Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

BeardySB

Thanks, i'll take the money and run then!

pineneedles

I was booked on the same Norwegian Air flight from Helsinki as REdwards (post 10556) on 17 July which was cancelled as a result of the Gatwick runway problems. I had a go contacting Norwegian through Resolver and got a response declining compensation and citing exceptional circumstances. However when I input the flight details into Botts & Co claim checker they seemed to think I had a claim.

Is it worth having a go? I don't really agree that the decision to cancel was out of Norwegian's control, when other flights that evening were able to either use the North runway or land at other UK airports. Also Norwegian's customer service was appalling throughout - they first told us they were setting up a replacement flight for the next day, this never materialised, but we weren't ever told it wasn't going to happen. By that time the earliest we could be booked onto another flight home was more than 48 hrs later and even then only by an indirect flight. The delay was therefore much longer and more stressful than it needed to be.

GipsyRacer

Bird Strike true or false?
I've just returned from Turkey. The outgoing Freebird flight was subject to a delay of over 6 hours. The ground agent cited "Operational Reasons" when asked why.

Having read Vauban's excellent guide, I raised an initial complaint via the airline's website, only to be met by a swift response claiming bird strike = exceptional circumstances = not liable.

A quick bit of Googling shows that recent court rulings have recently allowed airlines to claim bird strike as a fair excuse. A cynic may think it likely that armed with this knowledge, airlines will quickly trot out "bird strike" for every claim and hope that the customer will go away.

Questions in the hope that members have experience I cannot find on the net:-

1) How do we know that the "bird strike" was a genuine event?

2) If there is a real bird strike, what is a reasonable time for an inspection to take?

3) In this case, the "bird strike" was to a preceding flight (going to a different airport and not the incoming flight). This could be a case of knock-on. Is bird strike still an acceptable excuse?

Justice13075

Put your flight details into bottonline and then euclaim they will tell you if you are due compensation

zorber

ellenpal wrote: »

Looking from advice from you dear people.

Delta flight delayed on 31 July 2016 which meant myself and two kids arrived 24 hours after we were meant to.

Raised the issue with Resolver and no response from Delta. Escalated it through Resolver until I had to transfer the matter to CAA.

Things escalated through CAA and they got an agreement from Delta to pay the compensation back in Feb 2017.

Result, right?! Nope. Delta hasn't paid a penny yet. I let CAA know about this and they advised to escalate once more through Delta.com's complaint tool which I did - and give them 12 weeks to pay.

12 weeks has gone and not a single email reply (aside from the generic, we are looking into your issue and will be in touch).

I go back to CAA and tell them, and they provide me the full record to take to small claims.

I then go to file my small claims online and need an address within the UK for Delta but Delta.com says their UK address is in Paris and this is not an acceptable address for the court.

I then call Delta's office and they confirm their UK address is in Paris but that my complaint is actually being dealt with in the US. They advise to call the US. I did and had a seriously difficult time reaching a human but when I finally did, they said they had no record of any complaint! So, I say that's impossible - I have an entire file from CAA...she says to email it to "her" but it doesn't really go to her, it goes to a generic email dump but will eventually get to her. She assures she will look into this and get back to me the next day.

That hasn't happened.

So, well informed people. What can I do? I can go to court but I need a UK address that nobody seems to have for Delta.
I could escalate more through Delta.com but that will get me nowhere.

Do any of you have a direct dial number/email to someone in Delta that handles these things?

As you can see I have been battling this for a year! And by now, I am feeling so aggravated by the whole thing the EU compensation just doesn't seem to satisfy me anymore. I'm not out for blood, I just want them to take responsibility for this and the serious hardship is caused me, and my two little ones. And on from that, they need to take responsibility for this extreme mishandling of my situation.

Any guidance you can give, insider knowledge, details for someone in Delta who actually knows what they are doing, etc will be appreciated.

Ellen pal I have an issue with delta so I am interested in your case. But what were your original flight issues and flying from where and destination?

zorber

Has anyone heard anything in regards to the court case that was happening in July in regards to the delayed connection where the delay is outside the eu but the flight originated from the eu?

OxJak

I flew with BA from LHR to Budapest last week. The flight was around an hour late leaving due to the scheduled aircraft having a technical issue, and so we had to wait for the next available. By the time we got to Budapest there were storms in the area and the airport had been closed. Our plane didn't have enough fuel to queue in the stack and wait, so we were diverted to Bratislava. By the time we landed the crew were over their hours, so we couldn't be flown back to Budapest, and coaches were arranged (although these would be 3hrs after we landed, so instead we took taxis).


BA have rejected my claim because the diversion was due to adverse weather conditions, however if the original flight hadn't been delayed and/or they'd put more fuel in then we would have been in Budapest much earlier than we did... is there any chance that my claim may be overturned if I challenge it?

JPears

Depends to some extent how much the delay was, due to the technical - 1hour 2 hours 3 hours AND when Budapest airport closed due to weather.

OxJak

JPears wrote: »

Depends to some extent how much the delay was, due to the technical - 1hour 2 hours 3 hours AND when Budapest airport closed due to weather.

Just over an hour delay for the technical issue... but the knock-on effect was that we couldn't land before the airport closed. Sure, if the storm had been an hour earlier then we wouldn't have landed there either, so I could accept that was a weather-related issue, however it's entirely their fault that they couldn't then get us back to Budapest (because they didn't put in enough fuel and/or their crew were over hours). If I didn't face losing £25 I wouldn't hesitate in escalating, but not quite sure what my chances are...

JPears

You need to find out when Budapest airport closed. If it was na hour or less before you arrived then really your total delay is caused by Jet2, not the weather.