Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

batman44

edwolf88 wrote: »

Hi

Hoping someone might help

We had a delay of over 24 hours on a return flight from Cancun to Gatwick. On the day of our return everything was going to plan right up to the time of departure. Some of us passengers had even boarded the plane and taken our seats ready for take off. It was at this time we were then quickly asked to leave the plane.

Amongst utter confusion we were told to go to a different gate where there was another Cook airplane waiting. While at the same time the passengers who had previously been at this other gate had started boarding our plane. Confused we watched what was our plane take off while we were still waiting.

It was at this time everyone started to demand what was happening. It was then they informed us that the plane we were now given had a technical fault and it would'nt be until tomorrow before they could even fly another part from London. When questioned over swapping planes, they answered it was to T Cooks benefit that the Manchester passenger commandeerd our plane because of some knock on effect.

We contacted T Cook several times who have dug their heels in saying our delay was due to a technical nature, which were extraordinary,

I find I difficult to swallow about technical natures and such like, because the plane we had took off on time but to Manchester not Gatwick. Reason for our delay was T Cook denied us boarding our scheduled flight and bounced us to one they already new had a fault and a long delay.

You can claim check the faqs on page 1 and the TC thread, tech fault are not EC's

Glitzy_Little_Pixie

Hi everyone, I was wondering if you could help me. I was delayed on a flight to Egypt. We flew from Manchester set off and about 20/30 minutes in they put an announcement on to say there was a fault and we would have to land, we had to circle round London for about 3/4 hours because the plane had too much fuel to land then we were delayed in the airport for 12 hours. One problem is I can't remember the date I flew - I know it was in June but not sure what year. Is there any way I can find out this information? we received a letter to say that we could claim at the time but I stupidly forgot to book insurance before I went (first holiday) so I never bothered taking it any further. Please help if you can!!

Caz3121

Glitzy_Little_Pixie wrote: »

Hi everyone, I was wondering if you could help me. I was delayed on a flight to Egypt. We flew from Manchester set off and about 20/30 minutes in they put an announcement on to say there was a fault and we would have to land, we had to circle round London for about 3/4 hours because the plane had too much fuel to land then we were delayed in the airport for 12 hours. One problem is I can't remember the date I flew - I know it was in June but not sure what year. Is there any way I can find out this information? we received a letter to say that we could claim at the time but I stupidly forgot to book insurance before I went (first holiday) so I never bothered taking it any further. Please help if you can!!

Start with the FAQs on the dedicated thread for the airline you flew with.
You will find info on flightstats - you will need to check every flight on that route for each day in June for the last x years (if it was longer than 6 years ago you have no claim anyway) - your problem will be if there are multiple dates with delays (likely) so you may need to send a SAR to the airline

len49

I’ve been hanging off to see if anyone felt similarly to me after watching Martin’s TV show last night but I can’t see any takers so here goes my tuppence worth.

As someone in an unresolved fight with Thomas Cook since October 2010, I believe that Martin’s show could prove more of a hindrance than a help to claimants.

He and Saira trivialised and over simplified what to lots of us on the blog know can be a painful, needlessly extended, and seemingly, endless process. Some of it was pretty tasteless nonsense done in Brucie’s ‘Play Your Cards Right” fashion (“all it can take is a letter”), ha ha, if only!

The assertion by Martin that your chance of success varies depending on the airline, as any blogger will tell you, was misleading and inaccurate. A more accurate response would have been that, there's no rhyme or reason as to why, but occasionally an airline rolls over and settles with some claimants. However, mostly, they play hard ball, often completely blank customers, use intimidating tactics, leave customers with no option other than legal action and then lodge weak appeals when court judgements go against them.
The example he used of the woman who claimed, while laughing, to have “got £2,000 compensation, which was more than the holiday cost” must have caused a few raised eyebrows from any of the judiciary who may have been watching and by countless unaffected, impartial viewers.

The grand finale comment throwing doubt on passengers’ sense of fairness if they make a claim following a delay occurred on a cheap ticket on a budget flight showed a complete misunderstanding of the law. Surely his researchers could have told him that, as all MSE bloggers know by now, the claim would be for compensation for lost time regardless of the cost of the fare, which I might add, the Airline, obviously, was willing to provide.

I appreciate that Martin is a busy and much in demand personality and that ITV would not want to overly aggravate their airline/holiday advertisement paying clients too greatly. However, I think that if his researchers actually read and kept up to date with even some of the blog he could have made a more thoughtful, tasteful and accurate presentation and been less harmful to the eventual outcome of passengers who claim compensation after being wronged by Airlines who wilfully flout Regulation 261/2004.

In stark contrast to this week’s excellent BBC offering “The Sheriffs are Coming” I felt that any airline legal team members watching Martins show might have been using one of Brucie’s catchphrases “didn’t he do well”, albeit for the airlines. As for Saira’s performance, I concur with Lord Sugar’s final Ruling on her when he told her “with regrets Saira, your fired”.

Just my opinion.

len

111KAB wrote: »

Tonight ......The Martin Lewis Money Show
ITV

Martin Lewis Money Show (Series 3), Episode 3
Today on ITV from 8:00pm to 8:30pm
......... The reclaim store opens its doors again as Martin shows how to claim flight delay compensation.

Vauban

I agree with you Len. He fluffed the point about "knock on" weather related delays (citing some county court judgement, rather than, er, the Regulation itself), and offered no attempt to clear up the technical problem point. And you're right: the whole pitch was here is free money - just take it, it's yours!!! I know it is ITV, but even so ...

batman44

len49 wrote: »

I’ve been hanging off to see if anyone felt similarly to me after watching Martin’s TV show last night but I can’t see any takers so here goes my tuppence worth.

