6hr Delay Orlando to Manchester because of delayed crew. Eligible for compensation?

davidb2002

I recently returned from Orlando,FL USA on a Thomson package holiday. We flew out of Orlando Sanford International to Manchester International.

When we arrived at the Orlando Airport, for our flight scheduled @ 4:25pm, we were surprised to find it had been delayed till 10:30pm! Considering we had to already be there 3 hours early, we were looking at a 9-10 hour wait in a small airport.

This isn't completely relevant, but we were given a $20 voucher per person to be used in the airport. However half the airport's food facilities were closed and thus had to spend them in the expensive restaurant. Furthermore, we couldn't spend on gifts or alcoholic drinks and once a voucher was used, you didn't get the change back. So, order a burger @ $11, no change given back leaving it very difficult to get your monies worth from the vouchers.

Anyway, we eventually flew at around 10:30-10:40pm sticking us in the 6+ hours of delays with a very tired 4yr old and a 9yr old.

The reason given by the crew was that during that week, they were stuck in Costa Rica due to a tropical storm and thus couldn't get their flight to Miami. There were then further complications with flights in Miami preventing them to getting to Orlando on time. They eventually arrived in Orlando the morning on the flight, but due to regulations, they had to rest for a minimum amount of time before they could fly again for safety reasons (which I appreciate).

So, this sounds like they are trying to blame weather....but it wasn't the reason our flight was delayed. In my opinion, it's more logistics as the crew wasn't available. I appreciate that it can be quite a difficult problem to pull off but you would have imagined that thomson would have had a plan B consider the storm was on radar for over a week before hand.

So, I leave you guys with a few questions before I submit my claim:

1. Do you think i'm eligible for compensation?
2. How much could I be looking at?
3. Do we claim compensation per passenger (even if they are children with their own seats (no toddlers or babies))?
4. From what I understand, I should go to Thomson first and if I get rejected, take it to CAA?

Thanks for all the help and advice!

Cheers,
David

Caz3121

all questions answered in Vauban's guide
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5173888

davidb2002

Thanks for the guide, my main niggle with that is:

d) The delay/cancellation to your flight was not caused by “extraordinary circumstances”?
Or if it was, did the airline fail to take “all reasonable measures” to minimise the delay?

'extraordinary circumstances' and 'all reasonable measures' can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, this is a 'knock-on' effect of weather. So the question seems to stand with if the airline did everything they could and as quick as they could to prevent this issue.

Caz3121

quickest check is a couple of the NWNF free checkers (Euclaim or Bottonline)
this should really be in the Thomson thread..you will probably find similar posts there