flight diverted

Gonolek

Hi All
Just to clear up a few things the letter handed to my wife and I did not say "read this" that was the greeting we were met with from the check in staff I did not actually read it myself but my wife told me that it informed us of our diversion, I now wish that I had taken an image of it with my phone. As for a fuel shortage I find that hard to believe as the roads are full off traffic and the local trip organizers are running trips all over Gambia and Senegal and other airlines are refueling at Banjul, It seems to be just Thomas Cook that are diverting to the Canary Islands on the way out and then doing a complete turn around with the new crew members that they are picking up.
We should have arrived at 14.40 so it would not have been 3 or more hours late
This has been going on for several months according to British people that live in the Gambia and are frequent travelers with T/C.

Tyzap

Gonolek wrote: »

Hi All
Just to clear up a few things the letter handed to my wife and I did not say "read this" that was the greeting we were met with from the check in staff I did not actually read it myself but my wife told me that it informed us of our diversion, I now wish that I had taken an image of it with my phone. As for a fuel shortage I find that hard to believe as the roads are full off traffic and the local trip organizers are running trips all over Gambia and Senegal and other airlines are refueling at Banjul, It seems to be just Thomas Cook that are diverting to the Canary Islands on the way out and then doing a complete turn around with the new crew members that they are picking up.
We should have arrived at 14.40 so it would not have been 3 or more hours late
This has been going on for several months according to British people that live in the Gambia and are frequent travelers with T/C.

Ah okay, that does clear things up a little.

Unfortunately if you were not delayed 3 or more hours you do not have a claim for delay compensation, which you may have known all along.

It still doesn't clear up why TC seem to be the only airline flying via Fuerteventura, or the sick crew member debacle but thats for another day now.

paddyrg

Just for clarity, cars on the streets etc use an incredibly different fuel than jet airliners, so that's absolutely irrelevant, as are local trips in prop-based craft. It's entirely possible to have loads of one and not the other - take Abu Dhabi for instance where petrol is locally produced and cheap, but diesel is imported!

Maybe a short delay beats adding a fuel surcharge to the holiday?

bagand96

Perhaps to do with the fact that they are retiring 757s and replacing with A321s? I'm not sure an A321 would have the legs for Banjul? Or perhaps not with certain weather conditions, hence the need for a fuel diversion.

Unfortunately for the OP a less than 3 hour delay means no compensation. Poor customer service giving conflicting stories as to the reason for the diversion? Yes. But given that there's no compensation due the reason is academic and could indeed be for the sheer fun of it!

Gonolek

Compensation is not an issue the fact of the matter is that T/C are being very dishonest to the customers that are filling their bank accounts

Dr._Shoe

Are they really being dishonest? If they were embarking a replacement crew member for a sick one then they were not. The fact that they took the opportunity to refuel whilst there is totally irrelevant whether it was a "common occurance" or not. In actual fact, if they are on a long haul flight like that then they would need to refuel anyway because an airliner uses about 10% of their fuel climbing to cruising altitude. This would account for 20% of the fuel needed for the trip. What would the OP prefer, enough fuel to divert in the event of a problem or a crash landing in the Sahara? What about if their return flight was grounded because there was no fuel to be had in Banjul, would they now be asking why the plane didn't stop en route to refuel (!!!!!! the people on that flight delayed)?

I think of life on this planet as team-work: we put up with minor inconveniences so that other people don't have to suffer a major problem. In this case just putting yourself in the shoes of the people waiting for your plane to land so they can go home makes complaining about the mild inconvenience of a stop seem petty IMO.

Gonolek

The fact of the matter is that I and many more T/C customers over several months have booked direct flights to Banjul and have been given numerous excuses as to why the flights are being diverted, so yes I do believe that T/C are being dishonest. life on this planet is defiantly not team work as you will see in the media every day it is a life of deceit and dishonesty, I would like to be on your planet

Cyberman60

paddyrg wrote: »

Just for clarity, cars on the streets etc use an incredibly different fuel than jet airliners, so that's absolutely irrelevant, as are local trips in prop-based craft. It's entirely possible to have loads of one and not the other - take Abu Dhabi for instance where petrol is locally produced and cheap, but diesel is imported!

Maybe a short delay beats adding a fuel surcharge to the holiday?

Indeed, aircraft use kerosene.

bagand96

At the end of the day you got to Banjul 1 hour and 40 minutes late.

Move on with your life and just remember the (hopefully) great holiday you had in Gambia.