange rate) and just press on with the small claims or if anybody has tried an alternative method and been successful