Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

SEW56

Just been to court and the judge has stayed the case pending the Dawson and Huzar appeals. Not what I wanted but what I expected. At least the court allowed me to drag an expensive Thomson barrister into court and listen to the story rather than just staying at Thomson's written request. Advice from this thread proved very helpful...thanks KAB111, Vauban, Centipede et al.

So my turn to share experience even though my situation not over yet, also picking up one or two themes in this thread:

I (also a witness as I am part of the claim) represented the claimant. As another (my wife) was the lead booker and payer they actually made the claim. There was no issue raised by judge or barrister to me representing, though the claimant had to be there unlike Thomson(!)There was no issue with the lead booker making a claim for the whole party of 4, claiming court fees and interest from the date of making the small claim at the prevailing exchange rate even though hearing fee and interest was not mentioned in the original small claim.

The hearing was professional and supportive with the judge helping. To those daunted by the prospect, don't be. Just follow the advice on these pages and tell your story. The judge had prepared and read the material and clearly had an understanding... I was able to ask questions and have a discussion. Whilst I quoted the relevant cases I did so as a lay person and did not try to sound like a lawyer... the judge helped interpret. The Thomson barrister to be fair stated the law, supported my position on Wallentin etc as advised in this thread and reminded the judge that their defence relied on the successful appeals and did not try to argue otherwise. However, this may have been a tactic to achieve the stay...I am not smart enough to see the double/triple bluff if there was one!

Despite all the nonsense in their original defense the simple witness statements and paid invoices were accepted as proof we were due on the flight... no requirement to produce boarding passes etc. Indeed Thomson's barrister accepted all my facts. Their bundle was huge and to those concerned about the size of their own claimant bundle...don't be. Again the advice on these pages to have witness statements that you were due to fly plus any documentation on that is good enough...boarding passes if you have them, paid invoice and redacted bank statement if not. Then just be ready on the day to say why the EC defence can not be made. I actually shared my skeleton argument with the court (and Thomson) at the deadline of putting papers into the court and the judge was very appreciative of that.

Something that the judge said was that you have to bring your court claim within 6 years (or 2 years if the Dawson ruling fails on appeal) ie not just write your letter of complaint etc but actually raise a small claim. Others can comment but that suggests if you are close to the 6 years you should raise the claim and not wait otherwise either way you lose and if you are close to the 2 years then you may also want to go ahead just in case... I am not a lawyer but that is what the judge said.

The Thomson barrister was 'sure' that the appeal against Dawson ruling would fail and so it would be 6 years. As we might expect the barrister felt that the Huzar appeal was very different and that if the appeal simply fails he expects the airline industry to go to the Supreme court. However, he may have been just trying to put me off!!

Given the Huzar appeal I tried to argue that Wallentin was good enough with regard to the simple technical problem that caused the cancellation... the judge was sympathetic but given how close the appeal was felt that the case should be stayed.

I hope the above is of use to the thread and please counter anything I have said if wrong or your experience different.

oopsagain

David_e wrote: »

You said in the earlier post "As long as I get all documentation to them by Friday, we still have time to pursue the claim". You have all of May and June and some of July to pursue the claim, so I just thought it was strange that they said they would have to have your information by Friday. Just an observation; no harm in doing it as soon as ....

No offence meant David, I just wondered why you thought that was slow. Im not 100% on legal stuff which was why I was considering going to a NWNF company.


They said its needs to done quickly because they are still going to have to claim to Thompsons first, then wait for their response and appeal etc etc etc


I originally sent a letter to Thompson 10th Feb but had no reply what so ever.


As I said in my previous posts I spoke to a Thompson representative yesterday on a private facebook chat (this has been the only way Ive been able to get a response from them)
I gave him all the info, dates, times etc and the response I got was the standard letter everyone else seems to have had through the mail. Only I had it on facebook.


Any advice/opinions on wether I should proceed with the NWNF claim or just make a small claim myself. Can my facebook 'chat' be used as evidence of Thompson rejecting my claim ?


The main thing that deters me from making small claim myself is having to go to court and 'fighting' my case.
Im not completely up the the laws and legisations surrounding the flight compensation and various cases etc so not sure if id be able to 'fight' my case myself.


Any advice greatly appreciated

David_e

oopsagain wrote: »

No offence meant David,

None taken!

oopsagain wrote: »

They said its needs to done quickly because they are still going to have to claim to Thompsons first, then wait for their response and appeal etc etc etc


I originally sent a letter to Thompson 10th Feb but had no reply what so ever.


As I said in my previous posts I spoke to a Thompson representative yesterday on a private facebook chat (this has been the only way Ive been able to get a response from them)
I gave him all the info, dates, times etc and the response I got was the standard letter everyone else seems to have had through the mail. Only I had it on facebook.


Any advice/opinions on wether I should proceed with the NWNF claim or just make a small claim myself. Can my facebook 'chat' be used as evidence of Thompson rejecting my claim ?


