Thomas Cook Flight Delay Please Assist

reidy31

My family and I were due to be collected from our hotel in Turkey between 21:55 and 22.25 13/08/15, the pick up arrived at 23:10 and we then had to collect other passengers, the rep David was very coy and did not inform us of any delays; we finally arrived at airport 00:10 local time (20 mins journey).
Flight scheduled for 01:15. whilst in the queue we were told check in was finished 55 passengers could not board and we would be put up for the night, we never had an option of boarding or not but due to the transfer being late we were at the back of the queue therefore we had no chance of boarding the flight. A new bus arrived we left airport at 01:15 drove back to resort (20 mins) and to another hotel - we had to change room three times as there were not enough beds for my family 2+2, finally got to bed at 03:15. Next morning we were told by a rep to to meet at midday, we would receive a email on the plane and be given a claim form on arrival at Antalya airport bus arrived at13:10 took us to Antalya airport, not given a from told it would be given out at Stansted. new flight TCX7523 (we were actually on a Titan plane TCX0967) scheduled to depart 15:00 and arrive 17:00 we took off 16:45 local and arrive at Stansted 19:15 at Stansted we were not met by anyone and when we questioned staff at the airport we were told that had not been arranged and we need to contact Thomas cook. We telephoned Thomas Cook and were told to use the online claim form, we did this and waited four weeks for the reply, the reply informs us we would not receive compensation due to extroadinary circumstances, a part fitted to the plane had a manufacturing defect. I have spoken to another person on the flight and they were told that a passenger damaged the door handle on the previous flight. we do know that passengers on the outboard flight were given the option to disembark and were compensated for this and put up in a hotel at Stansted. I have also spoken to another person on the flight who has been compensated approx. €430 per person. Please assist as we have been told many untruthsby Thomas Cook and currently do not know what to do
Thanks

111KAB

Should be on Thomas Cook thread AFTER you have read Vauban's Guide. HTH

pencoed99keith

hi my case is a bit more complicated and i have got correspondence to back my claim but T/C still want pay out i have tried ABTA /ATOL who are of no use as they are paid by the airlines i tried AAC/resolver to no avail my last instruction was to take T/C to small claims court or no win no fee company as 75% of something is better than 100 %of nothing i am on the forum now to seek advice on which way to go don't give up:) T/C should not be allowed to get away with it

111KAB

If you don't want to give up read Vauban's Guide then, if necessary, post on dedicated TC thread.

DIYBaldyman

Hi Reidy,

Have you got anywhere with Thomas Cook yet? I've been searching for others who were affected by the delay to TCX7523 on 13th August 2015 for months & have just seen your post.

We were also booked on this flight, but we arrived at the airport at 23:10 & got checked in, through security & were left in the airport overnight with our 2 youngest children (aged 12 & 16). The delay information for the flight kept changing - 2 hours when we checked in, then 3, then 4. The flight eventually departed at around 06:35 & arrived back at Stansted at 08:40 (British summer Time), a total delay to the arrival time of 4 hours 55 minutes. We did get some refreshments at the airport, but only a burger or slice of pizza & can of fizzy drink each. After reading your post I still can't work out which of us ended up better off !!!

I do, however, have some additional information that should help your case.

Once on the flight we chatted with one of the cabin crew (who had been on the aircraft for most of the day) about the delay. She told us directly that the initial delay had been caused on an earlier flight from Lanzarote (We later checked & found that this was TCX7125). Whilst almost boarded & waiting for passengers to take their seats, a passenger had fallen over & accidentally broke the arming handle on one of the emergency doors. This meant that although the door was safe, it could not have been used in an emergency situation. Regulations dictate how many emergency exits a fully laden plane needs, so with one emergency door out of action, passenger numbers had to be reduced to meet the ratio of emergency doors to passengers. The cabin crew we spoke to told us that the flight crew had asked over the planes announcement system for 55 volunteers to disembark & to take a later flight & that everyone chosen would be given a compensation payment of 400eu per person. Each subsequent flight that the aircraft made had to have the passenger number reduced by 55 due to the broken emergency door.

