Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Virgin Atlantic ONLY

psarinuk

Hi, In line with most posters on here, my claim from Virgin has been declined with "an extraordinary circumstance" story cooked by Virgin.

In June 2009, the flight from Delhi to London was cancelled 12 hours after waiting at the airport before most of us were transferred to BA flight.

I sent the EU claim form in Nov 2011 (highlighted through MSE weekly email). Took a few calls to get confirmation from VA and got a reference number, a result promised in 6-10 weeks. A few calls later, got this disappointing letter from VA yesterday (took them about 6 months).
I've unconfirmed reports of other customers on this flight getting 25K miles due to this delay + cancellation fiasco.

Confused about the next step. Advice on this thread is a letter threatening a court action with payment within 14 days.
Advice from Martin's article is "If you're unhappy with the response you get from the airline, you may be able to take up your complaint with the UK's regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)"

Please advise. Thanks in advance..

Vauban

psarinuk wrote: »

Hi, In line with most posters on here, my claim from Virgin has been declined with "an extraordinary circumstance" story cooked by Virgin.

In June 2009, the flight from Delhi to London was cancelled 12 hours after waiting at the airport before most of us were transferred to BA flight.

I sent the EU claim form in Nov 2011 (highlighted through MSE weekly email). Took a few calls to get confirmation from VA and got a reference number, a result promised in 6-10 weeks. A few calls later, got this disappointing letter from VA yesterday (took them about 6 months).
I've unconfirmed reports of other customers on this flight getting 25K miles due to this delay + cancellation fiasco.

Confused about the next step. Advice on this thread is a letter threatening a court action with payment within 14 days.
Advice from Martin's article is "If you're unhappy with the response you get from the airline, you may be able to take up your complaint with the UK's regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)"

Please advise. Thanks in advance..

Suggest first step is to read the FAQs on page one of this thread, and all the links therein. This will guide you as to next steps.

You can go to the CAA if you like, but they will take many months to deal with your request (they've had mine since last year), and they can only offer an opinion - they can't compel an airline to pay up. Only court action will do this.

Why was your flight cancelled?

psarinuk

The flight was delayed initially when they found an issue and then took 2-3 hours to fix. Then the flight was turned back to taxi when they found another issue of number 2 pylon bleed leak indication on the plane when it was on runway (unforeseen technical issue as VA call it).
While awaiting this one to get fixed, the wait got longer and longer, eventually the flight was cancelled after 10 hours at the airport.

I've drafted a NBA now using template from first page. Do I send it to PO BOx 4525, Luton LU6 9QT?

Thx.

worriedwoman_2

I just wanted to thank everyone on here who has helped me so far!
I have submitted my money claim online form today and now I will cross everything, sit back and wait to see what happens next.
I am hoping that Virgin will send me a cheque before this reaches court!

kevstarkie

OK after some advise as Virgin have finally got back to me after about 20 weeks of waiting.

As expected they have rejected my claim on the grounds that the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances that were beyond their control and could not of been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

They then go on to say that my flight was delayed because of an unforeseen technical issue that came to light after departure. After take off it says the captain reported a smell of smoke and abnormal vibrations so as a precautionary measure we returned to Orlando.

Upon lading hey say their engineers began troubleshooting, they managed to identify the fault and started to fix the issue, however more time was needed to rectify the problem. After looking into all avenues they were left with no option but to delay the service overnight.

They then go on to say having looked through the engineers reports this particular issue had not been encountered or reported on the aircraft's previous sector, they also state that the aircraft did take off safely after all preliminary departure checks had been carried out with no cause for concern.

They then finish by saying it would be an intolerable sacrifice for them to keep a spare aircraft as well as a stand by crew in the rare chance that they would be used.

So I'm asking for advise on what to do next if at all but by reading that I say how can it be extraordinary circumstances out of their control if they then go on to admit it was a problem with their aircraft? Also i get their point about a spare aircraft and crew but after the overnight stay it was still about 24hrs late leaving the second time, I know that an aircfrat flies in earlier than the evening return flight so why did we have to wait even longer to leave? Whats everyones thoughts and advise please?

From doing more reading in last hour or so, am I right in thinking I should send a NBA letter, then 14 days after that fill in the MCOL form and go from there?

moments_of_sanity

Evening All, we have heard back from Virgin and they have declined our claim. Here is the reason.......

