Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

richardw

Might be worth getting the deadline for easyJet's defence from the court, also have a read about default judgements on HM Courts website

Voyager2002

ronster1 wrote: »

Hi there

A quick question. Having exhausted other channels, I wish to initiate small claims action against Ryanair for non-reimbursement of expenses incurred due to a delayed flight. As they are in Ireland and I am from England, do I proceed through English or Irish courts?

Cheers

I remember that this was discussed back in 2008, so do a search to find the full details. As I recall it, you need to send a formal 'letter before action' to their registered office in England, which is at Stansted. Then that is the address you use for serving court papers, and the action can proceed in the English courts.

I am surprised that you are having difficulty, since when this happened to me they paid everything I claimed within about six weeks. Did you write by snail-mail to their customer care team in Dublin? And I hope that your letter did not ask for "compensation", since it seems that what you require is "care".

nwolsten

richardw wrote: »

I think it is calendar days, about day 20 you might get an e mail from easyJet offering a gesture of goodwill settlement that may be much less than your claim.
Did you submit your claim through Money Claim on line?

Would you believe, we are actually just on 20 days and I get this from Easyjet:

"I am in receipt of your claim filed in the Northampton County Court. On behalf of easyJet I apologise for the inconvenience you experienced as a result of your flight being cancelled.

I have looked into the flight in question and see that EZY8667 was scheduled to operate on aircraft G-TTIF. The flight was cancelled due to technical issues affecting the aircraft which was originally scheduled to operate your flight. The PA handset malfunctioned, and as an essential safety component, it was necessary to fix the PA system before it could operate its next sector. The technical fault was detected unexpectedly on the day of departure. The cancellation caused by a technical fault constitutes an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ under the governing regulation, that is, the occurrence was outside the reasonable control of the airline. By the time the aircraft was fixed, the crew had exceeded their legal working limits for the day, which necessitated the cancellation of your flight.
Let me point out that reading point 14 of the Preamble to the Regulation (EC) 261/2004, you will recall that an “unexpected flight safety shortcoming” can give rise to an extraordinary circumstance. The technical failure of the aircraft in this instance was an unexpected shortcoming with an obvious consequence to the safe completion of the flight.

In light of the above I confirm that you are not entitled to EU compensation stipulated in regulation 261/2004 as the technical event is deemed to be an extraordinary circumstance and is therefore excluded from the provisions of Article 7 of EC261/2004.

However, in the interests of economy and with a view to settling this matter amicably, I would like to off you £25.00 to cover your court fee + £100.00 in easyJet vouchers as a goodwill gesture.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course. "


My thoughts:

1) Strange, the PA system was fixed and we subsequently boarded. 2) Given the same crew was set to crew the return I believe they had enough hours for our sector

Thoughts anyone?
Is this Easyjet's normal stance i.e. deny deny then deny some more then offer less than they need to?

Am I duty bound to respond or do I just let it run its course to 28 days then ask for a judgement in default?

Voyager2002

nwolsten wrote: »

Would you believe, we are actually just on 20 days and I get this from Easyjet:

"I am in receipt of your claim filed in the Northampton County Court. On behalf of easyJet I apologise for the inconvenience you experienced as a result of your flight being cancelled.

I have looked into the flight in question and see that EZY8667 was scheduled to operate on aircraft G-TTIF. The flight was cancelled due to technical issues affecting the aircraft which was originally scheduled to operate your flight. The PA handset malfunctioned, and as an essential safety component, it was necessary to fix the PA system before it could operate its next sector. The technical fault was detected unexpectedly on the day of departure. The cancellation caused by a technical fault constitutes an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ under the governing regulation, that is, the occurrence was outside the reasonable control of the airline. By the time the aircraft was fixed, the crew had exceeded their legal working limits for the day, which necessitated the cancellation of your flight.
Let me point out that reading point 14 of the Preamble to the Regulation (EC) 261/2004, you will recall that an “unexpected flight safety shortcoming” can give rise to an extraordinary circumstance. The technical failure of the aircraft in this instance was an unexpected shortcoming with an obvious consequence to the safe completion of the flight.

In light of the above I confirm that you are not entitled to EU compensation stipulated in regulation 261/2004 as the technical event is deemed to be an extraordinary circumstance and is therefore excluded from the provisions of Article 7 of EC261/2004.

However, in the interests of economy and with a view to settling this matter amicably, I would like to off you £25.00 to cover your court fee + £100.00 in easyJet vouchers as a goodwill gesture.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course. "


My thoughts:

1) Strange, the PA system was fixed and we subsequently boarded. 2) Given the same crew was set to crew the return I believe they had enough hours for our sector

Thoughts anyone?
Is this Easyjet's normal stance i.e. deny deny then deny some more then offer less than they need to?

