Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Tui/Thomson ONLY

Justice13075

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

Tyzap

Hi CarTer01,

Thanks for reposting.

Firstly follow the advise above.

If you were delayed by more than 3 hours at arrival, not departure, you would qualify for compensation if the delay was NOT caused by an extraordinary circumstance (EC).

An ATC delay is an EC, but a technical fault to the aircraft is not. Due to the claimed 1 hr ATC strike you would not qualify, however, this would need to be verified somehow as the airlines are known to bend the truth when they need to. This is where Bott and EUclaim can help.

Have a search for newspaper or internet articles from that date too.

Good luck.

JPears

And download Vauban's most excellent guide.

PaulaW

Good Morning.

I contacted TUI following the delay of this flight from Kefalonia to Gatwick by 26 hrs on 17th July. After attempting to land a number of times the incoming flight was diverted to Zakynthos. There was some sea mist at the time and around 5 flights did not land in around a 2 hr period, although we saw at least one flight did during this time. So the airport was not closed, it was pilot decision to ultimately divert.

TUI are claiming extreme weather conditions for the delay and therefore not liable. Now I know the laws around knock on impact are not clear. It was not our flight that was impacted by the weather conditions but the preceding one. The reason for the continued delay past the 2 hrs the weather impacted landing was then being able to schedule the plane back from Zakynthos and then crew flying hours became a problem.
I'd like to progress this case what is the best way to take this forward. Has anyone had any success continuing directly with TUI. I'd like to avoid using a claim firm, the Bottonline tool did say we had a valid claim.



Email received today.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your flight delay claim.
In a limited number of circumstances regulation of the European Union (EU 261/2004) now entitles some affected customers to a payment when their flight is delayed over three hours on arrival.
In light of the Supreme Court ruling on 31st October 2014 we have investigated the claim for flight TOM4219 Kefalonia to Gatwick and our delay handling logs show that the flight was reactionary delayed due to bad weather.
So as to help both customers and airlines, the European Commission has recently published draft guidelines as to what amounts to extraordinary circumstances. This list was prepared with the assistance of the various national bodies responsible for regulating the aviation industry across Europe.
In this draft, the Commission has intimated that the following would be considered extraordinary circumstances:
11. Closure of either the airport of departure or the airport of arrival due to meteorological conditions.
An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
The circumstances surrounding the delay to your flight are classified as extraordinary circumstances under Regulation 261/2004 of the European Union. Therefore we reject your claim for compensation under this regulation.

Thank you again for contacting us.

PomBear

PaulaW - Jet2 have recently settled a case I took against them where the circumstances were similar. They settled on receiving my witness statement 9 working days from the court hearing.

My case was more clear cut as only the Jet2 flight (preceding flight to ours) diverted that night and a technical fault on that flight lead to a delay necessitating a landing at night, which Jet2 didn’t permit on the runway that was favourable to the wind (and the reciprocal runway was out of limits for the aircraft).

However, having diverted the aircraft, Jet2 made no attempt to reduce the delay - I speculated their crew went out of hours (not an EC) as the preceding flight didn’t complete its journey for another 15 hours or so.

So, you definitely have some things in your favour. However, your case isn’t as clear cut as mine (where there was also a technical fault on the preceding flight to mine, all other aircraft scheduled to land at Thessaloniki did that night and on time, Jet2 refuses, I believe, to let its crew land on the favourable runway at night and the aircraft they operated wasn’t within limits for the non-favourable runway, which is within their control - an airbus mananged to land on the unfavourable runway at the time Jet2’s Boeing diverted.

I think you may find this a tough one to challenge. I suspect your strongest challenge would be that they didn’t attempt to reduce the delay once it occurred (the bar is high - intolerable sacrifice) by providing fresh crew to operate your flight at an earlier point.

Knock on is a tricky one - far more on this forum more knowledgeable than me about that.

JPears

weather related issues, are I believe, currenty under an appeal case (name escapes me), so it might sensible to delay any further action until that case is resolved?
What do Botts and EU claim say if you put details into the online checkers?

Tyzap

Hi PaulaW,

I'm a little more optimistic about your case that PomBear, for a few reasons.

As PomBear says, 26 hours is a long time in which the airline could and should have done a lot more to mitigate the length of the delay.

Knock on's don't exist following weather related delays to a previous flight. Under some circumstances they can, such as ATC problems or closure of a airport trapping the aircraft, but not in your case.

Further, the draft guidelines, to which they refer, have been rubbished, ironically, in the court case they also refer to in October 2014. They have no basis in court and carry no weight at all, it's all confusing waffle to put you off. If you look back at previous posts you will find that exactly the same letter has also been sent to other claimants, it's just a stock letter.

Have a read of Vaubans guide, details just below here and keep going.

Good luck.

PomBear

Tyzap makes an excellent point. Draft guidelines are never considered when interpreting a statute. There are various ‘aids to construction’ that a judge may use, and draft guidelines are most definitely excluded. So you can ignore every single point they have made about them.

JPears

Oops should have read the post bit more carefully. 26 HR delay? Almost no excuse possible that is an EC. Unless there was an airport closure or ATC restrictions for the majority of that time.

NoviceAngel

Hi PaulaW,

Ill just throw in my little bit, I agree with Tyzap and PomBear, I believe you do have a case, Jet2 recently paid out of Court to settle my cases which were due to expected bad weather on a preceding flight.

The Blanche CoA appeal early next year will hopefully make the waters around knock on weather delays a little clearer, so you might want to hold off a claim until then ? Remember you have 6 years to claim (5 in Scotland) so no immediate rush. If you want to read about the Blanche appeal you can do so on this page https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4384709/flight-delay-and-cancellation-compensation-easyjet-only&page=147

Whatever you decide we'll help you here, but I don't think this will be a straightforward easy claim, get ready for a fight!

Cheers,

NoviceAngel