The main thing that deters me from making small claim myself is having to go to court and 'fighting' my case.
Im not completely up the the laws and legisations surrounding the flight compensation and various cases etc so not sure if id be able to 'fight' my case myself.


Any advice greatly appreciated

Before you can make a court claim, you need to send a "NBA" (pro forma letter is linked from the FAQs) - to warn them that you intend to take legal action if you don't get satisfaction.

As you've had correspondence, I don't think you need to give them much more than 14 days to respond to your NBA. If you don't receive satisfaction after that time, you can then make your court claim.

As there are 12 of you, you can't claim online and you will need to download and complete the claim form (one form for all 12) and then either post or take it to your local county court (ring and check in advance).

The basic claim form is easy enough to complete - very little is required other than the basic facts and your claim - XXX Euro, plus interest plus court costs.

As there are 12 of you, the cash value of the fee for a no win no fee firm is obviously quite substantial. However, as has been said before, c75% of something is better than nothing.

What flight was it and what were the circumstances of the delay?

oopsagain

thaks David,


The flight was a First Choice Airways aircraft FCA830, was supposed to depart 2nd july at 12.30pm but had a 'technical issue' and finally departed on a Thomson plane on 3rd july at 10am.

We boarded the plane twice before finally being told after serveral very longs hours waiting that we would be delayed overnight.


Every so often we kept being told that our wait shouldn't be too much longer.






As you said the NWNF fee is going to be quite high which is what puts me off going with them lol

David_e

oopsagain wrote: »

thaks David,

The flight was a First Choice Airways aircraft FCA830, was supposed to depart 2nd july at 12.30pm but had a 'technical issue' and finally departed on a Thomson plane on 3rd july at 10am.

We boarded the plane twice before finally being told after serveral very longs hours waiting that we would be delayed overnight.

Every so often we kept being told that our wait shouldn't be too much longer.

As you said the NWNF fee is going to be quite high which is what puts me off going with them lol

You may have read on the forum that there is a court case in the name of a passenger called Huzar. That should give some clarity as to how much airlines can rely on "technical" problems as an excuse.

I think all the posters on here hope that the decision will be so positive for passengers that airlines will concede.

There's also a case (Dawson) about the time limit for making claims.

I'd be tempted to make the claim myself as a technical issue shouldn't be an excuse and a 10 hour delay doesn't sound as if they made any great efforts to minimise the consequences. All 12 people need to sign the claim (but not the NBA letter) so factor that into your timings.

jenn1ewest1

Now that all of us that have had our cases stayed are able to see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel, does anyone have any advice for us novices on what actions we take next should the judges in both cases decide in our favour
JH

oopsagain

I am very tempted to do that David.


It was a 22hr delay.


One of the party, my father, is now deceased. Can my Mother receive his compensation ?


Just chatting to my mum and kids trying remember more exact details.


We boarded the plane, it taxied out then came back in, we were then sat on the plane for a good hour or so before having to get off the plane while they had a look at the problem.


We kept being told it wouldn't be long but was about 8 - 9 pm before we finally got taken to the hotel. All this time we had no vouchers or anything for food/drink, I believe it was because they kept think we would be re-boarding anytime.


Our main concern was that my father, who was in his 80's at the time and also diabetic.


Once they had finally flown a Thomson plane in after deciding the first choice plane could not be used, they then had no crew to man the plane as the original crew were over their work hours and had no other crew to stand in.

David_e

oopsagain wrote: »

It was a 22hr delay.

Sorry, I can't count. In that case, I'm not sure that the cause of the cause of the delay is even that important because they made a pretty half-hearted attempt to mitigate the consequences.

oopsagain wrote: »

One of the party, my father, is now deceased. Can my Mother receive his compensation ?

Sorry, no idea about that. Maybe give your local county court a call and ask for their advice. I would have thought, in principle, his estate would be entitled to make a claim, but that's a guess.

oopsagain wrote: »

Once they had finally flown a Thomson plane in after deciding the first choice plane could not be used, they then had no crew to man the plane as the original crew were over their work hours and had no other crew to stand in.

As I said, a pretty shoddy effort. They should have factored crew hours in before deciding how to deal with the matter.

J_B

Please don't flame me for starting a new thread

Some friends were coming back to Bristol from Paphos yesterday with Thomson.
It transpires that the flight left BRS, got as far as northern Italy and then turned back and landed at Gatwick!
The limited info I can find on twitter (yea, I know, sorry) is that there was an "emergency" - sounds like BS to me. Why would they go back???

I *think* I'm right in saying (?) that our friends have a valid claim as it was the previous (outgoing) flight that was delayed, which shouldn't have a bearing on theirs - is that right?

J_B

Some friends were coming back to Bristol from Paphos yesterday with Thomson.
It transpires that the flight left BRS, got as far as northern Italy and then turned back and landed at Gatwick!
The limited info I can find on twitter (yea, I know, sorry) is that there was an "emergency" - sounds like BS to me. Why would they go back???

I *think* I'm right in saying (?) that our friends have a valid claim as it was the previous (outgoing) flight that was delayed, which shouldn't have a bearing on theirs - is that right?