Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

Westin

Not just Swissport.  That sadly seems to be the case with a number of ground handlers, refuelers, catering companies and airlines.  The stop-start-stop-start-stop-start of the traffic light system no doubt made it difficult to contingency plan for an eventual restart, plus it seems some companies did indeed use the opportunity to reduce cost by a fire and rehire policy.

Swissport are offering £12.50 ph, DHL (Easyjet) £11.39 ph and BA’s new cabin crews at LGW a base salary of £15,966 pa.  All for unsociable hours and shift work. Little wonder we are seeing these staffing issues and the knock on affects.

Trojan_2

Hi Wise & Kind People of the Forum - I am in a similar boat to other Wizz and Easy Jet customers  -  we got to Gatwick last Saturday to find our Wizz flight to Tenerife had been cancelled just as we arrived.  The one lonely airport staff lady told us it was for operational reasons, and the next flight would be 1 or 2 June.  We were offered no other help.  We went to the flight booking desk and were offered flights the following day, Heathrow to Dublin to Tenerife for £955 each (7 in our party), which we could not afford. 

I rang an OTA that I have previously used, he got us Exeter to Dublin to Tenerife the next day at a better price, which we took.  With train to Exeter, taxis, hotel etc it cost us £705 per person.  I took a refund from Wizz which means we are now £448 out of pocket per person. 

Even with the Statutory Comps, we will still be out of pocket.  It seems from other posts on here that I will not be able to claim the additional costs on top of the Statutory Comps?  It adds insult to injury that we had to endure the stress and inconvenience, not to mention loosing 24 hours of time in Tenerife (as nice as Exeter Premierinn is!) AND be out of pocket.  

Have I understood this correctly?  Any guidance or help gratefully received.

onashoestring

Yes when a flight is cancelled by the airline at short notice , they mayst offer EITHER a refund or alternative flight . However it is your choice,  not the airlines which of these you get . 

In addition you maybe entitled to compensation depending on why the flight was cancelled.

So if airline did not give you a choice you could refuse the refund and request reimbursement for the alternative flight . The correct process is to ask the airline to book the alternative flight for you ( even if it is with another airline ) .

However if circumstances prevented you from doing this and you have evidence that you booked the only reasonable alternative- then you were entitled to make a claim - .
It may be a fight with the airline if you have already claimed and accepted a refund . 

Please let us know how you get on .

If you have abandonment cover with your travel insurance you may be able to claim the difference from them .

Locoblade

Hi all

I'm in the process of preparing a claim for a WizzAir flight myself, my wife and two children were on that ended up being delayed by over 18 hours returning to Gatwick over the bank holiday weekend. When filling in the customer service form on the WizzAir website I add myself (the lead passenger) along with the rest of the family as affected passengers but at the bottom of the form its saying I need to submit a Power of Attorney form presumably because I'm acting on behalf of those other passengers? Martin's guide and the Resolver website that creates the letter template doesn't mention anything about needing this, is it really something I need to submit and if so how do I go about creating one?

thanks

Edit: just found the answer here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6362607/wizz-air-power-of-attorney

hennycare

NotoriousREV said:

Back in April our Ryanair flight from Manchester to Rhodes was delayed, landing 3 hours and 50 minutes late. The reason was that the baggage handling agent appointed by Ryanair (Swissair) were understaffed and pretty much every flight out of Manchester that day (01/04) was late. These problems had been going on for days, if not weeks, and had been well documented in the press. 

When we claimed compensation, Ryanair told us that the delay was both unexpected and out of their control. My view is that 1) Ryanair are responsible for baggage handling, even if they outsource this responsibility to a 3rd party and 2) the delays were entirely expected given the ongoing staffing issues. 

My questions are: am I right? And, has anyone successfully claimed via the ADR process for a delay due to a lack of baggage handlers?

Thanks. 

I flew out from Manchester last week (01/06) and landed in Dublin (flight time ~30min) just over 3 hours late. On flights scheduled between 5pm and last flight only 2 departed over 3 hours late (some other airlines had cancelled flights), both were ryanair, one was the one I was on.
After a little bit of back and forth with Ryanair and them giving the same excuses to me as they did you (" handling delays" "delay was unexpected" "beyond Ryanair's control") which I would guess is their template response, I have opened a case with ADR. Yes it is petty for a £20 flight, but Ryanair squeeze passengers for every last penny they can, and the treatment I had from Aer Lingus on the return flight (I missed my flight, but that's another story) just put in perspective how terrible a company Ryanair is to their passengers/customers.
The guy I spoke to from Aer Lingus said they have a hybrid set of ground crew, for their jets they are direct employment and the prop fleet are contract, so they haven't been without issues but have largely got it in hand. He said many have gone to work for supermarkets in the pandemic as they got better pay and conditions, and then why would they come back?

