Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

Voyager2002

jillyjacks wrote: »

ive just stumbled accross this thread and wonder of someone can give me any advice.......I flew to Turkey recently from Birmingham and 20 mins into the flight we were diverted to Munich because of a medical emergency onboard. unfortunately the gentleman concerned died on the runway at Munich. We were taken off the flight and left in Munich airport for 7 hours before flying on to turkey. Our duty free (purchased on the plane) was taken off us at Munich as we passed through departures again (no liquids above 100 allowed on the flight) I know I will be able to claim for the duty free (I have receipts) but am i due any compensation for the delay given it was a medical emergency??
Thank for any advice

No: the law is very clear that if a delay results from exceptional circumstances such as this, no compensation is payable.

I am also far from sure that you are due anything in respect of your duty-free goods.

Sometimes bad things just happen: at least you are far better off than the poor gentleman who did not live to get to Turkey.

edtheduck_2

Hello I am looking for some advice here please. Apologies for the lengthy post but we had a nightmare journey and I feel I need to go into a bit of detail. Here's what happened to us on our flight/holiday from Belfast to Larnaca:

Thomas Cook Flight scheduled for 13.55 departure to Larnaca. Then the delay started. The staff, who were Servisair, gave us little or no information apart from 'we'll update you again in 30 minutes'. This continued for about 4 hours and the time between updates got longer and longer and the update basically consisted of 'we'll update you again in 30 minutes'. We eventually managed to get an explanation for the delay – the heater under the pilots windscreen was not working properly, they were trying to pull a pin or pins out and couldn’t. They said they hoped to be able to get it done, but that they considered flying a part from Manchester, or flying us to Manchester. This info, however they did not announce as such, some of us just managed to find this out.

People were rightly annoyed at this stage. We had great bother to even get any food/refreshment vouchers, they'd asked for them, they hadn’t got approval, they got approval but the vouchers were for the wrong amount so we eventually got a whole £5 voucher at about 18.30. This £5 was not even enough to get a Burger King meal!

Anyway eventually took off at about 20.00 and were in the air for about 1 ½ – 2 hours when the pilot came on and said that the problem was not fixed and we were turning back to Manchester. You can imagine how we felt. We circled for about an hour before landing and we had been burning off fuel and also had the landing gear down all this time. I think there was something more to this than what we were being told. The pilot told us someone from Thomas Cook would meet us at the airport .

We awaited our luggage and went online on our phones while we waited. I was amazed to see that our delay and flight difficulties had made the BBC news website! Added to this, it actually said that 'passengers would spend the night in Manchester and go on a 9.00am flight in the morning' !! We had not been told what was happening and it was on the news – disgraceful communication.

Anyway we arrived in Manchester where there was one TC rep., she told us we were going to be getting on a coach taken to a hotel and that there was a provisional time of a 9am flight depending what time everyone got to their hotels. She told us that they (TC) would ring the hotels and tell them what time to have us up for .

We were all sent to 10 different hotels in Manchester and Liverpool as apparently there was a big football match on that night.They dumped about a dozen of us at a Holiday Inn in Burdock(?) and the hotel had no idea who we were and couldn’t find a booking, they said they were full. So they tried phoning someone at Manchester airport but could not speak to anyone, they got us some tea and biscuits which was really welcome at this stage – it was about 12.30 when we were deposited at the hotel and maybe 2-2.30 am by the time they found a booking that they presumed was us (it had been done online and it didn’t specifically say Thomas Cook) but it looked like it was us so they charged their card and gave us our rooms. Staff in the hotel were lovely.

We went to bed at about 2.30 am and hoped to get some rest.......not really so, the phone went at 5.30 am – it was reception saying the coach isoutside, they hadn’t rung ahead and he was waiting for all of us. I was asleep and totally confused, I said so what time is he leaving at? Whenever you’re all ready. So we had to get up, no time to wash,put on same clothes as we'd had on since the day before and get to the coach.

We arrived at the airport and were given a £10 voucher when checking in. The flight eventually departed at approximately 9.45am. The total delay was about 20 hours.

We lost a nights accommodation at our hotel and also a day of our holiday.

So my question is who or what can we claim off/for please?

Can I claim off TC for the flight delay, poor treatment, appalling communication, expenses incurred and loss of a nights accommodation? Thomas Cook gave us a letter stating that there was a delay and it was due to ' an unforeseen operational defect'.

Under EU Regs., I presume we have a claim for the delay too, if so, for what amount? What’s the best way forward here and what order should I do things in?

We have travel insurance too obviously.

I'm unsure who we claim from and for what.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

PS We did have a wonderful time in Cyprus once we got there!

edtheduck_2

Thanks Centipede 100, will go and look for that template and ring the travel insurance company too. I may need to come back to you if I need further advice...?
Regards
ed

edtheduck_2

Centipede, I noticed in your template that you say that there is a hold on claims in England and Wales, I am in Northern Ireland, so what is the situation here do you think? Am I perhaps likely to be outside of this hold, and therefore in a better position ? (said hopefully :-))

saintly_2

Trying to get my head round this regulation, not sure if we are entitled to any compensation due to the wording on the info we got from thomas cook.it said we had an unforseen operationally significant defect

We had a delay of 26 1/2 hours from cuba. We were given 1 drink and the meal off the plane in 12 hours, 1 x 2 minute phone call and hotel accomodation.

Is it worth persuing a claim

Voyager2002

saintly wrote: »

Trying to get my head round this regulation, not sure if we are entitled to any compensation due to the wording on the info we got from thomas cook.it said we had an unforseen operationally significant defect

We had a delay of 26 1/2 hours from cuba. We were given 1 drink and the meal off the plane in 12 hours, 1 x 2 minute phone call and hotel accomodation.

Is it worth persuing a claim

Spelling: pursuing.

(No-one will take you seriously if you write like an illiterate.)

Depending on the reason for the delay, you MAY be entitled to compensation of 600 Euro per passenger. Up to you whether or not you think it is worth going to a lot of trouble for such a relatively small amount of money.

You were certainly entitled to "care" during the time that you were waiting. Do you believe that the "care" that you received was inadequate? If so, then if you spent your own money on additional food and drink (not alcohol) and have kept the receipts, you are likely to get a refund of what you spent.

moriarty888

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Spelling: pursuing.

(No-one will take you seriously if you write like an illiterate.)

.

Wow, how incredibly rude. Pursuing happens to be a word that a lot of people have trouble with. Spelling it incorrectly does not make a person an illiterate. Calling someone an illiterate does make a person come across as rude though.

n6u2k0e

I've just been informed that my flight that was scheduled to leave at 21.05 on Sat 6th Oct (tomorrow) has been delayed until 01.25 Sunday.

I was wondering if we would qualify for this compensation scheme, or if it only applies to delays once you have checked in (which would be 17.25 today)?

This delay has not yet been added to the online system, which is still showing the original departure time for our flight.

jpsartre

A delay is a delay whether or not you've checked in.

Voyager2002

There was a very interesting ruling from the ECJ yesterday: the press release is at
http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-10/cp120125en.pdf

While the ruling relates to some quite specific circumstances, the way in which the judges explained their decision is very encouraging even to people delayed for different reasons.