Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

Upwind

Any advice appreciated.  We had a flight booked (with Lufthansa) for a trip to connect to a cruise in Antwerp. 

Our original flights booked via Viking Cruise were as follows:

25/9/22 

Birmingham to Munich @ 7.00am

then Munich to Brussels @ 11.30am.

We checked in online at 8am on 24/9/22 for the above flights and travelled to our pre-flight hotel, which we had booked due to the planned early departure time.

At 22.31pm on 24/9/22 we received an email to request we check in our hand luggage due to the flight being full - so the flight was still scheduled at this time and we went to bed ready for an early call from the hotel staff at 4.00am and then an onward trip to the airport in a pre-booked taxi at 4.40am.

Whilst in the taxi to the airport my partner checked phones etc only to find that we had emails from Lufthansa informing us that our flight had been cancelled and rebooked - the email had been sent at 23.35pm.
We got to the airport and went to the check in desk, who confirmed this was correct and that the Munich to Brussels element of our journey had been cancelled. They Informed us they were unable to find an earlier flight and advised us that we had therefore been rescheduled on a direct flight to Brussels at 17.45 - almost an 11 hour wait. The check in staff suggested we return to our hotel and we took a return taxi to the hotel and were fortunately able to check back into our room for a few more hours.  Taxi costs were £31 in total......

Had we been booked on a flight at 17.45, we wouldn't have booked an overnight hotel pre-holiday, so we incurred costs of £183.20 for this hotel room.

When we checked into the airport for the rescheduled flight we were given a voucher for £10 per person for a hot meal. Unfortunately, due to airport costs, there was insufficient for even a Wetherspoon's meal - a basic burger & chips for two amounted to £23.00 and did not include any drinks.

We also had a meal on the Saturday evening 24/9/22 at the hotel, we didn't keep a receipt for this as at this point our flights were still going ahead as scheduled - but it adds to the costs...

Due to the very late cancellation and rescheduling of our journey, we arrived at our destination over 7 hours late. This resulted in us missing the on-board introduction and the first (inclusive) on board evening meal, which was part of our holiday package - it wasn't a great start to our long-awaited trip.

We think we can claim for the cost of the flights, but dpn't know about the pre-holiday hotel and evening meal, or if the taxi fares to and from the airport, and costs (over the voucher  given) should be claimed.  Is there anything else we should include?

To rub salt in the wound - the return (via KLM) was on time, but they had no staff to load the bags!!!..... which wasn't mentioned when we checked the bags in two hours earlier...  As a result we had to travel knowing our bags weren't with us on arrival.  We had to fill in formed on arrival at Birmingham and then wait for news....  The bags arrived today (24 hours later) - again not sure if there is anything we can claim back.... we had booked today off to do washing etc and haven't been able to do anything but wait around for our bags...!

Any help appreciated.  

Caz3121

Upwind said:

We think we can claim for the cost of the flights, but dpn't know about the pre-holiday hotel and evening meal, or if the taxi fares to and from the airport, and costs (over the voucher  given) should be claimed.  Is there anything else we should include?
  

did you have to purchase new flights? if not, the flight tickets would have been used for your new journey.
I don't see that they are likely to approve the hotel or evening meal before the original flight time but, depending on the reason for the cancellation you may be able to claim compensation of £220 per person which can be used to offset these costs. I would possibly attempt to claim 2 of the 3 taxi journeys (1 would have been required anyway, 2 were only due to the long delay) do you have receipts for these?

Upwind

Caz3121 said:

Upwind said:

We think we can claim for the cost of the flights, but dpn't know about the pre-holiday hotel and evening meal, or if the taxi fares to and from the airport, and costs (over the voucher  given) should be claimed.  Is there anything else we should include?
  

did you have to purchase new flights? if not, the flight tickets would have been used for your new journey.
I don't see that they are likely to approve the hotel or evening meal before the original flight time but, depending on the reason for the cancellation you may be able to claim compensation of £220 per person which can be used to offset these costs. I would possibly attempt to claim 2 of the 3 taxi journeys (1 would have been required anyway, 2 were only due to the long delay) do you have receipts for these?

Thanks for that Caz3121 - we assumed as much, but hoped that there might be more tp claim.... Ironically, KLM managed to lose the baggage of two sets of passengers on the cruise and neither had got there bags back by 10 days later.... certainly a company to avoid I think... thanks again

Upwind

Oh and we kept taxi receipts - agree that only two could be claimed...

Dyspeptic_Ghost

Any advice welcome on the following query.

I recently had a short break in Lyon. Four hours (or so) before we were due to fly back, BA cancelled the flight and rescheduled it to the following day. We stayed on in the same accomodation and flew back the next day without incident.

We made a claim for out of pocket expenses and compensation. BA paid the out of pocket expenses without challenge (around £200) but refused to pay the compensation on the basis that there were problems outside of their control that caused the cancellation. These were:

1. Bad weather. They included the abbreviation CB (Cumulonimbus) which refers to storm clouds.

2. Ground staff issues at Heathrow.

I have the following questions:

1. Are we entitled to compensation in theory. I believe its around £200 per passenger for the last minute cancellation.

2. If so, are the reasons given by BA valid for not paying.

Personally, I don't believe their justification is valid as storm clouds are a common factor and airlines normally just avoid them unless they are unavoidable and any ground staff issues would be down to them.

Frustratingly, the email they sent citing their reasoning has gone missing (my partner does not recall deleting it but...) so I don't have their exact wording.

What would be the next steps if we have a valid claim?

Alan_Bowen

Compensation is not payable if the reason for cancellation is outside the airline's control. If there was a thunderstorm at LHR before departure, then the ground staff who load the plane are required to stop work and retreat inside for safety reasons. The fact you received notification shortly before the aircraft was probably due to leave for Lyons may support that argument but I simply do not know. You can check if there may be a claim at AirHelp.com and bottonline.co.uk both of which have free on line checkers. 

Dyspeptic_Ghost

Thanks for your response. I don't think those free checkers actually assist in this instance (one said I had a claim, the other didn't!). What I need is some way of checking weather conditions at Lyon on the 08/09/22 and the knowledge as to whether it would cause a flight cancellation. 

eskbanker

Dyspeptic_Ghost said:

What I need is some way of checking weather conditions at Lyon on the 08/09/22 and the knowledge as to whether it would cause a flight cancellation. 

But bad weather anywhere could have caused delays and/or cancellations - at either end of the route, somewhere in between (if significant enough), or even elsewhere with knock-on effects (albeit those are less likely to be valid extraordinary circumstances).  I'm afraid I don't know where to find the answer but just wanted to clarify that the right question is probably broader than you'd envisaged, unless they specifically said the weather issue was in Lyon....

If you no longer have their email and want the exact wording they used, you may be able to secure a copy via a subject access request?

ashflek

Hi,

I have read through the guide and FAQs as I'm due to make a claim with Jet2 due a cancelled flight yesterday. But I have a couple of questions before I do so, hopefully someone can help or advise.

We were initially due to fly at 10:40 from Tenerife to Manchester, the flight got delayed initially then we were eventually all taken through to get our bags and be put on new flights. 

New flight was at 23:40 that night instead. We had a one year old baby with us as well.

Couple of questions I have is - 

1) Should I use the template letter or online form for Jet2 ? (I noticed the template is for delay not cancellation)

2) Is our one year old included in the compensation per person ? So we claim for Me and My partner, Or all 3 of us ?

Any help much appreciated 

JPears

1. Yes use the same form. Delay/cancellation same thing as far as compensation concerned.

2. Did you pay anything for the little 'un, even something like a seat fee? If so they are due compensation too.