Given that the Average departure delay on the evening I flew out for Ryanair was 110mins and for other airlines 45mins it seems like this is an issue plaguing Ryanair more than other Airlines.

I work in construction, client side, and if we have a contract with a contractor and they subcontract some of that work it is still the responsibility of that main contractor who we have employed to deliver the end result. I may be wrong but I would analogise that with Airlines, my contract is for you to get me from A to B within 3 hours of stated time, if you fail and there aren't exceptional issues outside your reasonable control then you've breached the contract and as set out compensation. You hiring a poor subcontractor is your decision and you can take damages up with them but it does not impact on the contract we have together. Obviously ADR is a way to debate whether they did all they could have, but given there was another Ryanair Dublin flight which was scheduled later and left before my own, this seems unlikely to be able to be justified in my opinion.

I would also be interested to know if others have had success or not in these types of claims. I will update when mine is resolved as I expect these issues will progress well into the summer.

Cameron_Smith

I was due to fly back from Sardinia on the 28th. They Cancelled the flight and I was booked onto another flight the following day. (which was also delayed by 4 hours) I ended up finding the cheapest hotel I could, not easy in a holiday destination where everything has a sea view. I found Travel Lodge at the Airport significantly cheaper than everything else available for just £88 for the night. 

My Expenses have just come through and they are only paying 50% of that cost. Is this right?! Should I complain?

Westin

Cameron_Smith said:

I was due to fly back from Sardinia on the 28th. They Cancelled the flight and I was booked onto another flight the following day. (which was also delayed by 4 hours) I ended up finding the cheapest hotel I could, not easy in a holiday destination where everything has a sea view. I found Travel Lodge at the Airport significantly cheaper than everything else available for just £88 for the night. 

My Expenses have just come through and they are only paying 50% of that cost. Is this right?! Should I complain?

Depends what you have claimed for against the unnamed airline.

Was the cost of the hotel in Sardinia 'reasonable'? Easyjet suggest for example a 3* category hotel. If finding accommodation was a challenge then I think a case of showing what was a reasonable expenditure within that location at the time.  You can't just check-in to a nice 5*.

Not sure what your reference to an £88 Travelodge is about.   Once you have landed back in the UK at your planed arrival point then the airlines obligation is complete.  If you were late and decided to stay over at the UK airport then that is not a recharge an airline is likely to accept.

Without knowing the details of your claim then I am not sure anyone on here can tell you if the 50% payment is correct.  I am surprised the airline did not explain what the payment received was for and what extra was rejected.

Cameron_Smith

Westin said:

Cameron_Smith said:

I was due to fly back from Sardinia on the 28th. They Cancelled the flight and I was booked onto another flight the following day. (which was also delayed by 4 hours) I ended up finding the cheapest hotel I could, not easy in a holiday destination where everything has a sea view. I found Travel Lodge at the Airport significantly cheaper than everything else available for just £88 for the night. 

My Expenses have just come through and they are only paying 50% of that cost. Is this right?! Should I complain?

Depends what you have claimed for against the unnamed airline.

Was the cost of the hotel in Sardinia 'reasonable'? Easyjet suggest for example a 3* category hotel. If finding accommodation was a challenge then I think a case of showing what was a reasonable expenditure within that location at the time.  You can't just check-in to a nice 5*.

Not sure what your reference to an £88 Travelodge is about.   Once you have landed back in the UK at your planed arrival point then the airlines obligation is complete.  If you were late and decided to stay over at the UK airport then that is not a recharge an airline is likely to accept.

Without knowing the details of your claim then I am not sure anyone on here can tell you if the 50% payment is correct.  I am surprised the airline did not explain what the payment received was for and what extra was rejected.

The Travel Lodge was in Sardinia, the cheapest in the area by over £100 a night and the Airline was EasyJet. The Email was brief, no explanation, just that they were pleased to be able to offer me a partial refund. 

Westin

Okay, the reference to GBP£ rather than EUR confused me. I also didn't know there even were Travelodges in Sardinia. 

Did all expenses have receipts?  Did the claim match the currency of the receipt?

When I had to do a recent claim from EasyJet for expenses on a delayed flight they were clear on what items they would pay out on (and which they rejected).  Did you get nothing from them as to why the 50% claim payment?

onashoestring

Cameron_Smith said:

I was due to fly back from Sardinia on the 28th. They Cancelled the flight and I was booked onto another flight the following day. (which was also delayed by 4 hours) I ended up finding the cheapest hotel I could, not easy in a holiday destination where everything has a sea view. I found Travel Lodge at the Airport significantly cheaper than everything else available for just £88 for the night. 

My Expenses have just come through and they are only paying 50% of that cost. Is this right?! Should I complain?

We’re you travelling alone ?