Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

dutbuster

Hi there guys wondering if i could get some guidence and help really......?

Ok, My partner and i booked a holiday with a travel agents(Thomas Cook) in our local town, this was all booked and payed for and we were looking forward to going on our first holiday away together since we have been together.

So we arrived at Birmingham airport on the morning of the 18th of august 2011 at around 8am due to fly at 11:30am to zakynthos we checked in which took ages to say the least, anyway we made our way through to departures and waited, watching the board which was telling us gate opens at 11.30 it got to 11.30 and without any announcement it just chaged itself to 12.30 so we waited for another hour it got to 12.30 and it changed to 14.30 at this point everybody on the flight seemed to have the same idea and we all piled around the airline agency desk where we wasn't at all provided with information that was helpful other then the plane has a techincal issues....but it turns out they knew about this "technical issue" the afternoon prior, so the chap behind the desk was saying they trying to get a plane chartered in for turkey and we will be given some lrv vouchers of £6 per person which where ment to be with us at 14.30 but we didn' receive them until approx 17.00 at which point the board had changed again to 17.30 there was no rep from our holiday company to give us help or reassurance the people of swissport where less then helpful as we all felt fobbed off and not told any of the truth.

So any way alot of us used these vouchers then we went back to the desk to find out alot of the other passengers had gone missing we tryed to find someone dealing with us to help but no one around we then found out from a random stranger that we was shipped to the airport hotel so we made our way to the hotel to be told we had to be back out the hotel by 23.30 for a flight at 1.20 the following morning, we all got back into the departures lounge and waited around watching the board as it was saying gate opens at 1.20 it got to 1.20 the airport is desserted at this point with just the passengers for this flight in the airport and it said gate opens in 5 mins it persisted in saying this for the next two hours at which point someone from swissport decided to show their face to inform us of the not so good news which was there is a plane sat outside which has come from lisbon ready to take us however the fueller has gone home so the airport and airlines was trying to get in contact with our airline the airline in question over this (skywings) and they wouldnt anwer the phone to give permission to get an outside fuel agent to fuel this aircraft so we got to 5am of the 19th the plane had to leave as they ran out of airtime the staff did so they flew back to lisbon i imagine not best pleased and we was once again shipped back to the hotel where we was made to get up at and be in the airport by 11.30 to board a plane which has come from madrid this time to kindly take us as skywings hadnt fixed there hunk of junk they call a plane.

We was then made to re check in again and go trough to depatures to wait for the plane to come in the plane landed and pulled up we was all waiting in a special gate i watched them load all the baggage up from start to finish and then mention to the head of the airport that our baggage hasnt been put on the plane she questioned my knowledge and patronised me some what as if to say i dont know anything and she wouldve quite happily sent us on our way without this extra baggage the reason ours wasnt on there was once again we and some other faimlies got left behind in the early hours and when we did find someone to find out where everyone else had gone we werent allowed our baggage back and yet everyone else was so it took another 30 mins for them to find our luggage and at which point when i saw it loaded on the plane the airport manager was very bitter and said" there you go happy now?" in a very snotty manner we then was due to take of at 13.20 any way we was on time getting on the plane and loaded up but had to wait a further 30 mins to beallowed runway access so we took off at 13.50pm of the 19th of august.

so we got there lost a day we had our holiday what was left of it, packed our stuff out of the hotel and waited for our transfers it arrived on time and as we got on the plane the rep that was on the coach greeted us with "hi hope you enjoyed your holiday, i will inform you now that the plane is delayed 30 mins but its in the air and on its way".....great so we arrived at the airport we was ment to fly 18.00 greek time we didnt board the plane until 18.30 at which point it was a very unorganised state of affairs we was on the skywings plane coming home which was the aircarft we was due to fly out on so they managed to get it sorted in a week by the time it got to about 18.40 the pilot announced that we would have to take a brief pitstop in milan on a 3.5hour flight to refuel as the run way at zakynthos wasn't long enough for them to take of carrying the right amount of fuel which baffled me as i was watching planes that was bigger then this take off quite easily and as this skywings plane flys to and from zakynthos to birmingham everyday it seemed strange that they would stop off every time so we took off at 18.50 so it was about 1.5hours to milan where we was told it was going to be a brief 30mins refuel and away we go that turned into early an hour sat there waiting we took off then we landed back in birmingham 21.36 english time and didnt get out the airport until about 22.30 as the baggage took forever to come up and i might add both times we landed in milan and birmingham he might aswell've not had the landing gear out was the most two uncomfortabl elandings i've ever experienced and the state of the planes and the cabin crew was outstanding how poor it was there was chewimg gum stuck all around the emergency exits in all the seat compartments there was some form of duck tape holding the overhead units together which when we took off and landed the four times looked as if the was going to come crashing down on us, it sounded like we was having and earthquake my reading light fell out on to me as i went to turn it on the stewardess's were incredible rude and inconsiderate they keep sliding up past the food carts getting in peoples faces it took the one stewardess that was serving myself and my partner about 20 mins until we got what we ordered and then we had to remind her 3 times that she hadn't finished serving us... the hotel we also stayed in wasn't brilliant the sockets came out of the wall the slats on the beds wasn't secured down which my girlfriend found out when she was just lying down and went straight through the bottom of it.