The most frustrating thing that we have discovered is that this flight from Lanzarote arrived back at Stansted 3 hours, 12 minutes late at 19:47 (BST), but was originally scheduled to arrive at 15:35 (BST). With a scheduled flight time from Lanzarote to Stansted of 4 hours, 5 minutes, the original scheduled departure time must have been approximately 11:30 (BST). Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the arming handle to the emergency door was broken at around 11:15 (BST), equivalent to 13:15 in Antalya, Turkey. Even when it arrived back to Stansted at 19:47 (BST ) it was only 21:47 in Antalya, still over 2 hours before we checked in. Therefore at the time we checked in, Thomas Cook knew full well that the inbound flight was already over 3 hours in delay, but the information boards were displaying a delay of just 2 hours & not one of the T.C. staff could provide any information as to why it was delayed.

We are still pursuing Thomas Cook for compensation, we have been advised that we are entitled to €400 each under EC regulation 261/2004.

There is an online escalation / investigation service offered by the Civil Aviation Authority, I would suggest that you use that service & obtain a response from the C.A.A. We did that on 4th January & received a positive response on 22nd Jan - the paragraph below relates to the delay of flight TCX7523 & is taken from our response from the C.A.A.;

"Thank you for your patience with us while we investigated your complaint about the disruption of flight TCX7523 on 14th August 2015.

We have reviewed the information available to us in accordance with new guidelines clarifying the “extraordinary circumstances” exception of EC Regulation 261/2004.

It appears from the information provided that the airline cannot rely on the “extraordinary circumstances” exception from the Regulation to refuse to pay compensation. It is our considered view that the airline has not demonstrated that this disruption was beyond their control and has not taken appropriate measures to avoid and or minimise the disruption. As such, in our opinion, the disruption to your flight is of a type which means that the airline should pay compensation.

We have given our view to the airline and have asked them to pay compensation to you as required in EC Regulation 261/2004. Our view on this case is based on the information provided to us, is not legally binding and only relates to the flight concerned. Currently the airline maintains their position that extraordinary circumstances applies and they are refusing to pay compensation. However, we are not an ombudsman scheme and we are unable to impose a solution on an airline."

After receiving the above, we contacted Thomas Cook again referring to the C.A.A. outcome. Unfortunately they are still playing hard-ball & on Monday this week (22nd Feb '16) I received the latest response from Thomas Cook - the following statement is taken from their response;

"I’m sorry that your flight with us was delayed and based on your comments we conducted a full investigation when you wrote to us initially. Following a review of our maintenance data and an analysis of our other operations at that time we remain confident in our decision that compensation is not payable in this case. The broken door arming unit was not a technical fault but was broken by another passenger. I understand you have contacted the CAA however we will continue to defend this delay."

We are now considering whether to take T.C. to small claims court ourselves or to use one of the many "no-win, no-fee" claim services advertised just about everywhere these days, the down-side being that they charge around 25 to 30% of any award if they are successful.

In all of the research I've done, it seems that Thomas Cook continue to deny claims direct from affected passengers & only pay out when actually faced with actual legal action. It seems like it's a choice between taking them to small claims as an individual, or using one of the claim services.

I have been offered some compensation from T.C. - they have offered to refund 1 nights accommodation - this isn't related to the delay - our hotel room wasn't available when we first arrived in our resort. They have also offered to refund what we paid for our in-flight meals & the Choose your Seat service as we were allocated different seats on the flight due to the emergency door & the meals on the flight were ruined by the time they were eventually due to be served.

Not sure if the forum will allow it, but I'd be happy to send you copies of letters I've sent & responses I've received.

I'm 100% confident that we are justified in pursuing our claim, if I receive any further updates I'll post them here.

I'm now off to read this "Vauban's Guide" mentioned below..


Steve Ward (steveward2004@msn.com).

111KAB

Steve - forget CAA - as you mention Vauban's Guide is the way to go. After reading decide on DIY or NWNF ..... enjoy your compensation.

JPears

Can we please post on the TC thread, not create ANOTHER new thread in all the clutter.