Flight delay and cancellation compensation, KLM/AF ONLY

Mark2spark

mrsyorkie wrote: »

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I've read the FAQ's and from my understanding you try the airline then the CAA. I've tried the airline and was earlier told not to bother with the CAA. My understanding is that the airlines can't use technical faults as an excuse not to pay up, as it expected they would have the parts and people available to be able to sort any problems as per their operations and its only really things such as the weather that you can't claim for. I don't expect to be spoonfed and would go through a no win no fee company if that was the case, but please can you let me know if I'm at least on the right track?

Yes you are on the right track, and the current advice on this forum from the more experienced posters is to discount the CAA. One because they are useless, and Two because they are taking over 6 months just to reply to you.
So go ahead and put them on notice of impending court action now. You'll have months to gather more evidence yet whilst waiting for a hearing date anyway.

ssusie711

hello
Hope you can help .I have started a cliam with klm .I travelled with a party of 5 from newcastle to boston via amaterdam.The first flight was delayed which meant we have missed our connection and were rerouted via paris to boston arriving 6 hours late.KLm have accepted flight was delayed but are asking for all copies of boarding passes .I only have a few of the boarding cards but full copies of tickets and document issued by KLM ticketing advising of rerouting .Klm just keep asking for the passes and i am not sure how to proceed.
susan
flight detail july 2009

romanby1

ssusie711 wrote: »

hello
Hope you can help .I have started a cliam with klm .I travelled with a party of 5 from newcastle to boston via amaterdam.The first flight was delayed which meant we have missed our connection and were rerouted via paris to boston arriving 6 hours late.KLm have accepted flight was delayed but are asking for all copies of boarding passes .I only have a few of the boarding cards but full copies of tickets and document issued by KLM ticketing advising of rerouting .Klm just keep asking for the passes and i am not sure how to proceed.
susan
flight detail july 2009

I suggest you photocopy all the documentation you have and send it with a NBA letter with a 14-21 day satisfactory responce time or you will be issueing proceedings.
You know you were on the flights it is up to them to produce evidence you were not. Your names etc will be on the flight manifest. Also were you given tokens etc for food and beverages, (non alcoholic) you should have been, if not have you got the receipts.

ssusie711

romanby1 wrote: »

I suggest you photocopy all the documentation you have and send it with a NBA letter with a 14-21 day satisfactory responce time or you will be issueing proceedings.
You know you were on the flights it is up to them to produce evidence you were not. Your names etc will be on the flight manifest. Also were you given tokens etc for food and beverages, (non alcoholic) you should have been, if not have you got the receipts.

HI
thanks for such a quick response don't have anything re food and beverages remember being given a bottle of water each which was prompltly taken off us as we moved through the check in !Would be happy just to get compensation for flights so I will go ahead with the NBA letter felt they were just dragging it out .
thanks for the advice.well post how I get on

Asbogirl

Hello, brand new forumite (but long time reader/follower of MSE).
My problem is getting a reply from Air France - I submitted claim by email from their website on 15 June, received an automated acknowledgment suggesting a reply would be forthcoming within 10 days, followed it up, got another automated acknowledgment. A comment on their FB page more than a fortnight ago got an immediate response, requesting the reference number: this reference number has now been sent twice on their FB page but I am getting the Gallic cold shoulder!
Perhaps they think I should feel honoured to have got to spend a day and a night in a cruddy airport hotel in Dublin before being flown back to Heathrow the next day to connect with a BA flight to Atlanta as they did not have anything for at least 3 days! I am not sure whether it was fun or frustrating to fly over my house 30 something hours after I had left it, to attempt the whole journey again from scratch.....:mad:
Anyone else experiencing such delay (which is significantly, and somewhat ironically, longer than the flight delay)?

Mark2spark

Write back and put them on notice that you'll go to court if they don't reply in 14 days, - then do it.

Shoestringg

I and my wife booked a three-part KLM flight package in January 2012 - Norwich to Amsterdam, AMS to Minneapolis St Paul and MSP to Phoenix. The first leg was fine but the scheduled departure time of 10.45am from AMS was missed by 36 minutes, meaning I and my wife were too late for our 2.25pm connection in MSP. We were transferred to a later flight and therefore arrived over three hours late in PHX.

The scheduled flight length was 8720kilometres.


KLM rejected my claim saying the flight delay was a result of "air traffic congestion at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport" which it classed as "extraordinary circumstances".

That is something which I am not in a position to challenge - or can I?

Vauban

Shoestringg wrote: »

I and my wife booked a three-part KLM flight package in January 2012 - Norwich to Amsterdam, AMS to Minneapolis St Paul and MSP to Phoenix. The first leg was fine but the scheduled departure time of 10.45am from AMS was missed by 36 minutes, meaning I and my wife were too late for our 2.25pm connection in MSP. We were transferred to a later flight and therefore arrived over three hours late in PHX.

The scheduled flight length was 8720kilometres.


KLM rejected my claim saying the flight delay was a result of "air traffic congestion at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport" which it classed as "extraordinary circumstances".

That is something which I am not in a position to challenge - or can I?

Have a look at flightstats and see if other flights were delayed that day. But to be honest, a half hour delay must have meant your connection time was needlessly tight. Not sure a judge would be sympathetic.

Shoestringg

Thanks for advice. In fact there was a scheduled layover of 1hr 25min - but immigration at MSP was very slow, which meant those 36 minutes were critical.

Shoestringg

Vauban wrote: »

Have a look at flightstats and see if other flights were delayed that day. But to be honest, a half hour delay must have meant your connection time was needlessly tight. Not sure a judge would be sympathetic.

Thanks for your advice. I've checked the records which show that 240 passenger aircraft departed from Schiphol on the morning in question. Of those just 20 flights arrived late at their destination. Only 10 of those delays were of 30 minutes or more. And of those, just three (including ours) were long-haul flights.
As far as the layover was concerned it was scheduled to be 1hr 25min - but immigration at MSP was very slow, which meant those 36 minutes were critical.