I would just like some guidence and advice as to where we stand with this and who to speak to and what process to make a claim i have contacted our travel insures who arent willing to pay out or help as appently we didnt get the package that covers travel delay which the wording booklets states we can and they say the just use that for all policies :S we been into thomas cook who don't want the blame however they took the money off us we are yet to get in contact with sky wings or olympic which is the holiday company thooas cook booked us with which i dont get..any adive would be great thanks alot
ashley

richardw

You'll get more help dustbuster if you cut that down to about a quarter of what it is and get rid of non factual opinion and comment.

Commas and full stops would help.

abunuha

MSE_Dan wrote: »

hi there,
I have book flight to sri lanka July 2011, to fly in march 2012 throgh an agent. Its for my family of 5 including myself. 2 adults and 3 children.
After 6 weeks i had an email from the aGENT TO NOTIFY THAT THE AIR LINE has change the schedule, and we have a day delay in Kuwait on our outbound flight. Normally 2 hours transit in Kuwait.
The agency told me the air lline wil provide the accomodation if I wanted to go ahead with the change or I can have the refund. the agency also send me another flight fare for the same trip as I requested and which is costing me more £700.
Am I eligeble to claim a compensation if I accept to contimue with the same flight? What is the best thing to do? please advice on this issue. Thank you.

Caz3121

abunuha wrote: »

MSE_Dan wrote: »

hi there,
I have book flight to sri lanka July 2011, to fly in march 2012 throgh an agent. Its for my family of 5 including myself. 2 adults and 3 children.
After 6 weeks i had an email from the aGENT TO NOTIFY THAT THE AIR LINE has change the schedule, and we have a day delay in Kuwait on our outbound flight. Normally 2 hours transit in Kuwait.
The agency told me the air lline wil provide the accomodation if I wanted to go ahead with the change or I can have the refund. the agency also send me another flight fare for the same trip as I requested and which is costing me more £700.
Am I eligeble to claim a compensation if I accept to contimue with the same flight? What is the best thing to do? please advice on this issue. Thank you.

no you cannot claim compensation for a delay. You have the option to accept the new times or reject and get a refund. You may be able to ask about alternative routing but that will depend on the airline and their options

abunuha

thank you for the help.

dingle01902

Hiya, can anybody with the relevant knowledge give me guidance on how to proceed with my complaint please??

Briefly, I booked an All Inclusive package to Rhodes. The Travel Agent was Thomas Cook, the Tour Operator was Olympic, the Airline was Sky Wings Airlines.

The flight had an unknown delay so we were lodged in a hotel and were issued an invalid meal voucher(wrong date on it). The hotel didnt provide sustinence either.
A sub charter plane was sourced and departed 12 3/4 hours after schedule.

When on board we were told that we werent being taken to Rhodes but being dropped off in Thesalonika(mainland Greece).

We were "landed" in Greece where it was established that a small plane was to ferry us on our final sector to Rhodes half of the passengers at a time. This subseqeunt flight was delayed by 3 hours according to the departure boards.

I arrive in my final destination 19 hours late and missed a whole day of All Inclusive facilities in resort.

No sustinence was provided throughout the experience other than the aforementioned invalid meal voucher that nobody would accept due to the incorrect date of issue being printed on it.

The extra legroom seats and inflight meals that had been pre paid were not provided on any leg of the trip.

As my understanding of consumer law is that my contract is with the people I paid my money to, I have approached Thomas Cook with a complaint letter. They have said that because they were acting as my agent it is not they that need to compensate me but the Tour Operator Olympic. They have forwarded my complaint and will advise of any reply.

I am keen to know whether I have a valid claim for compensation, on which grounds I should be pressing for it, and a value of how much I should be arguing for if any?

Sorry about the long post. Ive tried to keep it as brief as possible and to the facts rather than personal(irrelevant) opinion.

Please help.

Kind Regards.xx

Voyager2002

Haggis_Muncher wrote: »

Hi, looking for a small piece of advice:

I booked 4 tickets to fly from Edinburgh to Newark on the 2nd of July 2011. The tickets were purchased through BMI but the flight was operated by Continental Airlines. To cut a long story short the flight was cancelled twice and we arrived in Newark 2 days late!

I have been in touch with BMI but they say they acted only as marketing agents and I'll have to persue my claim for compensation through Continental.

Does anyone know if this should be the case as I would have thought that it should be BMI as they are the company that we entered a contract with?

Thanks very much

Since your flight left from an airport in the EU, and was cancelled, you have a valid claim for compensation under the EU Directive.

