Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

smartly

Al try phoning Thomson's legal department and dealing with them directly. If there is a judgement specifying the amount of £200 then you should find they will agree to pay it.

abz_sco

Finally got a cheque from Thomsons yesterday for £581 for my delay of 40 hours back in 2011 from Gran Canaria. I had pretty much given up about 2 years ago, but a few weeks ago I though I would send another letter and to my surprise a cheque came.

Goonie

Hi all, I'm after some advice please.

My partner and I were delayed on a Thomson flight coming home from Egypt last year for over 24 hours, we were actually on the plane when a fault was discovered and we have to disembark and we're eventually taken to a hotel for the night.

The next day Thomson could give no indication of when the repair would be made or a replacement flight could be arranged. We had to get home for work, had someone looking after the house and cat, etc so eventually chose to book an alternative flight with Monarch and arrived home around 36 hours later than we should have.

Afterwards I wrote to Thomson who replied in August last year stating unusual circumstances and stated in writing that we were not entitled to compensation but that we were "entitled to a refund for the flight we did not use", some £300 and odd.

I never received this refund and once I heard the outcome of the Supreme Court case I wrote to Thomson again and eventually I received a cheque for over £900, basically €1200.00, for compensation.

I have since chased Thomson for the flight refund as we did not use the flight and paid for an alternative but they are stating that because in the end I made alternative arrangements I wasn't entitled to compensation and they have therefore paid me in error, so will not refund the flight.

Is this correct? I have read, and sent to them by email, various articles from MSE, Which?, Citizen's Advice and the Europa.eu Summaries of Legislation (see below) which all state that if the delay is over 5 hours I am entitled not to use it and to a refund and they appear to say I am also entitled to compensation.

Am I right here or are Thomson? If I am correct then how do I proceed here?

MSE:


Which?:


Citizen's Advice:


Europa.eu:

Delays
The Regulation introduces a three-tier system:
in the event of long delays (two hours or more, depending on the distance of the flight), passengers must in every case be offered free meals and refreshments plus two free telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails;
if the time of departure is deferred until the next day, passengers must also be offered hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and the place of accommodation;
when the delay is five hours or longer, passengers may opt for reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket together with, when relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure.

JPears

Unless the airline can prove (usually in court) that the delay was caused by an EC, you are due both a refund AND the compensation under reg 261/2004

NoviceAngel

Big_Al_1000 wrote: »

Novice Angel
Thanks for your reply and now I will fill in what has happened since this saga started.........

........At the hearing the Judge thought that 4% was a fair rate but he used the exchange rate from the date of the delay and worked out how much Thomson owed me. This amounted to £200 (which included the hearing fee) more than the cheque I had already received.

This should have been paid to me this week but as I said I have not received anything. If I apply for a Warrant of Control this will entail a further fee and there is no guarantee that the bailiffs will get any money. I was asking if anyone had experience of enforcing a CCJ.

Big Al

Thanks for the explanation, I follow now...

No, there's certainly not any guarantee that bailiffs could get your £200 but with such a small amount outstanding they would pay IMHO. They wouldn't want the hassle of being difficult with a bailiff for £200.

It must be an oversight, I would write a NBA, and give them 14 days to pay and making it absolutely clear that you will enforce the Judgment if they don't cough up.

Cheers,

NoviceAngel

Goonie

JPears wrote: »

Unless the airline can prove (usually in court) that the delay was caused by an EC, you are due both a refund AND the compensation under reg 261/2004

Thanks. Is there anywhere that says this legally that I can point them to? Below is what they have said in their response:

have investigated your complaint, as per EU261/2004.
It appears that on receipt of your original correspondence it became apparent that your flight from Sharm El Sheikh to Manchester was delayed over 5 hours. You then made the decision to make alternative travel arrangements to get back to Manchester.

As per the regulation, Article 8 (1) (a) you are entitled to a refund of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought for the part or parts of the journey not made.

It appears there have been a number of errors on our behalf throughout your claim; the compensation that you have been awarded only applies if you travel on the affected flight, therefore you have been over compensated and paid more monies that you are not due, however as this is due to our error we will not be attempting to recover any monies.

Further to the letter you received advising you, you are due a refund of £333.00 (You were due £339.00) you were then sent a further letter and a cheque for the sum of £949.93 in full and final settlement of your flight delay.

MadeInHeaven

legal_magpie wrote: »

Thomsons appear to be giving priority to those cases which are already in Court, especially where hearings are imminent. This is obviously sensible.
However, I'm afraid that if your flight was in December 2008 and you haven't yet commenced Court proceedings, you are out of time as the limitation period is 6 years. The fact that you complained earlier doesn't count.
So I can only suggest that you take a "gentle" approach (e.g. another phone call) in the hope that they may miss the limitation point.

Just wanted to let you all know that today I received full compensation of £1100 from Thomson. I had not started any court proceedings, just the templates off MSE (thank you) and a phone call back in Feb.:j

Scruffywuffy

Just a thought. I've still not heard back from Thomsons regarding my delay in December 2014, my flight was delayed for 3 separate reasons (2 x technical faults, 1 x crew out of hours), Thomson wrote back saying it was delayed due to a bird strike, which explains the first delay but not the technical fault to the 2nd plane which was being flown down from Manchester, nor the crew out of hours. But back to the bird strike ...


I did a FOI request from the CAA re the bird strike, which although doesn't give flight numbers, our flight does seem to be on there. It says that the plane could have been damaged 3-4 days before our flight, but the damage was only noticed when the Captain did his final walk round before our flight took off, - which tallies as we were on the plane and then turfed off. My query is seeing as the regulation says:


" An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken."

Is it the case that Thomson should have noticed the damage well before our flight and therefore have not taken all reasonable measures?

I am looking into things before drafting a LBA unless I get a reply within the next week or so, detailing the other 2 delays but was wondering if I could include the above or is that clutching at straws ?


Also could you argue that they should expect bird strikes will occur ?


Thanks.

NoviceAngel

Scruffywuffy wrote: »

Also could you argue that they should expect bird strikes will occur ?

If you use the forum search facility using strikes and the forum member razorsedge You'll find plenty of posts about this:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67565033#Comment_67565033

He knows quite a bit on the subject.

Cheers,

NoviceAngel

JPears

Goonie - you already have the legal wording to quote- from regulation 261/2004.
If you have not already done so, you need to read Vauban's guide ande snd a final letter - an NBA. Then either send papers off to court or employ the services of a NWNF firm.