Flight delay compensation deadend?

JustSomeone

Good afternoon all,

following the recent news about flight compensation claims I asked my girlfriend how she got on with her recent flight compensation claim (claim was recent flight was almost 2 years ago). She said it was denied and hasn't pursued it. Given the details I was shocked and can't believe there is no recourse, so here I am asking for advice.

In summary, her and 5 friends were travelling from Edinburgh to Madrid with EasyJet in November 2013 (EZY6695). The flight left on time-ish(1600) and was scheduled to land at 2000 local time. But on ascent there was an issue with a seal or some such component that meant the cabin could not maintain pressure and consequently could not go above ~14,000ft. Because of this the plane circled for a while to see if they could fix it. When they couldn't, instead of going back to Edinburgh or another closer airport, they diverted to London! At that altitude the plane can't/isn't allowed/or just didn't fly fast, so that flight took over two and a half hours (not including the circling time!)

Upon landing they waited for a replacement plane on the (now boiling hot) plane they landed in. They were waiting at the stand on the ground for over an hour. The replacement plane was available earlier but their crew couldn't fly on it as they would have gone over their maximum number of hours if they continued to Madrid. So the bulk of the wait was for a replacement crew. (Even the captain commented that despite taking so long to get to London EasyJet still couldn't manage a replacement crew - think that shows how bad things were in terms or organisation and duration).

So over four hours (factoring in taxiing, circling, etc.) after the original departure time from Edinburgh the replacement plane departed London for Madrid. Due to the short notice of this plane it wasn't stocked with much in the way of refreshments, and no point (in the air or ground) was any refreshments offered to the passengers (but that's a separate point).

By the time the plane landed in Madrid they were well over three hours late (possibly more than four) and it was so late all the public transport had stopped and my girlfriend and her friends' only option was to take two taxis which worked out considerably more expensive.

So, earlier this year she used the template form on this site to claim compensation for her and her friends. Naturally EasyJet refused. Following the steps on here she went through the escalation process and it resulted in the CAA saying that in their opinion the plane did not arrive late enough to claim compensation. But they consulted with EasyJet to get the time of arrival (no conflict of interest there!).

They said that the flight times can be checked online using a flight tracker website. None I can find go back far enough now. Also the original flight never made it to Madrid, I and she are not sure if the replacement flight will have had a different flight number (I imagine it would), what it was and if it was a scheduled flight from London that they got moved on to - which might allow EasyJet to claim that the flight arrived in Madrid on time!

She has emailed the CAA to ask how they and airlines calculate flight delays and what the reasoning is here. But they have yet to respond (several months later).

How can I/she pursue this? Is it a lost cause? I think it's outrageous that when people arrive at their destination at least 4 hours late that the airline can wipe their hands of it. And the CAA backs them up without providing any further information.

I should add she has the correspondence for all of this in her email so I can find out more info if people require (I'm just quickly writing it up just now, hence there isn't really exact times and such like). However, we are on holiday soon - hopefully without flights delays lol - so I might not get back to you straight away.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

111KAB

Google Vauban's Guide and once found read it.

DrA_Harrogate

To add a flourish to KAB's indubitably sensible advice, you seem to have done a lot of the donkeywork already. I may just add that the CAA is sometimes a bit of a waste of your valuable time, and that from your account compensation would seem to be due. So read Vauban's advice (coffee and some time required), look through other posts and then either issue an NBA letter yourself or use a NWNF lawyer. These days (due to the efforts of many people, a lot of whom inhabit this group, as well as law companies), airlines seem to be resigned to having to compensate and, if you manage to compose a letter indicating you know your stuff and won't be put off, you may well find that will do it.

JustSomeone

Thank you both for the advice. We're now back and I'm on the case here lol. However, I googled Vauban's Guide as suggested and got another thread on here:

http:// forums. moneysavingexpert. com/showthread.php?t=5042802 (as a new user I can't post links hence the spaces in the address)

However, dropbox link is broken. I also can't seem to find it anywhere else, does anyone know where I can get it?

Justice13075

Try This http://db.orangedox.com/GdfSa4xUZdZI5GJadr/Vauban%27s%20Guide%20to%20Claiming%20Flight%20Dela y%20Compensation.pdf