Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

mohammadb1234

Hi
Need a little advice. Flew with easyjet. Outbound flight was cancelled and return flight was delayed by around 15 hrs. When I go to claim compensation do I claim twice so once for each flight. Or do I claim only once for the entire booking. 

davido2111

Dear All,

I am hoping for some advice regarding a recent trip from Manchester to Split, Croatia via Frankfurt.

The initial schedule was as below.

Manchester to Frankfurt
Departure 06:15 (GMT) - Arrival 10:05 (CEST)

Frankfurt to Split 
Departure 10:05 - Arrival 11:50 (CEST)

The outbound flight from Manchester, 06:15, departure was unfortunately delayed instead departing at 06:52 with a delayed arrival of 45 minutes into Frankfurt.  When queried with the desk staff we were informed we were delayed due to waiting for the crew.

The connecting flight from Frankfurt to Split was scheduled to depart at 10:05, so the flight was missed and we were loaded on to a new flight later that day at 16:40 with a scheduled arrival of 17:55. 

Final arrival into Split was at 18:22 with a final arrival delay of over 6 hours.

From the information I have read via different sources a delay of over 3 hours could entitle you to compensation from the airline if the delay meets a number of requirements.

To that end a claim was submitted via the Lufthansa website with the below feedback provided from the airline:

"Thank you for contacting Lufthasna.

We apologize that your flight did not operate as scheduled.Every change to your journey can be stressful. We understand your frustration with this occurrence and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused you.

The reason for the flight irregularity was minimum crew rest. Unfortunately, we have no influence over circumstances. Such a flight irregularity does not warrant a claim for damages against Lufthansa. Please understand that we do not assume any liability for situations for which we are not responsible, therefore, we will not comply with your demand for compensationof the additional costs incurred by you.

While this is not the answer you had hoped for from us, we would be pleased if you would still consider flying with Lufthansa."

From the information on provided on the MSE web page it is states that delays due to Crew or pilot late, Sickness or strikes by airline staff is eligible for compensation.

Please can anyone advise if they have had any issues or success when submitting a claim due to delays as a result of waiting for the crew.

I have a feeling that this may be a generic answer on the part of Lufthansa to fob me off.

Many thanks for any advice received.

eskbanker

davido2111 said:

The reason for the flight irregularity was minimum crew rest. Unfortunately, we have no influence over circumstances. Such a flight irregularity does not warrant a claim for damages against Lufthansa. 

That's a bit of a non-answer really - it is undoubtedly true that crews must observe legal minimum rest periods in between shifts, so if they were delayed arriving for this shift then the clear implication is that the end of the previous shift was delayed, and therefore the underlying root cause for your delay was that from the previous day, so you ought to push them to identify what happened then.

davido2111

Many thanks for the advice eskbanker.

My correspondence with Lufthansa was via their online tool which did not offer much in the way of allowing to present much info other than the booking reference and flight number etc.

I was thinking of maybe going down the path of using the Resolver template software in hope it may open a better avenue for dialogue. Might this be a better approach?

Thanks again.

eskbanker

davido2111 said:

My correspondence with Lufthansa was via their online tool which did not offer much in the way of allowing to present much info other than the booking reference and flight number etc.

I was thinking of maybe going down the path of using the Resolver template software in hope it may open a better avenue for dialogue. Might this be a better approach?

I'm not normally a big fan of using Resolver, as they don't really add much value, but might be a viable way of corresponding with Lufthansa if the airline doesn't make any other form of contact available - is there anything in the response that you've been given that allows further contact?

https://www.lufthansa.com/de/en/feedback does seem to permit free text contact, but I can't speak from any experience of dealing with them.

Ultimately they do subscribe to the German aviation ADR scheme so if/when you receive a final response from them, there are still escalation options....

davido2111

Hi eskbanker.

I will respond to the original email from Lufthansa. The option provided on the initial feedback given directs me back to the original compensation page, which doesn’t allow any real form of comments.

Hopefully the email response will suffice and initiate some form of dialogue. If not I will look into escalating via the ADR scheme.

Thanks again for your comments.

shinydoc

Hello everyone. I have an interesting one and would welcome thoughts?
We were due to fly to Tampa with BA. We sat on the plane at Gatwick for 4 hours and then they cancelled the flight, as the plane couldn’t be repaired! We were told to collect bags and would receive email with further instructions. We were emailed to say we were booked on a new flight from Heathrow the next morning. We got a cab to Heathrow for an early checkin for the replacement flight only to be told that A380 was cancelled, as they had no crew! After 90 mins they eventually booked us on a Virgin flight much later that day.
I have filed for hotel, food and taxi expenses, but not sure about the flights, as we ostensibly had 2 cancelled flights on different days, from different airports as part of the same booking to Tampa.
Would welcome advice on what can be claimed re the flights? We booked the flights with an agent too, not BA.
Would also like to hear any recent experience as to how long I may have to wait!!
Thanks in anticipation

shinydoc

shinydoc said:

Hello everyone. I have an interesting one and would welcome thoughts?
We were due to fly to Tampa with BA. We sat on the plane at Gatwick for 4 hours and then they cancelled the flight, as the plane couldn’t be repaired! We were told to collect bags and would receive email with further instructions. We were emailed to say we were booked on a new flight from Heathrow the next morning. We got a cab to Heathrow for an early checkin for the replacement flight only to be told that A380 was cancelled, as they had no crew! After 90 mins they eventually booked us on a Virgin flight much later that day.
I have filed for hotel, food and taxi expenses, but not sure about the flights, as we ostensibly had 2 cancelled flights on different days, from different airports as part of the same booking to Tampa.
Would welcome advice on what can be claimed re the flights? We booked the flights with an agent too, not BA.
Would also like to hear any recent experience as to how long I may have to wait!!
Thanks in anticipation

Would be interested to know if there were no comments as it’s a tricky one, or if there were just no thoughts?!

Thank you

Ivrytwr3

Hi all,

British Airways Heathrow to Manchester on 21 Sep 23. Flight was scheduled for take off at 2035, finally took off at 2250 and are due to land at 2350. So a delay of 3hrs+.

Are we able to claim compensation for the delay? (i don't know the reason for the delay, or what the situation is  with NATs etc).

Caz3121

Ivrytwr3 said:

Hi all,

British Airways Heathrow to Manchester on 21 Sep 23. Flight was scheduled for take off at 2035, finally took off at 2250 and are due to land at 2350. So a delay of 3hrs+.

Are we able to claim compensation for the delay? (i don't know the reason for the delay, or what the situation is  with NATs etc).

not sure how you have calculated 3 hours+
delay is calculated from scheduled arrival time to actual arrival time
scheduled arrival time was 21:35 and actual arrival time is showing as 23:51 so 2 hours and 16 mins late
no compensation as under 3 hours.