Flight delay compensation, all other non-EU airlines

cjj77

Centipede100 wrote: »

Your main issue is that AM has no UK office at which service and enforcement of legal claims or enforcement action may be taken.

Secondly, although on the face of it, you have a good case as the delay appears to have been caused by a technical issue, the CAA has stated otherwise.

IMO even if you could get this into court, you may face an uphill battle to convince a judge of your claim.

You would be best advised to try a no win no fee solicitor as if they think you have a good case and believe thay can recover the money for you, that would be the best outcome for you. They may say that this is going to be too difficult or not worth their efforts so be guided by what they say.

Just to let you know. After a bit of break to have our first child, we decided to engage the services of a "no win no fee" solicitor to go into further battle on our claim from Air Mauritius.

After initially refusing to acknowldege the solicitors first 14 day letter, we have today heard that they have offered to settle at the full 600 euro / £495.00 GBP per person.

Clearly we will lose a proportion of this in fees but a victory is a victory nonetheless despite the findings of the CAA's investigation that there was no case to answer.

The mischeivous part of me wonders whether we could recover the lost monies we've had to give up for the solicitors fees from anyone!!

Thanks for the advice in the forum previously. My advice would be to continue with these claims if you believe you are correct, even if you get knocked back at the first hurdle.

Alan_Bowen

Last year a number of people were attempting, without success as far as I could tell, to claim compensation from Small Planet Airlines, much loved by Olympic Holidays amongst others. It appears that their Italian operation, SPA Italia has been forced out of business by the withdrawal of their licence to fly last Friday due to financial issues. The Lithuanian company of the same name says it was only a franchise operation, using an aircraft they, SPA ,had sub chartered to the Italian company but I expect similar action may occur in due course with the Lithuanian and Polish versions of SPA. Think carefully before expending money on claims. It seems SPA may own none of the aircraft they fly so what assets they do have may be very limited indeed.

David_e

cjj77 wrote: »

The mischeivous part of me wonders whether we could recover the lost monies we've had to give up for the solicitors fees from anyone!!

Wouldn't have thought so. Certainly not the airline as their liability is strictly as per the legislation - irrespective of whether you "share" it with a lawyer. Some posters have apparently been able to use the legal expenses cover from their household insurance but I'd imagine you couldn't do this retrospectively and also possibly not for a "success" fee as charged by no win no fee lawyers.

chipy_2

In 2009 I flew to Sydney on Qantas. Boarding was at the scheduled time, the flight take off was delayed, I do not know why.
We arrived in Singapore for a stop over and re-boarded.
Take off was delayed again for several hours due to a warning light being lit. The delay was such that the flight could not land at Sydney as it was too late in the evening. The flight was diverted to Melbourne and I was put up over night at Qantas's cost.
The next day I was flown to Sydney and arrived some 17 hours late.
What times should I enter in the standard letter.
Kate

Caz3121

Was your flight ticket one flight number LHR-SYD or was it 2 flights numbers on the one ticket ?
How later did your first flight arrive in Singapore?
With the single flight number eg QF2 I think you would have a better chance of a case unless the flight to Sin also arrived over 3 hours late

neilsedaka

Kate, if you are successful in obtaining compensation from Qantas, be aware that they will pay you in Australian dollars after having converted euros to dollars using an unfavourable exchange rate. When I received my claim Qantas did not offer me a choice to receive it in euros so you may wish to investigate if there is any way to receive euros, not dollars, but I suspect that you will have to accept dollars.

Qantas will then credit a credit card that you specify with the dollars, so if you don't already have one, obtain a credit card such as Halifax Clarity that has no foreign conversion fees or loading to avoid a double whammy. When my claim arrived as a credit on my Halifax Clarity card, Halifax on request transferred the pounds to one of my Halifax current accounts.

chipy_2

Hi
Caz3121:- thanks, the flight No was QF 32 on a single ticket, but the flight from Melbourne was a different one to that which left Heathrow.
neil sadaka:-thanks for that info, will try to take it into account if I get compo.
Kate

Caz3121

chipy wrote: »

Hi
Caz3121:- thanks, the flight No was QF 32 on a single ticket, but the flight from Melbourne was a different one to that which left Heathrow.

That is good news - I would suggest that in your correspondence you talk about delayed arrival of flight QF32 from London to Sydney which arrived at your final destination x hours late.
There is a chance that they could state that the affected flight was from outside the EU but I think you have a better case if you do not even mention Singapore in your letter

Scruffy1968

I am one of many that have suffered at the hands of Small Planet Airlines. I've done the writing to them, the so-called "review" by the CAA, the "reassessment" by SPA. Surprise, surprise, the same response, there were Extraordinary Circumstances that mean they have no liability.

I'm now looking into the Small Claims route, but as they only have offices in Poland and Lithuania, I don't think I can do this online, but have to use the handwritten form route.

As expected all parties have closed ranks (tour operator and abta along with the usual airline and CAA), but as the original holiday contract was executed in the uk, with flights within the EU, I can't see why the uk courts can't be used.

Has anyone out there tried this against this airline? I realise their recent comments regarding their Italian operations (allegedly only a minor investment), but if it is putting good money after bad through legal costs, I'd rather give it up now. However, as there were four of us on the flights out and return), it's a big amount and worth a claim!

Any views gratefully received!

Alan_Bowen

SPA ceased flying any planes from the UK at the end of October and closed their offices at Gatwick. They claimed they would be back this year but it would be interesting to see if anyone booking in the last month or so with Olympic Holidays have any reference to SPA as their carrier on their invoice. If they have no base here, no staff and no assets, enforcing a judgment in Lithuania could be an interesting problem, look back in this thread and someone last year said they had found an enforcement agency that would attempt to recover the money. It might be worth asking whether they had any success or not?