Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Virgin Atlantic ONLY

terriandaaron

my son had a 6 hour delay on his flight to san fransisco on 28th march, they actually took off then an engine failed, and although they could have flied with an engine down they was told they were turning back, they then had to locate another plane and wait while they fixed the entertainment uits and find a new slot to take off, all in all just over 6 hours, will we have a claim....this was with Virgin.

kerry13238

hi was anyone on flights vs27 on 28th october 2008 that was ment to leave at 11.15 that was delayed due to a problem with the plane so they had to replace itis this a good case?

Also on the 10th nov 2008 vs16 this one was also delayed it was due to a knock on effect of other flights having problems im sure it was delayed longer than flight stats says is this also a good case? also can i go straight to the small claims court or do i have to do the forms to virgin first as it looks like they are just saying no to everyone?

thank you for your help xx

Topgun20060

Hi. Have just come across this forum and a very interesting read it is too! I have two separate Virgin flights I am thinking of claiming compensation for. The first was flight VS028 from Orlando to Gatwick, which should have taken off on the 5/8/2010, but eventually took off some 23 hours later. We were told that either the day before, or two days before, our plane was on the ground in the West Indies somewhere, when a truck delivering the food drove into one of the engines. This necessitated a new engine being flown out and attached, and the knock on effect was that our flight was cancelled. From reading this thread I have decided that this does not come under "exceptional circumstances", so hopefully will be ok with this one.
The second one I'm not so sure about. It was flight VS043 from Gatwick to Las Vegas on 23/10/2012, which suffered a 207 minute delay, we were told because of damage caused by a bird strike as the plane was inbound to Gatwick from wherever it was coming from on the previous flight. Does that actually constitute "exceptional circumstances" do you think, or is that just Virgin's bad luck?
Also, just on the off chance, has anybody else on here claimed for either of these flights and if so with what result?
Thanks.

studentgti

Hi all

First of all a big thanks for all the information on this thread :beer:. I just thought I'd update people with my own claim and see if anyone is also claiming for the same flight.

VS3046 - 2/4/13 - Manchester to London (the route was only two days old) was cancelled due to a hydraulic leak on the braking system. Due to this cancellation, and the rebooking on to the later Manchester to London service, I was rebooked from my VS19 flight to San Francisco on to the VS24 service to LAX with an additional connection to SFO, resulting in me arriving at my final destination over 7 hours later than ticketed.

I posted my EU claim as per their form on my return (approx 12th April).

Received confirmation of receipt: 23/4/13

Received declined claim notice: 12/5/13

They stated the usual that the delay was extraordinary circs due to the delay being the result of “a technical problem 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”.

Obviously this doesn't fit with the Wallentin judgement, so I've just written my NBA (a modified version of the one on this thread that points to the specific excerpt from the judgement) and will post it tomorrow to the Crawley address.

I'll keep everyone updated with how I get on!

Welly+2

Has anyone had any success claiming for the 9 hour delay to VS0029 on 25 Oct 2008 from Gatwick to Barbados? I've just received the not unexpected rejection of claim letter on the grounds of extraordinary circumstances.

Apparantly our flight was 'delayed due to unexpected damage found during the maintenance and safety checks carried out prior to departure on a previous flight' (damage to the body fairing belly panel).. they go on to say ' as this could not have been anticipated or foreseen no compensation is due'.

It seems to me that if the damage was found prior to our aircrafts departure on a flight before our own, they cannot claim that it was unexpected damage that delayed our flight; by their own admission they knew about the damage at least one flight further back in our aircrafts travels and if I'm reading the letter correctly allowed the aircraft to fly after said damange had been discovered!

From reading this thread I gather my next step should be a 14 day NCA letter, can any one tell me if I need to submit one letter for each member of my party (myself and young daughter) or can both our details go on the one letter?

Great thread and thanks for all the detail and advice.

KillBetty

I'm just wondering why Virgin are answering some claims within weeks and others are taking months?

I submitted my claim form on the 3rd of March 2013 but after a month pasted without even an acknowledgement letter I decided to post a copy of the form on April 2nd. To date I haven't even received so much as an acknowledgement letter!

I have emailed Virgin customer services and again no response yet I see some people have applied after me yet have had their acknowledgement and response. Makes me wonder how Virgin are prioritising the claims because its defiantly not in the order they are received!

worriedwoman_2

hi
I have today received a letter from Northampton County Court telling me that Virgin have filed a defence to my claim against them.
I have been sent a Small Claims Directions Questionnaire to complete. I also have to decide if I want the case to be referred to the Small Claims Mediation Service (I don't think I do)
I was wondering if anyone else has received one of these? It says I need to file it with the court and serve copies on all other parties.
Virgin's defence says "The flight was scheduled to leave Gatwick at 11.25. It is admitted that due to an unforeseen problem caused by damage to the aircraft and which affected the safety of the aircraft, the flight was delayed and did not depart London Gatwick until 10.10 the following day."
Any comments/help please?
thank you

111KAB

worriedwoman wrote: »

hi
I have today received a letter from Northampton County Court telling me that Virgin have filed a defence to my claim against them.
I have been sent a Small Claims Directions Questionnaire to complete. I also have to decide if I want the case to be referred to the Small Claims Mediation Service (I don't think I do)
I was wondering if anyone else has received one of these? It says I need to file it with the court and serve copies on all other parties.
Virgin's defence says "The flight was scheduled to leave Gatwick at 11.25. It is admitted that due to an unforeseen problem caused by damage to the aircraft and which affected the safety of the aircraft, the flight was delayed and did not depart London Gatwick until 10.10 the following day."
Any comments/help please?
thank you

Standard response - tick YES to mediation. Serve means that you have to copy Virgin any relative correspondence. Final comment > sounds like a good case for you

Lawe

Going back a few pages, our flight was 352 minutes late on VS15 10th May 2012.

Already someone here had already tried to claim and since then I have claimed and received the extraordinary circumstances letter which refers to a previous service having an engine thrust reverser issue that would not stow.

Now I know that from an official tweet from VA that replied to my question on the day that the flight was delayed in Antigua.
Furthermore I am aware from some of my good aviation friends that G-VTOP was sent to cover VS15 from France. Also this evening I found out that the flight from Antigua was in fact cancelled.

If someone has two minutes, could they read the following NBA and see if it makes sense and if others wish to use then please do so as this made up from several letters posted here:

I have received you letter dated the 8th May 2013, the contents of which I note.

You wrote that that the flight was delayed owing to an unexpected technical problem on a previous service caused by an engine thrust reverser would not stow.

The ECJ has quite clearly ruled that technical problems are unlikely to be held as a valid defence of extraordinary circumstances to a compensation claim and this is further supported by the judgement in Wallentin-Hermann case. This is compounded by the fact that it was actually the flight from Antigua which caused our delay and again difficulties encountered on previous flights which then impact on the flight which we were scheduled to take are not covered by extraordinary circumstances.

You are clearly using extraordinary circumstances as a defence and I dispute that in this instance this is correct. As such I would request that you send me copies of the EU ruling which you feel detail that the circumstances above are not technical and inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of an airline, and are therefore covered by extraordinary circumstance.
I request that this information is received within 14 days of this letter if you wish to pursue this defence. Alternatively I request compensation in full within the same timescale.


Should you neither settle my claim in full nor provide a full defence to my claim within the above timescale, I reserve the right to issue legal proceedings without giving you further notice in writing.

Many thanks for your time.

111KAB

Lawe - sounds spot on to me but PM Centipede if you want to be 100% sure - enjoy the compensation :-)