German Wings Flight Delay-Advice please!

Iwonha

Hi All,

I recently submitted a claim to German Wings regarding a 4 hour flight delay early February to a departure Manchester to Dusseldorf.
They claimed this was due to 'sever weather conditions' and you can see in their email reply below they are also referencing this.

Now to my knowledge there was no bad weather issues at Manchester on the day and it wasn't even raining, nor was there any bad weather on arrival later into Dusseldorf. I feel they're fobbing me off here but not really sure how to disprove their claim of 'severe weather' being the cause as this takes them right down the track of having no liability....hope you can advise! Their response is as follows;


'Thank you for writing to us. We apologize for any inconvenience and for the unusually long delay in processing your complaint.

We are very sorry that we were not able to operate your flight as planned.

We work very hard to provide our passengers with a reliable, high-quality product. This includes attending to our passengers' concerns to the best of our ability and ensuring that they feel welcome and well looked-after from the moment they arrive at the airport. Unfortunately, we did not achieve this goal in the case of your flight.

Unfortunately, your Germanwings flight could not take place as planned due to the severe weather conditions. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused.

The safety of our passengers has the highest priority for us. We kindly ask for your understanding that the cause of the flight irregularity was not in our sphere of influence.

Compensation is not supported by Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004, because severe weather conditions are an exceptional circumstance within the meaning of the EU - Regulation (preliminary note 14). We are sorry to inform you that the relevant Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 does not provide any compensation payment in your case.

We regret that we cannot fully reverse your disappointment. Nevertheless, it is important to us to keep you as our loyal and valued guest. We would be pleased if you continue to put your trust in Germanwings and assure you that we do everything to make your future travels completely comfortable again.'

tracylou

Hi Iwonha,

Vauban has spent a considerable amount of time and effort putting together an excellent guide on Flight Delay Compensation. A link to this guide can be found in all his posts, and Novice Angels posts. There's also a thread near the top of the next page entitled "Before your first post, read this".

Have a look through the guide, then if you have questions I'm sure the very knowledgeable forumites on here will be happy to answer them.

Hope this helps.