Flight delay and cancellation compensation, KLM/AF ONLY

Lucy333

Hello, can I have some advice please?

I was due to travel to Marseille with AF on 23/2/18 (AF 6022)- two stage flight, from LHR to paris to marseille. At 10 pm the night before the flight I was sent a text to say that my flight from paris to marseille had been cancelled. There had been a strike by AF staff the previous days but they had on their website that it had been resolved on 22/2 ie the day before the flights.

As I was unable to contact anyone from AF at 10 in the evening, with no way of rebooking, and I urgently needed to get to Marseille for the 25/2, I booked an alternative flight with Lufthansa.

When I called AF in the morning, they told me I would be entitled to a full refund (£135).

I subsequently went on this website and saw that I might be entitled to compensation as the flight was cancelled despite the strike being over.
I contacted AF with this information and asked for the refund and compensation of 250euros.

They have finally got back to me and said that they will pay me the compensation of 250 euros but not made any mention of a refund of the flight that they offered. They also said in the email that they have not been able to give my email the in-depth attention that it deserves due to the exceptional volume of correspondence they have received. Interestingly the text they initially sent me regarding cancellation stated it was for operational reasons, however their email stated it was due to crew strike

Am I entitled to a refund as well? Or should I be happy that I have the 250euros supposedly coming my way (they've said it may take 3-4 weeks...!)

thank you for your advice

JPears

Crew strikes are not an exceptional circumstance.
You are due :
1. Compensation at Euro250 for short notice cancellation
and
2. a refund of your original KLM flight cost AND any additional you had to pay to Lufthansa for the re-routed flight.

Lucy333

Thanks J Pears.
SO I should write back to them and say I am entitled to the £136 refund, the difference between the lufthansa flight and AF (ie £111.30) as well as 250 euros compensation?

JPears

Yes. Download Vaubans guide.

Lucy333

Thanks - I've read the guide but couldn't find anything about the reimbursement and also refunding the cost difference for the alternative flights. Have written back to them now so hopefully they'll reply soon.

JPears

No, theres nothing about the additional cost reimbursement but the rules are contained within the regulation 261/2004.
Vauban's superb guide could do with a little update, but I think the Lord is till in winter hibernation under his nice hat.

singlo

I was stranded at Schiphol Airport for 2 and half days and two nights on the 8th Dec. KLM put me in the hotels for tow nights. They didn't give exact reasons other than weather conditions for the multiple delays and cancellations. I had to queue 6 hours every day for two days in Schiphol for rebooking the flights. I l travelled from London to Hong Kong on 7 Dec and only arrived late on 10th Dec. They lost my luggage for 10 days. I filed the compensation on the 10th Dec via Resolver and did not receive a single reply, even escalating the case to ADR in March. I phoned their UK customer service on the phone in Feb, they said my case file was deleted due to unknown reason and they would call me back. In March, no call was returned after one month. I called UK customer service in March and created a new file. Every time I called, they kept saying that they could not connect to the customer service in Holland as they are too busy. I called today and they said they have not looked into my claim even after 6 months. They have transferred me to the complain department and put me on the hold for 40 minutes. All they have said I will get a reply soon but didn't explain why my claim filed via Resolver was deleted. They have said they don't know why.


Now 6 months later, not a single reply about my claim. It seems the all the Resolver and ADR letters sent to KLM were useless. KLM simply ignored them completely. So far my experience with the KLM customer service is horrible. Please advice what to do.

NoviceAngel

singlo wrote: »

.......Now 6 months later, not a single reply about my claim. It seems the all the Resolver and ADR letters sent to KLM were useless. KLM simply ignored them completely. So far my experience with the KLM customer service is horrible. Please advice what to do.

A familiar story to most airlines I’m afraid, we don’t generally recommend CEDR but sending an NBA is the start, read Vaubans guide that explains everything- wether or not your entitled to any compensation depends on the reason for the delay. If you don’t think that weather affected your flight then issue the NBA and see what happens. Most airlines use weather as the cause of a delay because weather is a genuine EC - (Extraordinary Circumstance)

Vaubans guide explains it all.

jpsartre

KLM will not deal with claims through Resolver. I don't know why people use that anyway, just send them an email where you state you are claiming compensation for the delay under EU regulations. That said, if the delay was due to bad weather, you might struggle to get a payout. I don't know what an ADR letter is. You can file complaint with AviationADR but if you did you should have an email confirmation confirmation which allows you to look up the status of your complaint on the AviationADR website.

EDIT: @NoviceAngel: KLM uses AviationADR, not CEDR. Not saying they are any better but at least it's a free service so there's nothing lost (except time) by going through them.

NoviceAngel

jpsartre wrote: »

......

EDIT: @NoviceAngel: KLM uses AviationADR, not CEDR. Not saying they are any better but at least it's a free service so there's nothing lost (except time) by going through them.

Thanks for the correction, nothing wrong with using them if it’s free!