Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

rusty_frog

LBD wrote: »

Good Morning all here is the email sent by Monarch this morning ............

....

I would definitely go for cash and not vouchers.
The latter would not be worth much if Monarch went bust!

Bigger companies than them have!

davetheman

We had a flight cancelled to Ibiza in 2009 and get the flight next day, I wrote to easyjet whom have come back with:-

We do everything we can to provide a punctual and reliable service. Unfortunately, there are sometimes occasions when we cannot operate our flights due to circumstances beyond our control, such as during adverse technical conditions, which is what happened in your case.

Situations such as these are considered ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under our Terms and Conditions, as well as under European Union legislation (Regulation EC 261/2004), which means it was outside our reasonable control. I am afraid that as per this ruling I will not be allowed to assess you claim for compensation.

rusty_frog

davetheman wrote: »

We had a flight cancelled to Ibiza in 2009 and get the flight next day, I wrote to easyjet whom have come back with:-

We do everything we can to provide a punctual and reliable service. Unfortunately, there are sometimes occasions when we cannot operate our flights due to circumstances beyond our control, such as during adverse technical conditions, which is what happened in your case.

Situations such as these are considered ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under our Terms and Conditions, as well as under European Union legislation (Regulation EC 261/2004), which means it was outside our reasonable control. I am afraid that as per this ruling I will not be allowed to assess you claim for compensation.

"Adverse technical conditions" that's a new one to watch out for!

davetheman

Guess this is a show stopper, or should I try going further?

Monxton_Hatter

davetheman wrote: »

Guess this is a show stopper, or should I try going further?

davetheman - have a look at Centipede100's response (post #3101) to my query. It may be relevant to your situation too.

richardw

davetheman wrote: »

We had a flight cancelled to Ibiza in 2009 and get the flight next day, I wrote to easyjet whom have come back with:-

"We do everything we can to provide a punctual and reliable service. Unfortunately, there are sometimes occasions when we cannot operate our flights due to circumstances beyond our control, such as during adverse technical conditions, which is what happened in your case.

Situations such as these are considered ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under our Terms and Conditions, as well as under European Union legislation (Regulation EC 261/2004), which means it was outside our reasonable control. I am afraid that as per this ruling I will not be allowed to assess you claim for compensation."

What easyJet really mean't to say

"We know all about the outcome of Wallentin Hermann v Alitalia and that we should probably compensate you in accordance with this case under EU Reg 261/2004, but nobody is actually forcing us to do so, so as a cost conscious airline who doesn't give a monkeys about repeat business, we aren't going to."

They are a bit hard-up though http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20406120 not.

Guardian suggests taking easyJet to small claims court http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/nov/16/easyjet-passport-rule-no-fly

Greg_Fester

My wife and I flew from Birmingham to Paphos in October 2010. I paid for my daughter and her family including two small boys aged 2 and 5 to join us after a week.
Their arrival was eagerly awaited at around 4 pm but I was informed that the flight had been delayed. In fact the flight was delayed for 7 and half hours due to a problem with the plane while a part was being flown from Manchester.
This meant that my grandkids not only lost a full days holiday bit were in transit for over 16 hours.
On our return I claimed compensation from Thomas Cook who said that they were not obliged to pay anything.
Recently due to the change in the EUU ruling I made the initial steps to re-new my claim by sending a recorded letter to TC. As yet I have had no reply.
It is my intention to pursue compensation as stipulated by the EU ruling and for the loss of a days holiday for each of the party of 4.
Part of the Small Claims Court advice section 7.2 states : (4) identify and ask for copies of any relevant documents not in the claimant's possession and which the claimant wishes to see.
This is relevant because I cannot remember the flight references and if Thomas Cook are failing to respond to my letter advising them that I am prepared to go to court, how am going to get that information? Any advice from anywhere?

richardw

Greg_Fester wrote: »

..I paid for my daughter and her family including two small boys aged 2 and 5 to join us after a week....

TC are highly likely to not pay out and further action may be required.

Does your daughter's family have legal expenses cover with an insurance policy that covers all of them to bring a small claim against TC?

If not, you need to read up about representing your daughter's family in a small claim against TC.

monkeyspanner

Hello,

I did a quick search to see if anyone had experience of the delays in December 2010 at Gatwick 'due to the snow' and couldn't find anything that was relevant to us. I wonder if you kind people could help to answer some questions for me?

We were travelling to Calgary on 18th December booked with Inghams as our tour operator. The flight was with Thomas Cook which we think had been contracted by Canadian Affair who then sold the flights to various tour operators and individuals.
We suffered an over 24 hour delay, with no assistance such as refreshment vouchers, phone cards, hotel accomodation etc,whatsoever from any party involved. Even though our luggage had been checked at 08.30, we had to collect it around 18.00 and keep it with us throughout the ordeal, which was fortunate in some respects as the heating was turned off in the terminal even though it was -15 outside and we had warm clothes in our bags! We were told repeatedly to leave the terminal building but this was impossible as we had no transport, all public transport had ceased and all hotels were completely full.

We contacted all of the above companies either on the 19th December whilst still in the airport, during our holiday or shortly after we arrived back in the UK on 1st Jan 2011. We have much corresondence from them and all deny any responsibility and sight 'adverse weather conditions' as the cause for this delay.

However, within the text of one of the responses from Thomas Cook there is an admittance that the bulk of the delay was due to the crew being out of hours and therefore the company could not let us fly. This was revealed as we had been asked to go to Departues at approximately 16.30 on the 18th December only to be told after a wait of around 30 minutes that we were unable to board and we would have to return to the pre boarding lounges after collecting our luggage. There was a near riot and apparently a member of my family has featured large on a Sky expose of Gatwick on many occasions!

We also have in writing that there were other Thomas Cook flights landing during the afternoon of the 18th from other parts of the UK and indeed the world. When we finally boarded the next day the crew were horrified that we had been completely left to our own devices as they would have been only too happy to have helped us all the previous day, as they were on the aircraft waiting to take off all of the afternoon of the 18th.

On our return journey to the UK we were given by the Thomas Cook airport representative an A4 photocopied sheet of paper giving our original flight times, delayed flight times and informing us that any claims should be addressed to our insurers, which we eventually did.

After a protracted corresondence with all of the parties involved culminating in being informed by Thomas Cook Customer Relations (!) that there was a legal challenge by the airlines to the EU ruling on compensation for delayed flights, I wrote back to them to let them know I wanted my file to be left open until the ECJ ruling had been given.

If I recall correctly, we also involved the Air Passengers User Council, IATA, CAA, European Commission for EU passenger rights all were toothless and pretty much useless and I still have any responses received.

My questions are:

It is indisputable that the initial reason for the delay was the snow but do I have a claim against any of the parties involved as the majority of this was caused by the crew being out of time?

With whom do I have a claim against, if I have one, as although my contract was with Inghams it was Thomas Cook who created the lengthy delay?

If I have a legitimate claim how should I progress this? Although the snow was the primary reason for our delayed departure, it was the SECONDARY reason of the crew being out of time which delayed us from 16.30 when we were denied boarding at the gate, until 011.00 the next day.

I am also confused regarding the MSE information regarding refunds for flights. We were never given the option to cancel our holiday and if we had been given any such choice, we would have without any hesitation. The MSE information regarding refunds does not make it clear whether a refund is only possible if you choose not to fly or if the flight operator cancelled the flight. Could someone give me an interpretation of this please?

Thanks for reading this as I know it's a long story, but any help that you could give me would be very much appreciated.

richardw

monkeyspanner, what caused the delay that exceeded 3 hours from original departure time?