'In your particular case, the flight was delayed due to unexpected damage which came to light during the maintenance and safety checks (apparently one of the panels had come loose) carried out prior to departure. Our engineers were working hard to ensure we were able to continue with your service, albeit with a delay. Repairing the damage to the body fairing belly panel required extensive work and time which ultimately led to the delay you faced.

This could not have been anticipated or foreseen, no compensation is due. In addition, delays stemming from events which by their nature or origin are not inherent in the normal exercise of our flying activity and are beyond our actual control are exempt from compensation'.

Is it going to be possible to take this any further or are we on a loosing streak?

IanHarris

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

Evening All, we have heard back from Virgin and they have declined our claim. Here is the reason.......

'In your particular case, the flight was delayed due to unexpected damage which came to light during the maintenance and safety checks (apparently one of the panels had come loose) carried out prior to departure. Our engineers were working hard to ensure we were able to continue with your service, albeit with a delay. Repairing the damage to the body fairing belly panel required extensive work and time which ultimately led to the delay you faced.

This could not have been anticipated or foreseen, no compensation is due. In addition, delays stemming from events which by their nature or origin are not inherent in the normal exercise of our flying activity and are beyond our actual control are exempt from compensation'.

Is it going to be possible to take this any further or are we on a loosing streak?

Hi. Can I ask what flight you were on? I have received my letter from Virgin today quoting exactly the same 'extraordinary circumstances'. They also sent me two further letters for other claimants on my flight VS0016 Orlando to Gatwick on 26 october 2008 which I will duly be sending on.

By the sound of things this is either a more common problem then they suggest or there will be quite a few of us on that flight looking to take the case further.

moments_of_sanity

IanHarris wrote: »

Hi. Can I ask what flight you were on? I have received my letter from Virgin today quoting exactly the same 'extraordinary circumstances'. They also sent me two further letters for other claimants on my flight VS0016 Orlando to Gatwick on 26 october 2008 which I will duly be sending on.

By the sound of things this is either a more common problem then they suggest or there will be quite a few of us on that flight looking to take the case further.

Hi, we were on flight number VS015 on the 23 October 2008, we claimed for 4 flights as our family went and they all got the same letters. Just not sure where to go from here?

Zldh

Zldh wrote: »

I have submitted a claim for cancellation of this flight. Originally delayed on the day, then cancelled and went the next day. Overnight accommodation provided by Virgin at the time. Lost a day of our holiday in Florida.

Two different reasons provided for cancellation: 1) inbound flight to Gatwick hit by lightning
2) catering truck hit plane before it even started it's inbound flight to Gatwick. However upon inspection at Gatwick, they did not feel it safe to fly us out to Florida.

Either way, although exceptional circumstances, neither reason relate to our actual flight and Virgin were well aware of the issue before the inbound plane arrived at Gatwick.

Flight stats clealy shows the flight as cancelled.

Not feeling positive about Virgin's response having seen this thread. However, will let you low how we get on!

I have now received the expected extraordinary circumstances letter. Previous flight hit by a catering truck caused our cancellation and delays of other flights for several days. Taking it to the next step now. Going down the no win no fee route as if successful, some compensation is better than none.

IanHarris

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

Hi, we were on flight number VS015 on the 23 October 2008, we claimed for 4 flights as our family went and they all got the same letters. Just not sure where to go from here?

In that case I'm thinking we may have good grounds to argue their decision.

In refusing to pay my claim for compensation on Flight VS16 because of damage to the body fairing belly panel on a previous flight from Gatwick (VS15 that Flightstats show arrived 238 minutes late), and by sending you the same excuse for a delayed flight 3 days earlier I would presume that Virgin are now acknowledging that this is actually a common problem? Twice in the period of 3 days would suggest that this should either be considered for regular maintenance or there are insufficient safety measures in place to stop the damage occuring in the first place, therefore this is not an extraordinary circumstance.

Thanks to Virgins inability to correctly post their responses via Royal Mail I now know of 4 claimants on my flight plus the 4 for your family all due to the same problem.

Does anyone else believe we are right to refuse Virgins judgement? If so, what is the best way forward? Do we send our complaint back to Virgin or go straight to small claims via a 14 day NBA?