Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

Shug61

Philng

The LGW outbound flight was on the Saturday, supposedly returning on the Sunday morning.
They attached the weather forecast for the three days prior to my flight through to two days after.

Interesting the day of LGW departure showed as snow clearing so doesnt really add anything to their defence. I know that vast majority of planes outbound from LGW were roughly on time, and the outbound was showing as on time only to have a delay shortly before departure.
There was only the pdf forecast, no written explanation or anything else submitted by Tui. I guess they hope or know that once I respond they they will be given even more time to find new info or think up a new excuse.

The reason given by my pilot on return flight and in writing at LGW on arrival was crew limitations. As apparently inbound crew to LGW is the outbound crew from Manchester. This is the flight that was delayed and gave rise to my delay.

From contacts in aviation I know that flights to Goa are often delayed, as there are limited stands there and they may make the incomer fly away if there too long and come back nearer to revised slot, so as not to block stands at the airport. I guess the late inbound Manchester flight and same crew back to LGW made Tui delay the outbound.

Therefore my flight was delayed by crew limitations as per original Tui reasons. Not an EC AFAIK, but lets see how the adjudicator goes... Hopefully he / she will see the Tui responses as delaying tactics and rule in my favour...?

philng

Shug 61 out of interest what date was your flight?

Only my flight was 4 march from manchester and they said they had to fly a plane up from gatwick. Just wondered if connected in anyway?

Shug61

My inbound (return from Goa) landed at LGW on Mon 05 March at 05:00. Guess not same plane.

The crew was Manchester based, so guess they were jumbling planes from all over the place, although from talking to the crew they always came in from Manchester, slept overnight and then took LGW inbound back the following morning.


Crew on mine told us that their flight from Manchester was delayed as had to come from LGW as well, and the letter I have submitted from Tui says crew flight limitations. They only came up with weather afterwards.

Following the weather forecast Tui submitted to CEDR I have downloaded actual weather data for LGW area and it clearly shows last snow there was lunchtime on Friday 2nd, and sunny all day Saturday. My plane out was scheduled for 18:00 Sat. So have submitted that to CEDR to show the weather forecast Tui submitted with no text is a bit of a fib...

Shug61

Update

“CEDR has appointed an adjudicator in this dispute. The Adjudicator will now review all the evidence submitted by both parties and provide a written decision which will be available in approximately 14 days”

.

NETraveller

JPears,
In response to your earlier reply and after a response from TUI in relation to an attempt to contact them via social media there response as follows:
"I appreciate your frustration. We offer a wide range of flights with third party carries such as Thomas Cook to ensure we can offer our customers a wider range of destinations etc. Any claim for compensation due to the delay will need to be submitted to the airline directly"
This is a company for which I booked a "package holiday" that clearly doesn't want to take any ownership or responsibility (very poor in my opinion).
To add to this, having finally got home yesterday, we were given a Thomas Cook Airlines letter when getting off the plane regarding our flight:
"Some travel insurance companies offer cover for delayed departure so we've updated your confirmed flight times below. You should send this letter to your insurance company along with the form they'll send you when you register your claim with them".
Is this not another example of not wanting to take ownership as why do I need to make a claim on the travel insurance when it should be the company offering compensation having been at fault here?
I suspect seeking compensation from either TUI/First Choice or Thomas Cook Airlines is not going to be straight forward based on the initial responses I've seen.
There is compensation for the cancelled flight which resulted in a 30hr delay however we have had to pick up other costs (parking, kennels etc) and lost earnings (my partner being self-employed) as a result of arriving back in the UK due to the later flight. I'm hoping I should be reimbursed for this also.

JPears

Now night, you cannot claim for consequential losses (well you can but they have no obligation to pay them)
Did you incurr additional accomodation and sustinence costs? These should be covered by the package holiday. Have you checked any ABTA OR ATOL cover?
Go straight to TC for delay compensation which should be 600 euros per person. You may also get something from travel insurance, note this is complete seperate to your 261/2004 claim and additional to it.
Airlines will avoid paying out at all costs so be prepared for a fight. Make a complaint to CAA as TC are obliged, by law to give you details of your rights under the regulations, which it would appear they didn't.
All this is assuming the delay/cancellation was not an EC.

Shug61

I had a similar letter when late back form Goa, suggesting I contact my travel insurers.

From my own experience and others i’ve seen on here, this is the standard first attempt to fob you off.

You basically have three choices.
1. Do nothing, which is what Tui want
2. Claim on your travel insurance for whatever your cover is, or
3. Start the process with Tui/TC for statutory comp
If 3 they will do everything they can to ignore or give random excuses that your claim has been reviewed and rejected. After their ‘final’ mail you can contact CEDR and start again.
It is a long process
It will get tedious
Eventually though, and i’m currently just over 3 months in, you may get to adjudication and you may win. I am currently on final wait for an adjudication (as detailed in post above earlier today)

Good luck

Justice13075

Even if the adjudication says no, you can still use the small claims court. Some of the results of CEDR have been perverse in the extreme.

Thomas_w_2

Hi.

My delay was minimal in comparison with many on here but TUI have refused my claim on the basis the flight was delayed for under 3 hours. I didn't know until I read the MSE article that the time is measured by the time one of the doors is opened. I could certainly do with the money so thought I would submit a claim.

They have also not paid my airport expenses and referred me to my travel insurers.

I checked on flight stats website (via a helpful member as it was a while ago and not available to non members) and it gives the landing time as just under 3 hours late. However it was well over the 3 hours by the time the doors were opened.

Any ideas how I can prove that ? I can't afford to escalate the claim unless I can find proof as it will cost me £25 if it fails and I don't think the escalation can be used just for the airport food/drinkexpenses part of the claim.

Any idea anyone ? Any help would be much appreciated.
Tom

Justice13075

Put your flight details into bottonline and also euclaim and see what they say