disruptive passengers - v long delay

spadge77

Hi , so we departed Hurghada sun night to bham. Tc flight lots of security checks , but a somewhat intoxicated couple were allowed onto the flight ,allegedly they were in an intoxicated state when they got on the coach and continued to drink at the airport. They boarded the flight and after about 2hrs they started being abusive, shouting , some slapping, it was quite scary as I think we were all thinking the worst . It seemed the stewards were looking for something possibly restraints ? as running up and down plane opening overhead bins but couldn't find anything . Seat belt lights put on and plane started to descend but no official announcement after 10 min or so pilot announced landing at Athens hopefully off again in 45 mins. Police came on board the couple were removed and we were then advised crew were over hours so we would be staying in Athens. This of course took time lots of waiting eventually got to a hotel around 5am , slept till 10am , bfast and then advised pickup at 2pm , flight eventually left Athens around 6.30pm , should have landed at bham 2am Monday morning but in the end it was 8pm Monday night . The rumour is TC say no compensation as out of their control . Interested in others opinions , to us seems a very long delay and we have all missed a day of work , they did give us a letter suggesting we approach our insurance companies and the problem was " operational" The air stewards told passengers on teh eventual return flight that the couple had been in court in Athens on Monday morning ! The letter does seem somewhat of a fob off and also as it ran into an extra day would think most people's insurance policies have expired - appreciate any advice ? anyone been in a similar situation thanks

Socajam

As someone mentioned previously to another OP, you need to add paragraphs before anyone will seriously look at this.

Caz3121

I would expect the airline to deny compensation. Have you tried putting the flight details into EUClaim and bottonline?
- your post should be on the Thomas Cook thread

legal_magpie

I would fight this. It all stems from the decision to let the drunk couple in the plane in the first place. This was an operational choice. Also instead of landing they could have got everyone strapped into seatbelts, opened a door and chucked the drunks out at 30.000 feet. No delay then.

jpsartre

This was posted on the Tripadvisor Air Travel forum a couple of days ago and the discussion there raises some valid points I think (link below). The way I see it going in court: TC will claim there was no evidence of the couple being disruptive or intoxicated at the time of boarding. To have a sporting chance of winning I'd certainly want to be able to produce some evidence to the contrary if I was fighting this in court myself.



https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k12557130-Compensation_divert_and_delay_as_disruptive_passengers-Air_Travel.html#100109073