Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Virgin Atlantic ONLY

Mark2spark

You can still claim but you don't have any legal recourse if they say no.
Which is what they have done.

Joolz2308

Mark2spark - my claim for 3 passengers is from April 2007 (so I'm close to the time limit) for a flight that was 5 hours and 12 minutes late. I've filled in the EU Compensation Forms and received replies from Virgin on 23 January stating I'd get a response from them in 6-12 weeks. I intended to do a letter before action this week giving them 14 days to reply and then commence court proceedings in the middle of March - do you think that time frame is too tight to get things issued before the 6 year deadline?

Many thanks for any advice!

Joolz2308

I've already registered all my details with MCOL and created an account so that I am ready to go when needed. I'll send the letter tomorrow. Thanks Centipede100, much appreciated.

Mark2spark

Yes, don't hang about. 14 days notice to Virgin is all that's required, it's the court timeframe that's important, not Virgins timeframe.

worriedwoman_2

I think I have a pretty straight forward claim, but after first writing the template letter to Virgin, and then filling in their claim form I have received a reply stating that they have declined my claim.
Their response is that my flight was delayed due to technical problems from outside the standard manufacturers maintenance manual! Due to damage to the undercarriage door, ie accidental damage.
However, when I complained to Virgin back in September, my response from them quotes:
"the aircraft that was scheduled to operate your flight encountered an unexpected technical problem on a previous service and had to undergo immediate repair upon arrival in to London Gatwick. After much troubleshooting and investigatory work, our engineers determined that the repair would be quite lengthily due to the nature of the damage.
The delay was further compounded by the fact that our flight crew would have exceeded their legal duty hours if they had proceeded with the flight upon repair. In order to satisfy the legalities of crew working hours and minimum rest periods, we were left with no option but to delay your flight overnight. "
I would have thought that the answer they gave me re the crew working over their legal hours is a good reason that they should compensate me. Am I right, and what do I do now?
Thanks for reading this

darkfox81

I have just been rejected for compensation (for a 24 hour delay) by Virgin Atlantic (Antigua to Gatwick Nov 11) because they say the aircraft had a problem with the number 1 engine (the cause therefore was extraordinary circumstances, which were beyond the actual control of Virgin Atlantic and could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken).

Is this a valid excuse to be refusing compensation and should I pursue this further?!

Mark2spark

darkfox81 wrote: »

I have just been rejected for compensation (for a 24 hour delay) by Virgin Atlantic (Antigua to Gatwick Nov 11) because they say the aircraft had a problem with the number 1 engine (the cause therefore was extraordinary circumstances, which were beyond the actual control of Virgin Atlantic and could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken).

Is this a valid excuse to be refusing compensation and should I pursue this further?!

No it's not valid. 14 days NBA letter next, template in the FAQ's.

Mark2spark

worriedwoman wrote: »

I think I have a pretty straight forward claim, but after first writing the template letter to Virgin, and then filling in their claim form I have received a reply stating that they have declined my claim.
Their response is that my flight was delayed due to technical problems from outside the standard manufacturers maintenance manual! Due to damage to the undercarriage door, ie accidental damage.
However, when I complained to Virgin back in September, my response from them quotes:
"the aircraft that was scheduled to operate your flight encountered an unexpected technical problem on a previous service and had to undergo immediate repair upon arrival in to London Gatwick. After much troubleshooting and investigatory work, our engineers determined that the repair would be quite lengthily due to the nature of the damage.
The delay was further compounded by the fact that our flight crew would have exceeded their legal duty hours if they had proceeded with the flight upon repair. In order to satisfy the legalities of crew working hours and minimum rest periods, we were left with no option but to delay your flight overnight. "
I would have thought that the answer they gave me re the crew working over their legal hours is a good reason that they should compensate me. Am I right, and what do I do now?
Thanks for reading this

Hi, well it's pretty much a standard denial in the hope that you'll go away. A tech issue on a previous flight isn't regarded as an Extraordinary Circumstance, and a crew being out of hours certainly isn't! Gatwick is a hub for Virgin and it's perfectly within their control to source a replacement crew.
If you look at the Wallentin-Hermann judgement:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/celex.jsf?celex=62007CJ0549&lang1=en&type=NOT&ancre=
at paragraph 11 you'll see that a complex engine problem was the fault, not dissimilar to your case.
The court then referred to the High Court a question posed at 14 (1), which basically asked if this type of fault is an EC.
The court clearly rules, in the judgement at the bottom, that technical issues such as those described, are not EC's, and that compensation should be paid.
I'm not a lawyer but that's my take on it.
Mark.

holidayhelp_2

Not sure if this has just got overlooked or whether anyone can give us advice on this thread? Thank you

holidayhelp wrote: »

Hi. We booked a Virgin flight (airmiles + tax etc) in August 2012 for a holiday this April. We booked our hotel separately through LowCostHolidays on the same day. Unfortunately we had an email in December from Virgin saying our flight had been cancelled but they had put us on a flight for the next day. We immediately contacted our travel agent who informed us we had to pay over £400 to move our booking just one day ahead. We paid this as we had no other option. When we checked out our new flight with Virgin online the original flight was still there! We have written to Virgin asking for an explanation for this and they have said it's a different flight on the original day but they can put us back on it. Obviously this doesn't help us as we have already paid to change the day. Virgin say we should contact our insurance but we have annual insurance and the policy last year only covered Europe and we are flying to the Caribbean. We bought new insurance in January to cover us for any further problems but is there anything we can do now to recover our £400 from Virgin? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Mark2spark

It's not really a flight delay compensation question holidayhelp, might be better off reposting in the main section. Or trip advisor air travel section.