Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

richardw

See post #4030

Heidspide

gizmocarole wrote: »

Has any one had a reply from Monarch Airlines. I sent a letter on 9th November 2012 + have not even had an acknowledgement

Hi,

I sent a letter 8 Nov recorded delivery and then standard Monarch EU claim form with all supporting documents 30 Nov by email; I have had acknowledgement 13 Dec that they have received my claim:

Thank you for your recent email.

I would like to acknowledge safe receipt of your form. If we require any additional information from you we will be in touch and let you know.

Before responding substantively to your claim, we will need some time to investigate the circumstances surrounding your delay. This may involve obtaining feedback from a number of different areas of the business and, in some circumstances, third party suppliers. Nevertheless, our aim is to respond to you as quickly as possible.

We will notify you once our investigations are complete. But in the meantime, thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

Kind Regards
David Bulut
Monarch EU Claims Advisor
euclaim@monarch.co.uk

I sent an additional claim through today and they now send a standard response:

Thank you for your e-mail. This is an auto response to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail.

If you have attached an EU claim form:
We will process the claim and confirm to you in a further e-mail that your claim has been accepted. In the meantime, if we require any additional information from you we will be in touch and let you know.

If you are enquiring about a previously submitted claim:
Please be aware, that we will need some time to investigate the circumstances surrounding your delay. This may involve obtaining feedback from a number of different areas of the business and in some circumstances, third party suppliers.

Our aim is to process all claims as quickly as possible however, please be aware that due to the large number of enquiries we have received, this may take longer than expected.

We will notify you once our investigations are complete and we would like to thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kind Regards,

Customer Service Team
Monarch

I'll keep you posted if I hear anything else; I believe the claim to be a cut and dried case as the delay was due to crew illness - I even have a letter from them apologising for the delay.

thalia22

Mark2spark wrote: »

Interesting that you quote that percentage, - I'm sure I read somewhere (perhaps in the advocate generals findings) that it was calculated that only 0.15% of flights would attract compensation claims.
Maybe the airlines have been getting away with a shoddier service than reckoned for far too long.

Marks2spark is absolutely correct; see below issued from the ECJ grand chamber on the 23/10/2012. Quote:-

82 Furthermore, as the Advocate General observed in point 60 of his Opinion, according to data provided to the Court on the frequency of long delays and the costs of the compensation in question for airlines, the proportion of flights for which delay confers entitlement to the compensation provided for under Regulation No 261/2004 is less than 0.15%.

See also the Advocate General BOT on 15/5/2012 publication 63/12 below. Quote;

60. In that regard, according to the figures brought to the attention of the European Commission by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), less than 1.2% of flights potentially fall under the scope of the regulation’s provisions on delayed flights. Moreover, less than 0.5% of delayed flights are delayed by three hours or more, whether or not the delay is due to extraordinary circumstances. The proportion of flights for which delay confers entitlement to the compensation provided for in Article 7 of the regulation is less than 0.15%. (28)

These are the ECJ's legal facts as proof of the low numbers of potential cases. Hope this helps to clarify the situation.

111KAB

Heidspide wrote: »

I even have a letter from them apologising for the delay.

I have 3 letters and two emails from Monarch apologising for my delay however I still had to submit a claim via MCOL! They have submitted their defence (still awaited due to Christmas post) and my guess is it will go to Court spring/summer next year.

Mark2spark

I'm also awaiting Monarch, they had my claim form and supporting doc's by recorded sent on 31 Oct. I have chased them up via customer services and have had pretty much the same replies as above, - excepting they have conceded that the first plane was out of service from 'technical difficulties', so they had to send two smaller planes to get us. One came and left on time, but the one we was designated was 5 + hours late on arrival.
So there isn't that much for them to investigate really.
Considering the above post that supposedly only 0.15% of flights are to be liable for compensation, they appear to be making a big meal of it.
Good I say... cos if/when it gets to court they are just digging themselves a deeper hole IMO

Mark2spark

dwarfer1113 wrote: »

Hi All!.

Man this thread got really big really quickly!

Im in need of advice regarding our delayed flight on 15/9/2012.

tcx 6016 original flight time 14-30 actual flight time 19-15 newcastle to alicante.