The staff at Continental's complaints or customer relations department are probably based in the USA and so unlikely to know about law in Europe, so try to find an address for them within the UK.

The bottom line is that if you need to take them to court, you will win.

Ali-OK

Morning

Recent Thomson package holiday, we (1 adult, 1 child) experienced 9 hrs delay outbound and 23.5 hrs delay inbound. Brief rundown here with advice inparticular to the return flight for claiming expenses (and compensation under EC rules if it fits).

23/8/11 Outbound - Luton to Palma - 9 hr delay in airport due to door seal issue, resolved with replacement plane. Were issued meal vouchers and kept updated. In resort, Thomson rep offered compensation in the form of a trip which was to the value of the day lost (1/12 as 12 day/11 night hols), so I feel this is resolved and no need to claim anything here. Is this correct? I was advised we would receive a letter in resort, then a letter once home, but have received nothing!

3/9/11 Inbound - Palma to Luton - Initially, we boarded and took off 50 mins late, but due to technical issue (leaking door seal we believe, pilot advised he could not climb any higher or continue the flight) we landed back at the airport within an hour (safely after dumping fuel in sea, etc) and were kept on plane for another hour whilst engineer looked at it. Further 2 hr delays were announced once we were back in the departure lounge, until an overnight stop over was declared with new flight the next day.

We received a meal voucher at the airport, then hotel overnight with meals, drinks and breakfast all provided FOC. Replacement plane and crew sorted and 23.5 hrs from original departure time, we were on our way. Fortunately doesn't impact on work, as we were due back Saturday and arrived Sunday.

Thomson advised us to keep receipts for items purchased for overnight stopover, as luggage was being kept on plane with the intention of fixing it at that time of announcement - so toothbrush, etc. We also received a letter on arriving at Luton Airport regarding the delay for insurance purposes.

I am planning on sending in receipts for the needed overnight items, plus invoice from kennels for the extra night our dog had to stay, plus phone calls/texts to brother (pick up arrangements), kennels (dog arrangements), parents and son's father (visit arrangements). We were not given the opportunity of 2 free phone calls as their T&Cs suggest we should?

Do I have a right to claim under the EC compensation also or should I ask for compensation in the form of vouchers towards next year's holiday? (which was already booked before this one took place). Also, am unclear if either flight was cancelled - outbound the flight number remained the same, inbound it was changed from TOM 5627 to BY 5627 on the new boarding cards, but continued to be showing TOM on the departure board.

As a footnote, the issue with the door seal, whilst highly similar both ways, was confirmed as not being the same plane for both flights - sounds more like a fleet issue which is more worrying!

Any advice would be most grateful. We had a great holiday otherwise and have just about recovered from the shock of what I understand to have been quite a serious situation (10 mins oxygen left in cabin etc) - details of which came from the rep at the hotel later that evening.

Thanks in advance
Ali

locarr

Ali-OK wrote: »

Morning


23/8/11 Outbound - Luton to Palma - 9 hr delay in airport due to door seal issue, resolved with replacement plane. Were issued meal vouchers and kept updated. In resort, Thomson rep offered compensation in the form of a trip which was to the value of the day lost (1/12 as 12 day/11 night hols), so I feel this is resolved and no need to claim anything here. Is this correct? I was advised we would receive a letter in resort, then a letter once home, but have received nothing!

3/9/11 Inbound - Palma to Luton - Initially, we boarded and took off 50 mins late, but due to technical issue (leaking door seal we believe, pilot advised he could not climb any higher or continue the flight) we landed back at the airport within an hour (safely after dumping fuel in sea, etc) and were kept on plane for another hour whilst engineer looked at it. Further 2 hr delays were announced once we were back in the departure lounge, until an overnight stop over was declared with new flight the next day.

Ali

Hi,

I was also on these flights and was offered nothing in resort not even an apology!
I would also like some advice as to what we can claim,

I have spoken to Thomsom and they basically said they have fulfilled their obligations by providing refreshment vouchers.

richardw

Ali-OK wrote: »

23/8/11 Outbound - Luton to Palma - 9 hr delay

3/9/11 Inbound - Palma to Luton

Firstly, if you feel they didn't satisfy their EC261/2004 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML Article 9 Right to Care obligations then write back and say where they were lacking in this regard.

If you feel you lost out on the holiday a bit, ask for a proportion of the holiday cost back.

With reference to Article 7 of Ec 261/2004 compensation, there is currently a bit of a stay to the Sturgeon Judgement, BTW Thomson being one of the companies that fought against the Sturgeon Judgement, so it may be best to wait until there is a bit of an update on the Sturgeon judgement which is expected next year.

Even if there is a development and claims for compensation for over 3 hours delay can be regarded as cancellations, Thomson will doubt argue that the delays were due to Extraordinary Circumstances and could not be avoided despite reasonable measures and that the Wallentin Hermann case does not apply in these situations.

If you currently have Home Insurance that has legal expenses cover, this may assist you in the future.