Delay Compensation..... How much to claim for ???

curtlyb

I was wondering if anyone had some advice as to how much compensation would be a realistic amount to claim for after a delayed flight, i'm prepared to take legal action through a small claims action.
The facts....
Our flight was delayed by 6 1/2 hours (from a EU airport, EU airline and over 3500km)
After five hours the airline refused any food or drink vouchers because if they issued them it might delay the flight any further (:rolleyes: )
The handling agent admitted the airlines 2007 leased planes for the summer hadn't arrived and wouldn't be for three weeks
He also admitted that, due to low passenger numbers, the airline had merged two flights (one from a different uk airport with ours) which had caused the delay and that this was known to be happening the week before.

Obviously i had to purchase food totalling about £20 for the four of us (2x children less than 5yrs old) which i have receipts for but i am really looking for some additional compensation for the inconvenience and also as we were lied to on numerous occasions, refused our entitled food vouchers and the airline knew the delay would take place several days earlier but didn't pass this information on. Would an additional amount of £40 per person be realistic for a problem that could have been avoided ????????

Just to reiterate i have no problem with airlines delaying flights for technical, safety or reasons out of their control but logistical reasons which are known about days before hand are disgraceful in my opinion.

any thoughts or advice would be appreciated

bagand96

To be honest, under the EU Air Passenger rights you were only entitled to free refreshments, and a hotel room if it was a night flight. Therefore, as a start, obviously send your receipts for food and claim that.

However, not sure if you will be entitled to anything else. With all due respect to the handling agents, they can say anything at the time, it doesn't actually mean its true and I doubt that it would stand up in any courtroom, as the individual is not employed by the airline. I doubt he was actually lieing to you, regards leased aircraft and combined flight, but when saying they knew it was happening a week before, they surely must be referring to the flight combining and not the delay? I have never known airlines know of six hour delays days before the flight.

Like I said, claim for the food, but not sure whether you are entitled to anything else?! Having read the EU rules thats how I understand it, unless anyone else knows more...

curtlyb

bagand96 wrote: »

but when saying they knew it was happening a week before, they surely must be referring to the flight combining and not the delay? I have never known airlines know of six hour delays days before the flight.

Our plane was on the ground at the specified take-off time, He said that they use the original take-off slot to send the plane to the other uk airport and then it gets turned around back to our airport they then get a new slot. They'd done this on the previous four scheduled flights so they've been very clever logistically in doing this, why the hell couldn't they just admit what they were doing so that everyone could take this into account when commencing travel to the airport ???

bagand96

curtlyb wrote: »

Our plane was on the ground at the specified take-off time, He said that they use the original take-off slot to send the plane to the other uk airport and then it gets turned around back to our airport they then get a new slot. They'd done this on the previous four scheduled flights so they've been very clever logistically in doing this, why the hell couldn't they just admit what they were doing so that everyone could take this into account when commencing travel to the airport ???

I still don't understand why they would do that. It would make more sense to put you all on the plane at airport A, send it to airport B to collect everyone else, and then send it to its destination. The way you have been told adds an extra flight to the equation, and it seems strange any airline would do that, on a cost basis alone. But, obviously I cannot comment as I wasn't there and don't know the facts. There may well have been other factors involved.

I would advise writing to the airline and asking for an explanation for your delay. Airlines are usually fairly good at providing this, and it will be interesting to see their response. I am not accusing the handling agent of lieing, as I said, but it doesn't mean his account is neccesarily refelects exactly what was happening. Having worked as a flight dispatcher for a handling agent, I know delay situations can be very tough. When you have a plane load of people who are very annoyed at being delayed it leaves you in a difficult position. You have a duty to provide the passengers with details of the delay, and it makes it easier to tell them "something". However, giving them the full ins and outs of airline operations is not always an option. You usually had to reach a happy compromise. Then again, I did have colleagues who would quite happily feed the pax a jackanory tale, just to get them of their backs. :eek: Its not right, but did happen.

Like I said, phone or write to your airline and ask them what happened to see their side of the story.

curtlyb

I'll write to the airline about it, see what they've got to say...

I did a search two weeks before the flight (to try and get seat layouts for booking them) and i found a website that had detailed knowledge of the airlines fleets, there was a thread giving details of the B767's that my airline was expecting to get, from Icelandair, and they had good information on reg numbers, colour schemes and an employee who sent a photo of the first (and only) one to be delivered landing at Glasgow. The ground handling guy was non-commital at firstgiving fob stories but when i was polite and started talking 'technical' about the relevant B767's and their non-arrival he let his guard down and admitted the whole scenario, he said the week before it had been a 14hr delay due to picking up at two airports :eek: :eek: (confirmed to me by a returning passenger doing two weeks) and said he was embarassed to have to represent them.

The point of the whole thing is that the string of events did happen and that people are powerless to prevent it or get recompense for it, on our return flight half the plane was flying on, unexpectadly, to another uk airport, they again thought they were flying direct

Ok, all this conjecture is totally useless in a court but the whole thing stinks

bagand96

Has to be flyglobespan?! Much of their long haul flights are split loads from two airports, it has always been scheduled that way, not due to lack of bookings, thats how they operate.

The delay wouldn't have been due to that, lack of aircraft hasn't helped them, but they have also had some very bad luck with aircraft entering service and then going tech almost straight away. With such a tight fleet this has led to knock on delays accross the long haul flights.

I won't add much here, but PM me I can give you quite a bit of info, although it seems you know a fair bit anyway. Unfortunately, although I'm still not sure you'll get compo, as they'll say circumstances beyond our control etc etc (some of which is true)