Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

NoviceAngel

Vauban wrote: »

My understanding is that as a principle statutory compensation awarded by a court is generally not taxable, except where it relates to matters of lost income, etc, where you would have paid tax on that in the first place. But I'm not an expert, and perhaps someone has a definitive authority on this.

Thanks for that Vauban, that would explain why my BT damages, were taxable as they did relate to loss of income.

JPears

In the bank/credit card charge refunds scandal several years ago, I believe HMRC, delightful !!!!!! that they are, were seeking tax on any "positive" interest paid on the refund of charges. Not the refund of overcharged interest. If that makes sense.
I think they could argue that tax should be paid on any interest received, but this seems to be received by few and refused to many!

Mark2spark

I think we're touching on the crux. The statutory compensation figure is tax free, but any interest the court awards should be declared.
Whether you pay tax on it from there depends on other matters in your annual income figures and your personal allowance.

Mark117

I was due to fly to Barcelona on Easyjet yesterday from Newcastle, our flight was cancelled and a possible alternative was flying on Sunday, as we were due back on Monday this was not feasible. I appreciate that the cause of the issues currently with flight delays/cancellations are not the fault of the airline, but Easyjet made the decision to cancel this particular flight and not delay it when other Easyjet flights did depart/land. In this circumstance, do we have rights to compensation as it was the airlines decision to cancel?

NoviceAngel

Mark117 wrote: »

I was due to fly to Barcelona on Easyjet yesterday from Newcastle, our flight was cancelled and a possible alternative was flying on Sunday, as we were due back on Monday this was not feasible. I appreciate that the cause of the issues currently with flight delays/cancellations are not the fault of the airline, but Easyjet made the decision to cancel this particular flight and not delay it when other Easyjet flights did depart/land. In this circumstance, do we have rights to compensation as it was the airlines decision to cancel?

No you wouldn't be able claim under EC261.

The airline will probably claim an EC due to the air traffic strike so back to your travel insurance, you may have a claim there.

haggis2

kipsterno1 wrote: »

Ok I'll start with the good news. Got confirmation today that TC will pay us a total of £885.00 following a delay to our flight last year. A big thanks to the site for the comprehensive guide to making a claim.

I have read back a few pages but forgive me if this has been discussed and covered. One of the posts highlighted that there seemed to be a lot of new comments and it looks like there may have been a mass clearing of claims. This made me think as I lodged my claim last September and was told it was on hold in mid October pending the court result. Now here is my point - At the time I registered my claim the exchange rate for the Euro was 1.25. Based on this exchange rate the payout would have been £960. Do you think someone has twigged that they can save a few pounds and payout while the euro is in such a poor state?

Just a thought. I know that some would get less if the claim was settle on the exchange rate for the date of travel.

Hello I'm had exactly the same with a claim with BA.
Exchange rate was 1.25 when the claim was submitted ( the day after the delay ) and they settled at 1.41 euro.

NoviceAngel

haggis2 wrote: »

Hello I'm had exactly the same with a claim with BA.
Exchange rate was 1.25 when the claim was submitted ( the day after the delay ) and they settled at 1.41 euro.

You DO NOT have to accept a poor exchange rate, see http://www.flightdelays.co.uk/blog/2015/1284/court-rules-easyjet-to-pay-uk-passengers-in-gbp

Cheers,

NoviceAngel

stevemej

NoviceAngel wrote: »

You DO NOT have to accept a poor exchange rate, see http://www.flightdelays.co.uk/blog/2015/1284/court-rules-easyjet-to-pay-uk-passengers-in-gbp

Cheers,

NoviceAngel

hey there nursey, the article says that the exchange rate IS the rate when court procedings were initiated NOT when a claim was made.

NoviceAngel

stevemej wrote: »

hey there nursey, the article says that the exchange rate IS the rate when court procedings were initiated NOT when a claim was made.

Indeed it does, but very often claims have been stayed for months pending 'Huzar' and some are getting stayed pending the 'VdL' reference, so it's worth knowing you can go back a few months/years.... In my case it made just over £100 difference.

Cheers,

NoviceAngel

DanDeerskin

Hi folks - apologies in advance that this is a bit long winded - probably to receive a simple, straight forward answer but I need my mind putting at ease!

I've had a read of relevant threads and completely accept that due to being caught up in issues related with the French ATC Strike, I'm not likely to get anywhere with Ryanair via EC261/2004; however I was wondering would you mind passing an eye over our specific circumstances and if there are any issues which might present our case as 'special circumstances'.

Basically, we were given no indication of delay prior to boarding our plane - when it was then announced it could be around 1hr 30mins before we could leave. In total, it was over 3 hours on board - only half a glass of water between us was offered and the heat was pretty unbearable. We were disembarked when the captain was informed it would be at least 4 hours before we would be able to depart - to his credit you could hear the anger in his voice.

On returning to the airport, there was no information or directions until about half an hour later when an airport employee told us the flight was cancelled and we should attend the airlines desk in check-in. No info was given for another hour to those who had checked luggage in.

Perhaps this decision that my partner and I made when making it to the airlines desk (or one of the two massive queues, to be precise) is critical in what I can or cannot claim back from the airline. With the queue being so large, I walked down and spoke to a number of people and families closer to the front to find out what the result of waiting to speak with the airline might be (hotels, food, rebooking, etc). It became clear that those only half way down this queue had been there for 3 hours themselves and the general consensus was that only refund/rebooking options were being given - no offers of food or accommodation. By this point we had received e-mail/sms about cancellation with a link to rebook/refund and that it is now after 11pm.

At this stage, both my partner and I were struggling with the crowds as we both have mental illnesses (all fully disclosed on travel insurance) so me made the call to get in touch with our hotel to see if they had room for 2 nights - knowing the strike was to continue the next day we absolutely did not want to risk being in the same situation the next day - in fact I was quite ill owing to the experience the following morning owing to my conditions.

Finally, we looked at options on return to our hotel but the option of rebooking was only the same route we had booked - with the next seats available being 6 days away now. To reroute, we got in touch the next morning with the airline and got booked to Glasgow, 40 hours after our original flight. We then completed our journey home via train, which I informed to the airline was our intentions when rebooking.

In an ideal world, I would like to be compensated for the following:
- 2 nights hotel
- Return taxi from airport to hotel
- Train tickets from Glasgow Prestwick to our closest mainline station

Is the airline liable for any of these costs or am I wasting my time and should I just get onto my insurer instead?

Again apologies for the long post, appreciate any help anyone can provide.

Nathan