Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Virgin Atlantic ONLY

Khouseago1

Hi
My husband and I were 2 of the passengers stranded at JFK New York airport overnight on Monday. We were kept on the plane for 6 hours (I believe 3 hours is the max allowed?), attempted the runway twice, the 1st time a passenger was taken off ill, the 2nd they claimed there was a technical fault. We were made to sleep on the floor of the airport, no hotels were apparently available and no cot beds (I should add I'm 24 weeks pregnant). We were given meal vouchers but very little was open. We were lucky in that the snow cleared quicker than expected so we flew 24 hours later. My main issues with our experience was being kept on the plane for 6 hours, the lack of communication from Virgin, and not being given a hotel or bed to sleep on (to be fair the roads were closed so couldn't get to a hotel anyway. The latter was more the airports fault than Virgins. Any advice on what to do now - do we have a valid claim considering most of the issue stemmed from the snow?! Thanks!

NoviceAngel

hmmm, well technical faults with the aircraft are NOT a valid reason not to pay under EC261 but weather problems ARE, start by reading Vaubans guide, that will give you a better understanding.

Tyzap

Khouseago1 wrote: »

Hi
My husband and I were 2 of the passengers stranded at JFK New York airport overnight on Monday. We were made to sleep on the floor of the airport, no hotels were apparently available and no cot beds (I should add I'm 24 weeks pregnant).Thanks!

Hi, was it your husband I heard on radio 5 in a live interview from JFK?

NoviceAngel

Khouseago1 wrote: »

Any advice on what to do now - do we have a valid claim considering most of the issue stemmed from the snow?! Thanks!

I thought I would come back to this and take a closer look, the problem you have is that the 1st delay the passenger becoming ill, they will successfully say that that's an EC, totally outside of their control.

The second delay, looks like you have a claim, but then the snow creates an issue, I'm sure the airlines defence will be we were delayed an hour because of the technical problem with the aircraft, but further delayed by 23 hours due to the snow, which is of course a genuine EC, you would have to prove that the majority of the delay was down mainly to the technical problem and that would be very tough, so I doubt you will have a successful claim, and that's really unfortunate because it sounds like you had an horrendous ordeal.

Sorry,

NoviceAngel

EDIT ~ I suppose you could argue that the technical delay, had a knock on effect, ... If the plane had left on time, you would not have been delayed by the snow, that's the best I can come up with.....

oafcmetty

So, today has been a bad day. Supposed to fly VA out of manchester to LHR, then onto miami.

Original flight was 1030, but with the snow up here the airport was closed at 1020. The Mcr to lhr flight was pushed back to 1430, meaning a missed connection. As an alternative Virgin booked me onto the (also delayed) direct flight to Orlando (meaning a self funded 4 hr drive on the other end).

Anyway this flight finally started boarding at 1600ish, but we're still sat on the apron and have been told the flight is now cancelled as de-icing the plane failed. They've served us a meal (bizarre) and are having the plane towed back to a gate (we were bussed to it originally but apparently it's too dangerous to do that back to the terminal).

Any ideas what they'll offer me back at the terminal and any advice on what I should/shouldn't accept? I'm only out in Florida for a few nights on a friend's stag do - supposed to be flying back Monday.

oafcmetty

Oh and yes, I have travel insurance through prudential.

onlygoingforward

To am still stranded at Manchester airport after the flight to Orlando didn't happen yesterday, we were treated pretty badly and they counted a cold dry half a plane meal as sufficient.

Offered a £5 voucher at 1.pm - flight should have left at 11.15am. Then nothing til a poor airline meal of rice and chicken and half a cup of water. We then left the plane and finally got to a hotel in Liverpool at 10.30pm this was the first chance to get a drink although this was not complimentary.

I was very dehydrated after this event. We are now at the airport again and it is now delayed as no food on board...

I have missed a day in luxury villa booked for sisters 50th and no idea if car hire still available at this point.

I booked via netflights onto a virgin flight so is it possible to get some form of compensation for this it is now over 24 hours delayed.

Thanks

Tyzap

onlygoingforward wrote: »

To am still stranded at Manchester airport after the flight to Orlando didn't happen yesterday, we were treated pretty badly and they counted a cold dry half a plane meal as sufficient.

Offered a £5 voucher at 1.pm - flight should have left at 11.15am. Then nothing til a poor airline meal of rice and chicken and half a cup of water. We then left the plane and finally got to a hotel in Liverpool at 10.30pm this was the first chance to get a drink although this was not complimentary.

I was very dehydrated after this event. We are now at the airport again and it is now delayed as no food on board...

I have missed a day in luxury villa booked for sisters 50th and no idea if car hire still available at this point.

I booked via netflights onto a virgin flight so is it possible to get some form of compensation for this it is now over 24 hours delayed.

Thanks

You're caught up in a pretty difficult situation, I'm only six mile from Manchester Airport so I know how bad the weather has been.

The exceptional weather counts as an extraordinary circumstance so you are not due EC261/2004 compensation.

However, all is not quite lost. The airline owes you a duty of care, meaning they should supply you with meals and soft drinks at the appropriate times, offer you a phone call or two, supply a hotel for any overnight stay etc. Please read Vaubans superb guide for more details.

Most delay insurances kick in at a min 24 hour delay so take a look at you policy details.

Good luck.

Caz3121

re the cancellation yesterday, this was obviously due to the weather, the airport closure and the resulting backlogs so there would be no compensation as such
re duty of care and meals etc. If you had to purchase refreshments as they were not available to you then you should be reimbursed by sending receipts in (I assume you mean non-alcoholic drinks, I would suspect that alcohol would not be reimbursed)
Is the flight today the one that was scheduled to go out today or an additional flight?...you may be due compensation if it was the one scheduled for today if it ends up delayed over 3 hours due to the food not being loaded

edit: although looking at the Manchester airport departures for today it looks like everything so far has been delayed (some cancelled) so I assume the weather is still having an effect

Capi2649

Hi
After some advice that I hope someone can provide.
I have lodged a claim for flight compensation with Virgin Atlantic before Christmas using their claim form and I haven’t heard anything back from them as yet. Any advice on the next step as its now over the 28 days ?
Also any advice if I have a good claim from 2012 on the manchester to Orlando flight , we were delayed by 6 hrs because the incoming flight went to birmingham as it was diverted and the crew had to go from Manchester to Birmingham to get the plane and then had to wait for another crew as they would have been out of hours Again . Are they likely to claim extraordinary circumstances? It was claimed the plane was diverted due to weather however no other flights were affected and arrived and left on time that day?
Any advice would be appreciated