I emailed the thomas cook website stating the ECJ ruling and finally got the reply from TC CRT "Blah Blah Blah..........."extraordinary = no compensation"

Now im about to write back but just need to be sure im doing this right!

Do I ask what the "extraordinary" circumstances were?

Send them the link to curia.europa.eu?

State that the ECJ says compensation must be paid?

Insist that I have a valid claim for compensation and if they disagree I have no other course of action othaer than court proceedings?

If this is wrong could some kind soul correct me

If its correct how would I start court proceedings?

Thanks to all advice in advance :T

The blah blah blah was probably their reasoning as to what constituted Extraordinary Circumstances (I'm going to shorten that to E.C.'s from now on).
So if you could post what they said then we could give you your next step.

dwarfer1113

Mark2spark wrote: »

The blah blah blah was probably their reasoning as to what constituted Extraordinary Circumstances (I'm going to shorten that to E.C.'s from now on).
So if you could post what they said then we could give you your next step.

Thanks for the helpful reply!

The letter is as follows...............

I am writing in response to your letter regarding your recent travel arrangements with TC.

It is with great regret that I note your flight with us was delayed. Whilst delays are an unfortinate part of air travel, I would like to assure you that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure that any disruption to our passengers is kept to an absolute minimum.

When a delay is initially identified, it is not always immediately apparent as to when a revised take off time can be secured. A number of factors have to be considered, which can vary dependant on the reason for the delay, and quite often we a reliant on outside influences, such as Airport Authorities or Air Traffic Control. Throughout, however, as soon as confirmed imformation is available, this is passed onto our customers as quickly as possible, through our hadling agents at the airport.

Although delays do occur on occasion, they can arrise for a number of different reasons, and having carried out a full investigation the specific circumstances surrounding the delay to your own flight were of a technical nature which were extraordinary, despite TC taking all reasonable precautions necessary to prevent the situation. All aircraft can experience technical problems which are unforseen, despite all reasonable attempts to ensure they are maintained to a good standard, in line with CAA regulations. These situations can be compared the the maintainance of your own car, which can break down at any time without prior warning, regardless of its service history, and would be considered completely beyond the owners control.

I can see that customers were provided with welfare during the delay, in line with our obligations under EU Regulation 261/2001. As the events were defined as "extraordinary" no payment of compensation is considered appropriate in this case.

Please be assured that on time performance is a key measure for us as a business, and we constantly review our operations to ensure we deliver the best results, and service. I would like to offer our apologies for any inconvenience you were caused on this occasion and hope that despite this your stay was found to be an enjoyable one.

Yours sincerely

Neil Halson

Customer relations team
customer relations executive.

Mark2spark

Well, other posters have also received that letter. TC are basically calling everything extraordinary. Technical issues *are* within their control. They fixed it didn't they? Therefore it was under their control. Air traffic control didn't fix it.
Whilst the timing of the breakdown is unknown, the control of fixing it and being on your way in less than the 3 hours deadline for compensation to kick in, *is* what the whole ruling is meant as.
So you give them one more chance, by letter, same letter also giving them 14 days to reply, and that you reserve the right to commence legal action without further notice.
You use MCOL.
You're obviously aware that they won't pay up without you taking them to court?
You could bring the CAA into play now if you like, it'll take several weeks to get a reply from them, but it'll take several weeks to get a court date, so you might as well go armed, at court, with a letter from the CAA saying that the technical issues aren't deemed extraordinary.

charltonfan1

Should we have one general discussion thread and then separate threads per airline?

I'm one of many Monarch claimants and find myself reviewing this thread's posts a lot of which relates to other airlines

VK-2008

Hi
Where does one stand regarding being compensated after being taken off a flight by an airline due to technical fault then being delayed 5 hours to get on another flight with another airline (which original company did pay for) then getting flown to incorrect airport which resulted in a near 5 hour bus journey to get home?
We had booked and paid for inflight meals and prebookable seats which we never got I would expect a refund for the charges for meals and seats but thought I would be entitled to something else as to top it off we had plans to go out for dinner the night we got back as it was my birthday and that resulted in it being cancelled
Any thoughts or links to anything would be much appreciated
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