As someone in an unresolved fight with Thomas Cook since October 2010, I believe that Martin’s show could prove more of a hindrance than a help to claimants.

He and Saira trivialised and over simplified what to lots of us on the blog know can be a painful, needlessly extended, and seemingly, endless process. Some of it was pretty tasteless nonsense done in Brucie’s ‘Play Your Cards Right” fashion (“all it can take is a letter”), ha ha, if only!

The assertion by Martin that your chance of success varies depending on the airline, as any blogger will tell you, was misleading and inaccurate. A more accurate response would have been that, there's no rhyme or reason as to why, but occasionally an airline rolls over and settles with some claimants. However, mostly, they play hard ball, often completely blank customers, use intimidating tactics, leave customers with no option other than legal action and then lodge weak appeals when court judgements go against them.
The example he used of the woman who claimed, while laughing, to have “got £2,000 compensation, which was more than the holiday cost” must have caused a few raised eyebrows from any of the judiciary who may have been watching and by countless unaffected, impartial viewers.

The grand finale comment throwing doubt on passengers’ sense of fairness if they make a claim following a delay occurred on a cheap ticket on a budget flight showed a complete misunderstanding of the law. Surely his researchers could have told him that, as all MSE bloggers know by now, the claim would be for compensation for lost time regardless of the cost of the fare, which I might add, the Airline, obviously, was willing to provide.

I appreciate that Martin is a busy and much in demand personality and that ITV would not want to overly aggravate their airline/holiday advertisement paying clients too greatly. However, I think that if his researchers actually read and kept up to date with even some of the blog he could have made a more thoughtful, tasteful and accurate presentation and been less harmful to the eventual outcome of passengers who claim compensation after being wronged by Airlines who wilfully flout Regulation 261/2004.

In stark contrast to this week’s excellent BBC offering “The Sheriffs are Coming” I felt that any airline legal team members watching Martins show might have been using one of Brucie’s catchphrases “didn’t he do well”, albeit for the airlines. As for Saira’s performance, I concur with Lord Sugar’s final Ruling on her when he told her “with regrets Saira, your fired”.

Just my opinion.

len

Post 4675 Thomas cook delays thread
Martin made that sound so easy for them to pay up, all those people saying I got this, i got that just by writing a letter. The truth is many have to go the legal route. I think martin needs to look at the threads on this as the reality is something different that what he just said on tv.

rhubarb27

Thanks to seeing Martin on one of his programmes in May last year my wife and I realised that we could claim compensation for a flight delay we suffered in 2007. We had a 6 hour delay on a flight to Chicago from Heathrow by Air India. After numerous un- answered registered letters to them we were running out of time as our time frame expired on 2/9/2007. I also wrote to the CAA who wrote back saying they were too busy and could not deal with our claim within the time frame. I obtained papers from the Small Claims Court and soon realised that I would not complete the claim in time. In desperation I googled " delayed flight claims " and found a company called EUDELAY. I spoke with the founder / director who said that if I gave them authority to act on our behalf they would manage our claim and that was in June / July within a matter of weeks they had prepared the papers and put Air India in to Court. After a very short time Air India admitted liability and paid up, we were awarded the maximum that could be awarded. Yes EUDELAY do charge 25% but we did not have sufficient time to win our case, 75% of the maximum is worth much more than nothing. I would always recommend this company to anyone who is short of time, doesn't think that they are capable of managing it themselves. So yes a big thanks to Martin :money:and also to Eudelay WE WON, worth the hassle YES

Vauban

rhubarb27 wrote: »

After numerous un- answered registered letters to them we were running out of time as our time frame expired on 2/9/2007. I also wrote to the CAA who wrote back saying they were too busy and could not deal with our claim within the time frame. I obtained papers from the Small Claims Court and soon realised that I would not complete the claim in time. In desperation I googled " delayed flight claims " and found a company called EUDELAY. I spoke with the founder / director who said that if I gave them authority to act on our behalf they would manage our claim and that was in June / July within a matter of weeks they had prepared the papers and put Air India in to Court.

Just to be clear, in case others are mislead by your post, you in fact had plenty of time to bring your case and didn't need to involve a NWNF company for that reason. The 6 year timeframe is 6 years to bring a legal action - not resolve it. So once the papers are served on the other side - just after you fill in your first form - the clock is stopped. It doesn't matter then how long it takes actually to get to court.

Of course, there are lots of other advantages to using a NWNF company, not least they take away the hassle (it's a lot of time and effort) of dealing with the claim yourself.

len49

Hi Batman

Sorry I missed your post last night. I'm glad that we seem to agree that Martin messed up last night. He projected the wrong image entirely that could lead to more than a few County Court Judges, or in my case, Scottish Sheriffs, lacking empathy with claimants thought to be looking for easy money. As we all know there is never a guaranteed outcome in any action so why take the chance of rubbing the Judiciary up the wrong way.

len

batman44 wrote: »

Post 4675 Thomas cook delays thread
Martin made that sound so easy for them to pay up, all those people saying I got this, i got that just by writing a letter. The truth is many have to go the legal route. I think martin needs to look at the threads on this as the reality is something different that what he just said on tv.

richardw

What I find a little disappointing is that other rights under the 261/2004 reg haven't really been given that much prominence on the TV show. I'm thinking right to care and right to re-routing which in some circumstances can be very important and more significant than €250 compensation, perhaps that wouldn't be good telly.