Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Virgin Atlantic ONLY

slimsladey

We have just received an answer back from Virgin Atlantic concerning a claim we made for flight VS075 25th April 2007 (Manchester to Orlando). The flight was delayed (in respect of arrival) just short of 6 hours and the reason given at the time was that the windscreen heater / demister was faulty and we had to wait for a replacement part to be driven up from HQ in London. We were told this was driven up by taxi !! My wife and I only received I believe £10 lunch vouchers each for the inconvenience.

As seems to be the consistent reply from Virgin, Extraordinary Circumstances was used to reject our claim;

"We regret to advise that we have declined your claim on the grounds that the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances which were beyond the actual control of Virgin Atlantic and which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measure had been taken.

In this particular instance the aircraft scheduled to operate your flight arrived into Manchester with reports of a burning smell in the flight deck. The aircraft was due to be prepared for your flight, however our engineers had to investigate the reports and they discovered a wiring fault supplying heat to the window in the flight deck. In order for your flight to be operated safely the window had to be completely replaced. As Manchester isn't a main hub of our operation a spare was sent from London Heathrow to Manchester. This resulted in the delay to flight VS75 on 25th April 2007"

We will now pursue this claim through the CAA but interestingly we have just watched Watchdog (8th May 20:00) which has reported on the fact that so many airlines are using the 'extraordinary circumstance' to reject claims. They had a Travel Lawyer present and he advised the following;

Extraordinary circumstance describes scenarios outside of the blame of the airline such as:

• An aircraft is hit by a plane and needs to land immediately
• 
  There is an onboard emergency (such as medical emergency) and then plane has to land immediately
• 
  There is a weather event such as the volcanic ash cloud of 2010 which grounds the aircraft

He went onto say that extraordinary circumstance does not include technical faults, the courts have made it clear that technical faults are things that airlines should expect and prepare for, they should have adequate maintenance and should have standby aircraft if an extraordinary circumstance occurs. He ended by saying that you should write direct to the airline and if you receive a dissatisfactory reply then put them on notice that you are going to issue proceedings and then go ahead and do so.

The programme also included a representative from the CAA who encouraged that rejected claimants should contact them to pursue, however it did sound as though they have no jurisdiction to force airlines to pay up.

Vauban

slimsladey wrote: »

We have just received an answer back from Virgin Atlantic concerning a claim we made for flight VS075 25th April 2007 (Manchester to Orlando). The flight was delayed (in respect of arrival) just short of 6 hours and the reason given at the time was that the windscreen heater / demister was faulty and we had to wait for a replacement part to be driven up from HQ in London. We were told this was driven up by taxi !! My wife and I only received I believe £10 lunch vouchers each for the inconvenience.

As seems to be the consistent reply from Virgin, Extraordinary Circumstances was used to reject our claim;

"We regret to advise that we have declined your claim on the grounds that the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances which were beyond the actual control of Virgin Atlantic and which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measure had been taken.

In this particular instance the aircraft scheduled to operate your flight arrived into Manchester with reports of a burning smell in the flight deck. The aircraft was due to be prepared for your flight, however our engineers had to investigate the reports and they discovered a wiring fault supplying heat to the window in the flight deck. In order for your flight to be operated safely the window had to be completely replaced. As Manchester isn't a main hub of our operation a spare was sent from London Heathrow to Manchester. This resulted in the delay to flight VS75 on 25th April 2007"

We will now pursue this claim through the CAA

I am afraid that your claim is now out of time. As the Watchdog legal expert said, you have six years from the date of the flight to bring a legal action. Your time ran out last month:(

Bj87

Just to put a spanner in the works virgin Atlantic are legally allowed upto 28days to reply to any correspondence sent to them

Lil_Me_2

IanHarris wrote: »

After reviewing my rejection letter from Virgin due to Extraordinary Circumstances and studying the excellent links and feedback on this thread am I correct in thinking that quoting a problem with the belly fairing panel on the previous flight as extraordinary circumstances should not apply to my flight (VS016 26/Oct/2008) that was effectively delayed as a consequence of the fault rather than being caused by the fault itself?

