Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

JPears

As bag states, it looks as though TUI airlines are not involved. TUI holidays /first choice are not an airline to be able to claim against?

Westin

jpsartre wrote: »

A recent ruling from the ECJ contradicts the above advice. Basically, when one airline leases its aircraft and crew as part of a wetlease agreement to another (in this case TUIFly), the latter is to be considered the operating carrier. A summary of the ruling can be found below:


https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-07/cp180100en.pdf


So the OP should pursue compensation from TUIFly.

This has nothing to do with TUIFly which is an airline with separate divisions registrations in Germany, Belgium, France and Morocco.

TUI Airways in based and operated in the U.K.

That said in clemm28!!!8217;s case operating carrier was never TUI Airways.

There was no leases, wet lease or otherwise.

Clemm28 booked a package holiday with TUI Holidays (actually TUI UK & Ireland) which is a tour operator. This tour operator has chartered Freebird to operate a series of flights on behalf of them. The flight Cleem28 was booked on ran with a FHY flight number.

I stand by what I said in my previous post.

jpsartre

We'll have to agree to disagree. It seems clear to me that TUIFly is to be considered the operating carrier by the letter of the ruling.

bagand96

jpsartre wrote: »

We'll have to agree to disagree. It seems clear to me that TUIFly is to be considered the operating carrier by the letter of the ruling.

From that ruling, the first paragraph:

In the case of long delay of a flight, the air company which must pay the
compensation owed to passengers is not the air company which leased the aircraft
and its crew, but the air company which decided to perform the flight

Freebird decided to operate the flight. It would be Freebird Airlines on the passengers ticket. the flight number was FHY, it would have operated with FHY on its flight plan and ATC. Check in desks would have been Freebird Airlines, airport info boards Freebird Airlines etc

Freebird operated the flight because they'd been contracted to by TUI UK the tour operator. Not unusual, it's a simple charter flight arrangement of an airline operating a series of flights for a tour operator.

TUI Airlines are not at all involved, other than the fact they are part of the same group as the tour operator and share a brand. But they never had any involvement in anything to do with FHY693 from DSA to ATY.

Another example: you can book a TUI holiday, but fly on a Thomas Cook flight, with TCX flight codes. In the event of a delay with your flight, it would be Thomas Cook Airlines liable for compensation.

jpsartre

bagand96 wrote: »

Freebird decided to operate the flight.

No, they were chartered to do so by TUI. I can see no relevant difference between the OP's case and the case decided on in the ruling.

bagand96

jpsartre wrote: »

No, they were chartered to do so by TUIFly. I can see no relevant difference between the OP's case and the case decided on in the ruling.

Where is the evidence for this? And was it TUIfly Deutschland, TUIfly Belgium, TUIfly Netherlands, or TUIfly Nordic? If so, it would have been billed as a TUIfly flight and operated under their X3, TB, OR or BLX flight codes.

EDIT: I see you've since edited your post...

The relevant difference is that in the ruling the passengers booked a flight with TUIfly (called an 'air company' in the ruling). In this case the OP booked a flight with Freebird (albeit as part of a TUI holiday). TUI UK, whom the OP had a contract with for their holiday, is not an airline. The airline in this story is Freebird, and the first reply to the OP is as correct now as it was last night when it was made.

jpsartre

That it was chartered? That was an assumption on my part that I thought you shared (at least you said it yourself in post 7). But fair enough, I concede that it's possible Freebird decides to operate a route from Doncaster to Antalya on their own accord.

JPears

Jps, I think bag and myself see your point but you aren't getting ours, which is that the flight was arranged, as part of a package by first voice/TUI holidays, not by the tui airline.

jpsartre

Ah, I see. Sorry, that was my bad, I meant to write TUI, not TUIFly. I think TUIFly got stuck in the back of my head after reading the ECJ ruling.

Ian_Langley

After 1 year and having to go through a claims expert (thank you Bott and Co). And finally Thomson's (TUI) have settled the claim. This after 3 letters saying that they were not responsible. Its frustrating that large airlines rely on people giving up. and play the percentages

Its just frustrating, that to prove a point you have to loose part of your compensation or take a risk and spend time (money) battling them.