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Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area
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Last Sunday afternoon, travelling on a package flight to Innsbruck, I had the unfortunate experience of the plane turning back to Gatwick some way into the journey (we were over France), a strong smell of burning in the cabin, and an emergency landing with 6 fire engines racing down the runway to meet us. We ended up having to spend a night in an airport hotel (laid on for us), reporting back to checkin at 0700, and, after even more delays, finally reaching Innsbruck nearly 24 hours late.
Whilst I am pleased we all came out of it alive, we still lost a whole day's skiing (out of 6), including a night's worth of chalet accommodation and food etc for which we had paid in advance. The tour operator has been very quick to pass the blame onto the airline - so what are my chances of successfully claiming some recompense for what we lost, and should I be approaching the package operator, the airline or both? All tips gratefully received. Thanks.0 -
Your insurance company should pay a set amount for a delay of over 12 hours
I don't see you getting anything out of the airline - if it's an extraordinary circumstance nothing is payable and if it's not delay payments are on hold anyway.
Have a closer look at the tour operator's T&C - there may be a way there0 -
Need more details from you before can give a complete answer, flight no/reason given for delay from the airline etc.
Be aware that although the Sturgeon judgement means that airlines should compensate for delays as well as cancellations, that there is a current challenge to this ruling which will not be ruled on for 18 months-2 years. In the meantime UK legal claims for delay compensation have been stayed by the courts.
Flight number EZY6025 January 21st
Reason given by stewardess at gate was tech fault and needed to wait for a plane to come in from Rome.
Once on plane the pilot simply said the other plane was "broken"
I have checked flightstats but I can not get the official take off time
but I believe it was around 14.370 -
Anybody had any luck claiming compensation from Thompson / First Choice for flight delayed by technical fault?
We were delayed for almost 36 hours just before Christmas, and although loads of flights were delayed by snowy weather - ours was technical. We were supposed to receives a letter explaining the delay and what to do, but this never materialised.
I emailed them and got a standard letter confirming the delay was technical and saying that I should claim in my travel insurance - but do want to claim much and with the excess its not worth it!
I emailed again explaining this and that I wanted details of how to claim under EU regulation 261/2004 was sent an automated reply not to expect a reply for 28 days.
I have to say that they looked after us with accomodation and meals, which is why not much compensation is required.
If anyone has any tips I would be grateful......thanks0 -
Travel insurance for delayed departure does not normally have an excess.0
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Has anyone had any success with claiming compensation from Thomson for losing a day's holiday due to a delay caused by a technical fault? I could do with some tips!
I'm about to send them a second letter requesting compensation as they declined to do anything in their replay to my first letter (save pay expenses occured) and I need to know what to put in it. If they decline again, I'll register a complaint with ABTA. I'm not really asking for much as I had 6 days of a 7-day holiday, but it was a stressful and tiring experience.
I originally thought this may be covered by EU regulation 261/2004 but now think it's more likely covered by The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours regulations 1992 (as it was a package booked on Thomson's website). They seem to have ignored these regulations in their letter and also implied that the delay was due to adverse weather and a Spanish air strike; however, the plane was at the boarding gate and could not fly due to a problem with flaps. I have a letter from Thomson that confirms it was delayed due to a technical fault (handed to us at Gatwick).
I am thinking about threatening to give details of my experience to the media and consumer watchdogs - is this a good tactic or likely to ruin any chances of compensation? I also want to mention their extremely poor customer service and quote their hollow promises from their website - 'we will look after you' etc..
Cheers for any help!0 -
Thanks yet again Cityboy!
I wasn't actually going to start a media campaign, just threaten them with it!
So what I am going to do, in summary, is:
-Mention and quote the relevant parts of regulation 14.
-Reaffirm that the delay was not down to weather/strikes (and hence force majeure) but was due to a fault (and that I have proof).
-Highlight their poor customer service.
-Point out the inconsistencies in their letter.
-State what I'd be happy with.
-State that I'll complain to ABTA if I'm not satisifed.
Do you think that's about right?
Thanks,
- Vern.0 -
I have a letter confirming flight Tom5257 was delayed by 29 hours 37 minutes due to technical reasons, on 21st / 22nd december 2010.
I emailed asking how to claim compensation,(assuming that they had a department for this), and today received a reply refering to the Sturgeon case. It says that "they believe that EU 261/2004 does not contain anything that requires us to make the payment that you're asking for." (note - I only asked how to make a claim).
It continues " as your delay was caused by what the regulation calls 'extraordinary circumstances', no compensation would be payable anyway."
I do appreciate that we were looked after in terms of accomodation and meals, but we were told by a rep in resort to keep receipts for phone calls etc. We were dumped in Luton at Midnight with no representative to help us. We found a bus driver booked to take us to Norwich where we arrived at 3.30 am - all closed / No way of getting home.
thanks for your help0 -
Thanks for your advice Cityboy.
The coach from Luton to Norwich was provided by Thomson, and as I've said all along they did look after us - in terms of accommodation and meals. We were told in resort to claim for phone calls / emails etc, and i was hoping to claim for these plus my taxi home ( as we arrived in Norwich at 0330 on 23/12/10 and had no other means to get home). I would be happy with £50! This would cover my out of pocket expenses - had extra costs to cover running my business for an extra day, but would not expect airline to cover these.
I wonder whether I ask for £50 and waive my rights to compensation which may or may not arise after the Sturgeon case?0 -
I'm confused about flight delays and cancellations.
We were due to fly back from the domincan with Thomson on Wednesday evening 26th Jan on flight Tom289 leaving at 17.20 arriving in Birmingham at 05.45
We were eventually advised that there was a problem with our plane and we were being moved to another hotel as there was an expected 24 hour delay on our flight.
The flight we eventually travelled back on was a Thomas Cook plane on behalf of Thomson, flight Tom 105 to manchester leaving at 21.20 (we actually left at 22.20).
Our total delay was 25 hours.
We were then transferred back to Birmingham by coach.
Reason given for the delay, our plane was rerouted due to operational problems
do the above circumstances count as a delay or cancellation of the original flight?
many thanks to anyone who can clarify the situation for me.0
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