The Finnair Oyj v Timy Lassooy Case C-22/11, at point 37, states that;
" In addition, it is apparent from recital 15 in the preamble to Regulation No 261/2004 that ‘extraordinary circumstances’ may relate only to ‘a particular aircraft on a particular day’, which cannot apply to a passenger denied boarding because of the rescheduling of flights as a result of extraordinary circumstances affecting an earlier flight".

If this is the case, do I just need to respond to Virgin quoting the above as part of an NBA and await my cheque within the next few weeks or should I look to try and add further clauses from the judgements on the basis that they will try and wriggle their way out of things again?

Also, has anyone tried claiming interest on the compensation payments relative to when the flight occurred or are payments strictly capped at €600?

If you can wait a week I sent a follow up letter to Virgin last week, so should hear back soon. I think it's unlikely that they will pop the cheque in the post now, but I was willing to give it a go for the price of a stamp. I will let you know if it worked or not!

I've not tried to add on interest to the claim, and I doubt you could. If you'd claimed compensation in Nov 2008 for your flight then you might get away with it, but if you've just applied then I wouldn't even ask.

abeano

Hi,
I don't know if anyone has an idea of how the Virgin process works? I filled out their claim form that I downloaded from their website and completed it and sent it recorded delivery. My claim was for flights in 2008 where we were delayed by 4 1/2 hours.
I have today received two identical letters from Virgin (different reference numbers on each) stating that they are investigating our claims and will respond within the next 6-12 weeks.

Is this just a standard 'fobbing off' letter or does this mean they will settle the claim?

Thanks

IanHarris

abeano wrote: »

I have today received two identical letters from Virgin (different reference numbers on each) stating that they are investigating our claims and will respond within the next 6-12 weeks.

Is this just a standard 'fobbing off' letter or does this mean they will settle the claim?

Thanks

I presume there were two of you on the flight that you are claiming the compensation for? If this is the case then one letter should be addressed to each of you giving a unique case number.
This first letter is standard policy to acknowledge you are lodging a claim and from now on it will be strictly pot luck as to how quick you hear anything else. Some people seem to be lucky and get a reply or cheque within days but for most of us it seems that the 12 weeks will long pass before you hear anything again so prepare to be patient.
In the mean time I can suggest you digest lots of the other posts on this forum and see if you can gather any information from other people that may have been on your same flight or had similar reasons given for the delay as all of these things may be useful if you are quoted an extraordinary circumstance and need to take things further.

zippy99

I have got everything ready to complete my claim via MCOL but I was not sure which address to use for Virgin

I have read not to use a PO Box so did not want to use the one at the Dunstable address for EU claims - should I use their registered Crawley address

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

zippy99

Many thanks for the support in this matter.

I have now instigated court proceedings, paid the £80 fee and unlike other cases on here Virgin simply said it there was a fault that could not have been foreseen or prevented but gave no further insight or details as to what the fault was. Does anyone else find this odd?

Having issued an NBA on 12th April I received no response so have followed through with my intention to take action.

Will keep you updated.

Lil_Me_2

Centipede100 wrote: »

Interest may be claimed from the date of the delayed flight. The fact that the case may not have been brought to the legal system for a few years has no bearing on the matter.

Interesting!! Seems a little unfair on the airlines side. I know in my case my flight was in 2008, but I didn't claim until Oct 2012 (as I didn't realise I was entitled to!) so I wouldn't feel comfortable adding on interest too when it wasn't their fault that I took 4.5 years to claim.

I am feeling less tolerant to Virgin and their avoidance tactics though :cool:

Caribbean7

Please may I ask some advice from those of you who have been going through this process?

I have today received the standard letter from Virgin stating that my claim for a flight leaving LGW five and three quarters late has been declined due to the delay being caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond their control. Their explanation for the delay was that "the flight was delayed due to fuel contamination problems at Tobago airport. As we were not able to refuel in Tobago as is usual or flight plan and times had to be changed, to enable us to continue with this service and allow additional time for refueling in Grenada for the journey home."

May I have your input as to whether you think this is an extraordinary circumstance or whether I should continue with my NBA?

Many thanks to all of you for your posts which have helped enormously so far.