Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

Westin

stever40 said:

Hi Team,

Last August three of us flew to Romania with tickets booked directly with Dan Air (Romanian airline).

The flight was delayed some 8 hours so I filed for compensation.

After receiving an auto acknowledgement saying they were busy and it would take some time to respond I have had no further response from them.

I  tried contacting twice more but no response.

I filed with CAA who agreed with the claim and they said they also got no response from the airline.

What isnext step ?

 If I file in small claims court, which court / country and to whom do I address the claim ?

I believe I followed all the guides from Martin but don't know how to proceed.

Any help and advice appreciated.

Thanks

Legal action would be in Romania.  Good luck. 

richposhratz

Hi. I flew kenya airways to madagascar from heathrow-Nairobi-Madagascar. There were 2 flights on the itinerary and leg 1 to Nairobi left/arrived on time. Leg 2 was cancelled and rescheduled for 10 hours later and arrived 10 hours late in Madagascar.

I just want to check that the whole journey is covered by the statutory delay compensation as it was the second flight that was re-scheduled (both flights made up the booked journey).

i made a claim 3 weeks ago and received a customer service log number but have heard nothing since. I have sent 2 further chaser emails but have received no further replies.

eskbanker

richposhratz said:

Hi. I flew kenya airways to madagascar from heathrow-Nairobi-Madagascar. There were 2 flights on the itinerary and leg 1 to Nairobi left/arrived on time. Leg 2 was cancelled and rescheduled for 10 hours later and arrived 10 hours late in Madagascar.

I just want to check that the whole journey is covered by the statutory delay compensation as it was the second flight that was re-scheduled (both flights made up the booked journey).

i made a claim 3 weeks ago and received a customer service log number but have heard nothing since. I have sent 2 further chaser emails but have received no further replies.

If it was a through booking on one ticket then yes, the UK261 regulations apply to the whole end-to-end journey.  What was the reason for the cancellation, i.e. was it something within the airline's control?

richposhratz

Actually the airline did not give a clear reason but passengers surmised that they cancelled the initial flight to combine 2 passenger groups on a later flight.

Spanishguy

Our flight was cancelled when we were in the departure lounge at Heathrow. The reason given was "technical problems" and the engineers had worked on it, but were unable to repair the plane. As they were obliged to do they bussed us to the Sheraton and fed us breakfast and lunch whilst we waited to return to the airport. We eventually flew 24 hours later on the equivalent scheduled flight at 22:40. Because the flight was very full already we were seated in Row 37 which is right next to the toilets so we were kept awake all night by the sound of flushing and people queuing in the aisle. We contacted them immediately via email to apply for compensation which in these circumstances should be £520 each. They replied 11 or 12 days later claiming that the cancellation was partially beyond their control and so offered us $150 each which is derisory. They had caused us to miss the first day of our holiday and had changed their story. We replied to request details of what exactly was beyond their control and received no reply. A friend of ours had flown with them a couple of months earlier and the same thing happened to her and she ended up flying an indirect route with another airline. We have had two cancellations / late arrivals with Ryanair and Finnair in the past and these airlines both paid the required compensation with no hassle. After waiting the required time we complained to the CAA and within a few days received an email from SriLankan to say they had reviewed our case, changed their minds and we were due full compensation after all. Just fill out these forms and get them witnessed. We did this and were told the money would be with us in five weeks. You will not be surprised to hear it wasn't. After chasing them several times with no reaction, we were told we had supplied an invalid sort code (we hadn't). We provided some alternative account details and then they sent the money to the original account. It was yet another delaying tactic. The whole process from the flight cancellation to receiving the compensation took over six months.  Friends of ours had a similar experience and accepted lower compensation which they try to fob you off with at first. The lesson here is to persevere, but we will never again fly with SriLankan Airlines after that debacle.

saajan_12

Spanishguy said:

..
We contacted them immediately via email to apply for compensation which in these circumstances should be £520 each. They replied 11 or 12 days later claiming that the cancellation was partially beyond their control and so offered us $150 each which is derisory. .

Ha, that's a new one! If they really thought it was for extraordinary reasons outside their control then they would be offering £0 compensation, not just a part of it. Sounds like just an attempt and fobbing off the uninformed. 

Incidentally we had a similar flight London - Nairobi, different airline though, which was very delayed to put it into the £520pp range. Same thing on flights every other week based on the historical flight time data. Radio silence for months, only to be paid without debate ~6 months after the fact. Not sure which is worse, fighting the spurious claims or not hearing anything!

Alan_Bowen

The airline is in serious financial difficulty and I suspect every member of staff is under instructions to avoid paying out unless forced to do so. £520 per person for 200 people is a lot of money, it would wipe out their annual profit but for the fact they don't have any. I think you did well to get the Sheraton Hotel at Heathrow, it must have had a very good nightly rate that day!