Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

Tyzap

Gill1962-4 wrote: »

Any advice please.

Please inform the CAA of how they have been messing you about and refusing to take your claim seriously here....

http://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Resolving-travel-problems/

Good luck.

davidb2002

My apologies if you guys have already read this in another thread, just trying to get it posted in the right place...

I recently returned from Orlando,FL USA on a Thomson package holiday. We flew out of Orlando Sanford International to Manchester International.

When we arrived at the Orlando Airport, for our flight scheduled @ 4:25pm, we were surprised to find it had been delayed till 10:30pm! Considering we had to already be there 3 hours early, we were looking at a 9-10 hour wait in a small airport.

This isn't completely relevant, but we were given a $20 voucher per person to be used in the airport. However half the airport's food facilities were closed and thus had to spend them in the expensive restaurant. Furthermore, we couldn't spend on gifts or alcoholic drinks and once a voucher was used, you didn't get the change back. So, order a burger @ $11, no change given back leaving it very difficult to get your monies worth from the vouchers.

Anyway, we eventually flew at around 10:30-10:40pm sticking us in the 6+ hours of delays with a very tired 4yr old and a 9yr old.

The reason given by the crew was that during that week, they were stuck in Costa Rica due to a tropical storm and thus couldn't get their flight to Miami. There were then further complications with flights in Miami preventing them to getting to Orlando on time. They eventually arrived in Orlando the morning on the flight, but due to regulations, they had to rest for a minimum amount of time before they could fly again for safety reasons (which I appreciate).

So, this sounds like they are trying to blame weather....but it wasn't the reason our flight was delayed. In my opinion, it's more logistics as the crew wasn't available. I appreciate that it can be quite a difficult problem to pull off but you would have imagined that thomson would have had a plan B consider the storm was on radar for over a week before hand.

I've checked out Vauban's guide.

'extraordinary circumstances' and 'all reasonable measures' can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, this is a 'knock-on' effect of weather. So the question seems to stand with if the airline did everything they could and as quick as they could to prevent this issue.

So, I leave you guys with a couple of questions before I submit my claim:
1. Do you think i'm eligible for compensation?
2. From what I understand, I should go to Thomson first and if I get rejected, who do I go to?


Thanks for all the help and advice!

Cheers,
David

Justice13075

yes you are due compensation, if you landed at Manchester airport more than 4 hours after your schedule arrival you are due €600 per person. Google and download "Vaubans guide" all explained in there, even a template letter for you.

davidb2002

@Justice13075 Thanks, I've read it already but will be making my complaint now via resolver. Let's see how long this takes. After reading everyone else's story, I'm expecting a rejection.

bobcar

Hi

I am Writing for a bit of advice I will try to keep the detail minimal so not to waffle on, I hope I have posted in the correct place.

Our flight from Gatwick which was due to depart at 6.30 am on Saturday took off for Alghero but after getting halfway there we were told that there was a navigational error and that we would have to return to Gatwick. Subsequently our flight was rescheduled to leave at 10:15 pm. (communication by Thomson was appalling). We had to spend the day loitering around Gatwick Airport with our 2 young children. We were given food vouchers.

Upon arriving at our destination at around 2 am local time we were told that 2 of our 4 suitcases had not arrived. We had to queue at the airport along with many other passengers to fill in the appropriate forms, we finally arrived at the hotel at around 3am local time (we had along with our 2 young children been awake for over 24 hours)

Amoung the items that were in our missing luggage were toothbrushes, beech shoes, swimming trunks and suntan lotion. There was a small shop on the resort, which sold basic items. However the one item that I couldn’t buy were swimming shorts.
So our suitcases finally arrived on Tuesday afternoon.

I have read Vaubans guide and which has been very helpful indeed but I wanted to check on a few things before initiating a claim.
I understand from reading on the forum that we are entitled to 250 euro in compensation for each ticket for the flight delay. I am planning to use the template letter but because our flight took off on time (technically) would I need to mention this specifically, the delay was caused as the flight had to return resulting in a subsequent delay? On the letter we were given by Tui it specifies a technical fault as the reason for the flight having to return to Gatwick, presumably this is a normal thing for them to write to try to not pay compensation.

Also should my claim for delayed luggage be made separately or should I add it on to the letter.

Finally I refused the offer of 58 euros to cover our delayed luggage from a Thomson Rep which was made around 15 minutes before our coach was due to depart for the airport for our return flight. I did so as I though it would not cover the outlay of the things we had to purchase. Not to mention the fact that I wasnt able to use the pool or swim in the sea until the last 3 days of our holiday and stupidly signed what has been emailed to me as a full resolution of any claim against Tui against the delayed baggage. Does this mean I cannot claim for the baggage at all?

Thank you for any advice

Bob

111KAB

Luggage and delay two separate issues. Delay should result in €250 pp as you say. Think you have shot yourself in the foot by signing 'baggage email'.
Follow Vauban's Guide for delay compensation.

bobcar

Hi thanks 111KAB

I have started the process for claiming for the delay.

Marksfish

Almost 3 months down the line from original complaint for flight delay and another subsequent problems experienced in resort during the holiday. Both complaints submitted by Resolver and not a sausage heard from Thomsons except for the auto response "we have received your email".

I am feeling that Thomson are either inundated with complaints at the moment or just not bothering with my complaints/ claims. Does Resolver actually get many resolutions or would I have been better off approaching them myself?

Thanks

Justice13075

Some times it does sometimes it doesn't. Download and read Vaubans guide. Then send a notice before action letter. All explained in the guide.

alisonK

I was also on this flight with my two children and Thomson dont seem to understand the idea of good communication= happy customers. Ive sent a letter using the MSE template and an email, no response so far and I wondered how long do we wait to for a response? What is reasonable and if they don't respond, can it still be escalated somehow?