Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

JPears

You will probably need to progress this though the court.
Its a balance of probabilities that will be decided by the judge - if you have proof of your retrun leg that will be easier. Do you have proof of booking?

legal_magpie

Such as bank or credit card statements. If you do take it to Court it is highly unlikely that the airline will deny that you were on the flight but will "put you to proof". This is quite easy as you will probably have a hotel bill, restaurant bills etc to prove that you were wherever your flight was to. I'd be very surprised if the airline took it all the way to a final hearing on that ground alone.

phillips_30

Aplogies if already a thread but I couldn't find one. October 2011 (coming up to 6 years deadline) my party of 6 flight Florida to Dublin was cancelled and few out 24 hours later. I have complained to Aer Lingus with no success and also taken it to the CAA the flight was cancelled due to staff illness (extraordinary circs).
I am in the process of registering a claim with small claims but as the company is in Ireland I'm unable to. I have contacted Bott & Co who stated that I'm unable to claim as not EU which is different reason that CAA stated.
I am really at a loss as to what I do next as I've read that if complictaed some solicitors are not interested. Does anyone know if I would have a case and if so how am I best pursuing it?

JPears

Who was the flight actually with? Aer Lingus?
If the flight was a code shade operated by a non EU airline then no compensation is due.
Staff illness preflight is not usually an EC.

Tyzap

phillips_30 wrote: »

Aplogies if already a thread but I couldn't find one. October 2011 (coming up to 6 years deadline) my party of 6 flight Florida to Dublin was cancelled and few out 24 hours later. I have complained to Aer Lingus with no success and also taken it to the CAA the flight was cancelled due to staff illness (extraordinary circs).
I am in the process of registering a claim with small claims but as the company is in Ireland I'm unable to. I have contacted Bott & Co who stated that I'm unable to claim as not EU which is different reason that CAA stated.
I am really at a loss as to what I do next as I've read that if complictaed some solicitors are not interested. Does anyone know if I would have a case and if so how am I best pursuing it?

You could use the European small claims court in Ireland for which there is an excellent guide written by Dr Watson.

However, as Caz has already advised, if it was due to a sudden (flight) crew sickness at a remote foreign airport you may not qualify for compensation. Much will depend on the circumstances which, conversely, you may not get unless you start litigation.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=64457359&postcount=569

Good luck.

phillips_30

JPears wrote: »

Who was the flight actually with? Aer Lingus?
If the flight was a code shade operated by a non EU airline then no compensation is due.
Staff illness preflight is not usually an EC.

Yes airline was Aer Lingus

jimbob3261

JPears wrote: »

You will probably need to progress this though the court.
Its a balance of probabilities that will be decided by the judge - if you have proof of your retrun leg that will be easier. Do you have proof of booking?

I have a the return flight baggage receipts, card statements from the trip, booking confirmation and a photo on the plane...

supersmithy

Hi there, I've got what I think is a strong case under regulation 261/2004 where my 6 month pregnant wife (!) and I were involuntarily denied boarding a Wizz Air flight. After a lot of distress and upset, we were eventually escorted back through arrivals, charged £68 per passenger to book on to the next available flight in 48hrs time. We then of course had to stump up for a hotel at the airport and feed ourselves.

The rub is that the boarding gate staff are claiming we were 4 minutes late to the gate and that our two seats were to be given to 'reserves' (though help desk attendant later told us 182 seats sold for a 180 seat plane). We were not late to the gate but I'm worried that this is going to be really difficult to counter argue.

- We had no checked-in hold baggage

- Our boarding passes were first scanned just before security, 1.5 hours before flight departure. Security was busy and took about 20 mins - so with that we can prove we were departure side at least 1 hour before the flight.

- We went straight to the gate which was about a 15 minute walk. So we were there approx 45mins before flight departure time and 15 mins before the gate closure time of 30 minutes before flight depart. There was already a very long que and no seating anywhere nearby. All this obviously difficult for us to prove.

- We found some seats a few gates away but could still see the que. It was an early morning flight and in fairness, Wizz Air did start boarding fairly swiftly. We stood up and walked to the gate just as the final few in the que were going through...and this is when a very rude boarding official put his arm in my way and said we're not boarding. The que of people were still progressing to the plane and two people were waiting to one side being boarded in our place (I painfully watched them make the change on the boarding computer in front of me). They knew they had a issue but clearly used the fact that we appeared to have just approached the gate last minute as an excuse to deny us boarding.

- At the point arrived at the gate, the info screens all still said final call and a whilst we were stood there trying to argue the situation the tannoy even announced final call for our gate. It wasn't final call, they were brutally shutting it off as it suited them!

Long story but my question is whether there are any rules or regulations with regards to boarding and the effect of ques/backlog? Is a 30 minute boarding gate closure legally enforceable with no flex (e.g. a pregnant wife needing to sit down nearby)? I can't find it anywhere online but I've heard it mentioned that wizz air customers with 'standby' tickets aren't to know if they can board until 10 minutes before departure. So even if the whole 4 minutes, "if your late, your late", is the line they take, I can't believe that they couldn't of shown some customer service and at least listened to what we had to say.

...and of course the re-booked flight out and the return flight back both boarded approx 45 minutes after the apparent gate closure time. So again, in either of those cases, they could pick anyone at random and their systems would show the person boarding as being late when scanning in.

Maybe I'm just seeing red? Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

JPears

Sounds like a perfectly valid claim.
You may need to progress through court where it will be a balance of probabilities and given the information and evidence you have the judge should look favourably.
So you will be claiming compensation under reg 261/2004, and reimbursement of your additional flight costs, hotel and food/drink as long as you have receipts.
Have you donlwoaded and read Vauban's guide?

Tyzap

supersmithy wrote: »

Maybe I'm just seeing red? Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

Just to add to what JP has already said, if you had/did make the airline aware that your wife was pregnant they should have then taken that information into account and given her some priority.

They should have arranged and supplied all their 'duty of care' responsibilities for you, and not just left you to it. This is a complete abdication of their duty under the regulations, it's something which you should report to the CAA otherwise they will never change these bad habits.

It's not specified in the regs (yet) but I also believe that pregnant ladies should be offered priority boarding at the gate, the same as families with small children or others with disabilities.

Good luck.