Am I duty bound to respond or do I just let it run its course to 28 days then ask for a judgement in default?

Yes, you should respond. You need to make it clear to the court that you have made all reasonable efforts to resolve the matter amicably. If Easyjet show up in court and can demonstrate that they made an offer to you and you didn't reply, the court will tend to favour them.

My understanding is that the Directive is very clear that technical problems do not constitute "extraordinary circumstances". If my understanding proves to be correct, I think you should contact the AUC and through them the CAA, since this seems to be deliberate dishonesty.

LouCor

Hi, I was wondering if any of you good people would care to offer an opinion on my travel delay and if we would be entitled to any compensation.

We travelled back on VS74 (dep time 20.25)from MCO to Man on 21/22 Oct. Unfortunately, due to an unruly passenger the captain decided to divert to Gander airport in Canada to offload him (he hit his wife and father in law and issued some death threat to the crew!!). This caused us to be on the ground for almost 3 hours.

We had a connecting flight to ABZ at 12.35 (BD1373) and landed in Man at 11.50 whereby an announcement over the tannoy informed us that our luggage would be on the carousel and we would be going by coach to Aberdeen.

On talking to groundstaff it became apparent that we had been bumped from the flight as the other virgin flights from MCO that day were delayed so other passengers got our seats.

We did get £10 each to spend on refreshments for the bus.

The bus driver confirmed he had been called at 11.30 so a decision was taken without consulting us.

to be honest we were already checked in for the aberdeen flight and i think we could have been rushed through to make that flight.

What do you all think?

Charter Travel who we booked through have advised us to contact Virgin, BMI direct, so we have sent letters today.

I would appreciate any feedback as I am not familiar with airline compensation rules.

thanks.

richardw

nwolsten wrote: »

The technical fault was detected unexpectedly on the day of departure.

They may have stated this because in the case

Friederike Wallentin-Hermann V Alitalia – Linee Aeree Italiane Spa

http://www.twobirds.com/English/News/Articles/Pages/Denied_boarding_regulations.Aspx

the fault was detected the day before departure and they may try and argue that this judgment does not apply to your circumstances. Cityboy may have further input on this.

Perhaps it is a bit of a red herring, do you think it is extraordinary that they didn't have a standby crew to operate the aircraft or perhaps a bit of an ordinary excuse considering it has been well reported that they've had crew problems at Gatwick http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2010/07/21/easyjet-flights-delayed-or-cancelled-as-crews-unavailable/

N9eav

On 23 Oct Me and the missus flew to Chicago by Air France from Bristol.

Our return flight was on 30th Oct by KLM (same group).

Flight was due to leave at 16.20 US time but was delayed and delayed and eventually cancelled for technical reasons. After waiting at the airport until 3.30am they provided us with a hotel and $30 vouchers for food.

They rescheduled us for a flight with Delta via Atlanta and Amsterdam. We got back to Bristol 24 hours late. They offered a $100 voucher each towards any future travel...

Can I claim more or did we do OK? Both of us missed a days work and the food voucher did not really cover 24 hours food in airport and hotel.....

? thanks

Voyager2002

N9eav wrote: »

On 23 Oct Me and the missus flew to Chicago by Air France from Bristol.

Our return flight was on 30th Oct by KLM (same group).

Flight was due to leave at 16.20 US time but was delayed and delayed and eventually cancelled for technical reasons. After waiting at the airport until 3.30am they provided us with a hotel and $30 vouchers for food.

They rescheduled us for a flight with Delta via Atlanta and Amsterdam. We got back to Bristol 24 hours late. They offered a $100 voucher each towards any future travel...

Can I claim more or did we do OK? Both of us missed a days work and the food voucher did not really cover 24 hours food in airport and hotel.....

? thanks

Please read the article for a full answer to your question.

A quick answer: under the EU Directive, if a flight cancellation means that a long-haul passenger arrives more than three hours after the original arrival time, then they are entitled to compensation of ^00 Euro each, in cash (not just vouchers). They are also entitled to "care" (food, hotel) so if the food voucher was not enough and you used your own money to pay for food and telephone calls during the delay, you should be able to claim this back against the receipts.

nwolsten

Hey guys

EJ have now offered full compensation plus court fee which I am going to accept.

Do I instruct EJ to pay within 7 days? By cheque, onto a particualr card?

I'm just reading the MCOL faq to see what I do now regarding the court proceedings and how to proceed however any help or experiences appreciated - just dont want to make any mistakes at this delicate stage.

thanks

nwolsten

Thanks to all, it hasn't been arduous really.

With all the great help and advice here i feel an individual can stand up for themselves.

Finally, I have received a further reply. EJ want me to sign the following release upon receipt of which a cheque will be raised.