Flight delay and cancellation compensation, KLM/AF ONLY

syddarthur

Hello I've posted before about my 12 delay in Joberg back on 15/9/07. I finally heard back from KLM who say they only deal with complaints going back 2 years! Do you know if they have one of these EU compensation forms on their website that you can claim on? I have been writing to them since 2007 and received a £50 klm voucher which was never used. I only have a few months left before the 6 years is up so wondering what I should do next? Any help appreciated. Many thanks Sydd

syddarthur

Also I don't have any of the flight details. I've tried searching on "flightstats" without success. The flight was supposed to leave Joberg on 15/9/07 but didn't go till 16/9/07 and got in about 10pm (think it was Heathrow). If anyone can find out flight nos, times etc would really help my claim. Cheers

Caz3121

syddarthur wrote: »

Hello I've posted before about my 12 delay in Joberg back on 15/9/07. I finally heard back from KLM who say they only deal with complaints going back 2 years! Do you know if they have one of these EU compensation forms on their website that you can claim on? I have been writing to them since 2007 and received a £50 klm voucher which was never used. I only have a few months left before the 6 years is up so wondering what I should do next? Any help appreciated. Many thanks Sydd

Did you actually find your flight details then?
From your earlier posts and the flightstats info, it was the SA Airlines flight that was delayed about 14 hours and the KLM flights showed no delays
Yet you had been given KLM vouchers so assumed you were on a KLM flight....did you find your flight numbers and confirm the delay?

kuku104

kuku104 wrote: »

Hi,

I was supposed to fly AF via Paris to Johannesburg on 10/05/13. When i got to boarding gate for the flight to Paris, i found out (by overhearing someone else complain rather than a notice from the airline) that the flight to JNB was delayed by over 9 hrs meaning that I would have to spend overnight in Paris and take a day flight to JNB (effectively wasting the whole day).

I wrote to AF with the citing the standard EU regulations and requesting EUR 600 compensation. Below is their reply:-

"Having examined our records, I can see the flight concerned was delayed due to unexpected problems with the fire seal on engine 3. A technical issue like this, that is encountered unexpectedly, which presents itself beyond our scope of influence and is a threat to flight safety, can be regarded as an extraordinary circumstance and therefore is not one here there is an entitlement to compensation under EU regulations. Accordingly, I regret but have to respectfully decline your request for legal compensation on this occasion.
I can assure you that all reasonable measures were taken in order to minimise the impact of this delay, including contacting passenger in advance when and where possible, providing all care and assistance due and arranging alternative flights."


I have a couple of issues with their response and circumstances on the day:-
- I am no avaiation expert and therefore have no way of ascertaining whether the fire seal fault was extra ordinary or not. I intend to highlight the Bock case to notify them that techincal faults do not fall under the category of extraordinary. Does anyone know if this fault applies as extra ordinary?

- Scanning through my emails, i have found an email from them on the date of departure at 6.41pm (i was due to fly to Paris at 8.10pm) stating that the JNB flight was delayed. I had not actually seen this email, however, it means that when I checked in at approximately 6.30pm they knew that the flight was delayed and could concievably put me onto another flight e.g SAA.

- Weirdly enough, on 02 May i got an email from AF asking me to update my passport details on their site. When I looked on the site, the same flight that was significantly delayed was showing as "Cancelled". I called AF and asked them to confirm that the flight was definitely not cancelled the next day, they confirmed it on the phone, and i also requested an email confirmation (which they just sent an itinerary). I think that this is too coincidental.


Any advice on how i can take this further?

Any help much appreciated.

thanks

Hi - any help - anyone?

Vauban

kuku104 wrote: »

Hi - any help - anyone?

Read the FAQs on page on of this thread and then decide what you want to do next: take them to court yourself, appoint a no-win no-fee company to take this on for you (for about 30% of your award), or walk away. Lots of reading for you to do, I'm afraid, if you want to take further.

Hairy_Hogg

Hi all, I am currently in 'negotiation' with Air France.

August 2010 I had a flight from London - Paris - Bogota and then a return a week later on the same route, all business class.

There was a delay on the Paris to Bogota route on the way out as follows:

"flight delayed by 3 hours and 29 minutes after the aircraft returned to the parking stand due a technical issue with the angle of attack probe. A further delay was caused by the flight deck crew having reached the statutory work deadline and no alternative crew was available to operate the flight."

However Air France are saying "In both cases the crew had performed all the necessary checks and the aircraft were cleared to depart. The problems occurred shortly after the aircraft had pushed back from the stand and were therefore unexpected and entirely unforeseen. These are not situations where we can offer compensation according to EU Regulation 261"

On the way home the flight from Bogota to Paris was cancelled due to:

"returned to the parking stand shortly after pushback from the terminal after a problem of overheating was discovered in one of the engines"

They did not have the correct part to fix it so we were sent to a hotel and returned to the airport 24 hours later to get a flight, however we negotiated a flight via AF with Iberia as we were not sure they would fix the flight.

So far I have been offered a €600 flight voucher for the 24hour delayed return (as an act of good will as 'We confirm that the circumstances which caused this delay are considered 'extraordinary' according to the European Union regulation. As a result, I must respectfully decline your request to pay compensation. ') to use within 12 months. I went back and said I was not happy and would like a partial refund of the ticket price but was told that as I had accepted an alternative flight that would not happen however they would also credit 30,000 miles to my account

I have just gone back to them stating that I would like my compensation which I believe to €600 + €300 for the two times delay as a minimum please. All very civil and polite.

Am I on the right track please? Can I insist on cash not flight vouchers and should I also pursue the cost of the return ticket?

TIA for any pointers.

Mark2spark

Neither reasons provided are extraordinary in their origin, so yes you are on the right track.

Steviek_2

I have just issued MCOL for baggage not flight delay. I have today recd notice of intention to defend the whole action will post the result

Mr_Stroopwafel

Hi
Going by the table posted in the article, my flight length was well over 3500 km but the total delay was just under 3 hours. Therefore the compensation due is 300 euros per passenger, is that correct? The original flight was overbooked, hence I had to move onto another flight.

Thanks in advance

Caz3121

matt_h wrote: »

Hi
Going by the table posted in the article, my flight length was well over 3500 km but the total delay was just under 3 hours. Therefore the compensation due is 300 euros per passenger, is that correct? The original flight was overbooked, hence I had to move onto another flight.

Thanks in advance

there is no compensation for a delay of under 3 hours.
You need to read up on denied boarding rather than delay. Were you offered anything at the time...did they ask for volunteers?