Section75. Claim-HELP!

Judith_Chalmers

Hello. It has been a while since I have posted to MSE and I need some help and information. I will try and simplify this story and hopefully someone out their may be able to advise me....here goes.
24th July we are at Manchester airport awaiting to board our flight to Basel from Manchester airport, we had been advised the night before by Easyjet that our plane was being changed and that we would have a delay to our flight but to turn up at the correct time as normal(which we did) the board showed our new flight time now being 20:45 - at 20:45 the board changed to tell us which gate to go to, followed immediately by an announcement saying the flight had been cancelled. Easyjet blamed air traffic control saying that Basel airport restrict flights after 12midnight, meaning they could get us into Basel but they would not be allowed to fly out of Basel, meaning we would not be entitled to EU261 compensation - I argue that EJ knew 21 hours earlier they had decided to change the plane thus they caused their own delay, still they won't budge. They refunded the cost of the flight back onto my credit card because all other flights to Basel were fully booked.
We phoned the hotel when we got home and explained what had happened and asked the hotel to refund the money paid to Travel Republic, they said we would have to take this up with TR and to be fair to TR their cancellation policy T&C does state if cancellation is less than 3 days you lose 100% of your payment, they offered and gave us £159 of the payment back leaving us £223 out of pocket for the balance.
This left us with two options, claim under our holiday insurance, luckily we have no excess but I know next years premiums will increase because we would have claimed in the last year, or, try and recoup the balance under section 75 of my Santander Credit Card which we used for both flights and hotel payments. Santander have refused to act on our behalf because Travel Republic have acted on their own terms and conditions and given us 20% of the costs back, Santander are saying they will not allow a claim under S75- I argued that I have paid for goods that we didn't receive but they won't budge!
So what now?
I am tempted to take EJ to the small claims court for this, I will argue that their own actions 21hours before a flight caused the delay, they EJ knew that this had the potential to have a knock on effect with all earlier flights, they also know that Basel airport had the ATC restrictions but still chose to make the change - also looking at the amount of people due to board the flight I would say even with the smaller plane it wasn't a full flight and it was more likely that this was another reason they cancelled the flight.
Should I be pursuing Santander under Section 75 or does anyone think/know what would be the chances of a successful claim against EJ because not only did they refuse to pay comepensation as a result of them I also lost another £223.

If anyone out their can offer some good sound advise I'd be grateful and sorry for writing what now looks like war and peace :eek:

Caz3121

I cannot see S75 helping here. It covers something purchased but not supplied. In this case you had a hotel booked, the room was available for your use for the time booked but due to the flight cancellation you could not get there which points to travel insurance for claim
You may want to look at the Easyjet thread on the flight delay board - both EUClaim and bottonline show that you are due €250 for the cancelled flight so that is likely worth pursuing

PeacefulWaters

It would help if you paragraphed your post more clearly.

From what I can see you should pursue a specific EU261 claim against Easyjet and claim on your travel insurance.

I've never known a travel insurance premium increase due to claims history.

As you've accepted a refund from Easyjet I'd be surprised if S75 kicked in, although the FOS might rule in your favour for consequential losses. Not convinced though.

chattychappy

Caz3121 wrote: »

I cannot see S75 helping here. It covers something purchased but not supplied. In this case you had a hotel booked, the room was available for your use for the time booked...

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

As you've accepted a refund from Easyjet I'd be surprised if S75 kicked in, although the FOS might rule in your favour for consequential losses. Not convinced though.

Yes, S75 can indeed cover consequential losses. There are limits, though, and I agree with PW that we're stretching things a bit in the case of the hotel.

I always remember my law school example: you drive car A carelessly and hit car B. What do you have to pay for:

1) Damage to car B? Yes, of course.
2) You injure the woman driving car B, she can never work again. Do you pay for her lost earnings? Well, yes. It was foreseeable that you could seriously injure somebody, causing life changing injuries.
3) In the back was Richard Branson. He was about to do a share transaction by mobile phone. The phone broke. The deal fell through. He lost a million. Responsible for that? No... too remote, not really forseeable.

[Of course if you're driving, insurance should stand behind you when it comes to having to pay out.]

Well, I might have misremembered the detail of the anecdote wrongly, but that's the gist. Google "wagon mound" for a leading case. In the case of contracts, parties can limit their exposure if things go wrong. Provided these restrictions are not unfair, then effectively they can "contract out" of a certain amount of responsibility - leaving it to you to take out insurance if you don't want to face the risk. Airline T+Cs generally promise very little in the case of delays - hence some regulation to provide for basic compensation, overnight expenses in the case of delay.

redpete

If travel insurance covers the circumstances seems a bit rich to expect a layout under s75.

MEM62

You are going to struggle to prove a breach of contract by either EJ or the hotel as EJ have met their obligations under their T's & C's and the hotel have exceeded theirs.

I believe that you are looking at this from an emotional viewpoint. You feel that EJ are to blame and therefore you want compensation from their pocket as it is 'their fault'. The correct course of action however, is to claim off your travel insurance. That is what it is there for and if you are reluctant to do so then why buy it in the first place?

In respect of the aircraft change, from the way your post is worded you seem to be working on the assumption that the aircraft was changed on a whim and that a plane change is akin to a taxi firm sending you a different cab. For your information airlines do not just 'choose' to make a plane change and they certainly do not cancel a flight just because there are only a few passengers. These changes involve a considerable amount of expense in addition to logistical issues of aircrew's out of position and flying hours. Aircraft changes are only made where the airline is compelled to do so.

Judith_Chalmers

Thank you everyone who has offered some help and advice.

Truth be known I am MAD as a hell with EJ - we booked it last November and we had looked forward to our holiday, we didn't even have an option to go on another flight available to us, I am sure if you were all about to board a plane and the very next second they said your flight was cancelled you'd feel exactly the same particularly when they blame ATC meaning you're not entitled to EAU261 compensation because ATC is classed by all airlines as an " extraordinary circumstance "

You can perhaps see why I am saying that EJ changing the plane 21 hours earlier would have had the knock on effect. Airline schedules are done months in advance and passengers are alerted at that time, not 21 hours before.

Anyway- I'm building that bridge and getting over it!

Many thanks everybody 👍🏻 Judith X

Caz3121

Caz3121 wrote: »

You may want to look at the Easyjet thread on the flight delay board - both EUClaim and bottonline show that you are due €250 for the cancelled flight so that is likely worth pursuing

still think Compensation is worth following up on as the NWNF firms believe it is due...Easyjet thread on flight delay board should help

Judith_Chalmers

Caz3121 wrote: »

still think Compensation is worth following up on as the NWNF firms believe it is due...Easyjet thread on flight delay board should help

Thanks Caz- we have started a compensation claim today, hopefully we may get so