Missed flight due to illness during 12hr flight delay period

ming60

This might be a tricky one, but I hope you guys can give us some guidance. In brief - Flight delayed for 12.5hrs - wife then took ill - couldn't make the later flight - can we still get delayed flight compensation?
The story.....

Our homeward bound TUI flight from Majorca was delayed 12.5 hours last week. We were all transferred to temporary hotels to await a later pick-up. During this time my wife took ill and 1 needed to call a doctor. He said it was gastro enteritis, and that she was 'unfit to fly', and couldn't fly for 48 hours after the illness had stopped. He gave us a certificate to that effect.

I informed TUI at that time, to tell them we won't be on the flight home, and what to do next. The lady made a note of the situation, and advised us to ring our travel insurance company for them to deal with it from then onwards, which I then did. They told us to book 2 nights in the hotel that TUI had put us in (temporarily), to wait for the illness to ease. Then another 2 nights until they sorted our repatriation flights home.
My question is, will we still get delayed flight compensation for the TUI flight, even though we weren't on it? If it hadn't been delayed, we would have got home okay, and my wife would have then probably been ill at home!

Many thanks for your anticipated replies!

Tyzap

ming60 wrote: »

This might be a tricky one, but I hope you guys can give us some guidance. In brief - Flight delayed for 12.5hrs - wife then took ill - couldn't make the later flight - can we still get delayed flight compensation?
The story.....

Our homeward bound TUI flight from Majorca was delayed 12.5 hours last week. We were all transferred to temporary hotels to await a later pick-up. During this time my wife took ill and 1 needed to call a doctor. He said it was gastro enteritis, and that she was 'unfit to fly', and couldn't fly for 48 hours after the illness had stopped. He gave us a certificate to that effect.

I informed TUI at that time, to tell them we won't be on the flight home, and what to do next. The lady made a note of the situation, and advised us to ring our travel insurance company for them to deal with it from then onwards, which I then did. They told us to book 2 nights in the hotel that TUI had put us in (temporarily), to wait for the illness to ease. Then another 2 nights until they sorted our repatriation flights home.
My question is, will we still get delayed flight compensation for the TUI flight, even though we weren't on it? If it hadn't been delayed, we would have got home okay, and my wife would have then probably been ill at home!

Many thanks for your anticipated replies!

Hi Ming60,

Assuming the delay was not caused by an 'extraordinary circumstance'. I doubt it was given a 12.5 hour delay.

Perhaps they may owe you more that just EU261 compensation if they put you up in a hotel where your wife caught and became ill with gastro enteritis?

Regardless of the illness tho, you should still receive delay compensation for all the reasons you have mentioned.

Put in a claim directly to TUI via their website and see how they handle it.

If it does not go well you could talk to Bott & Co, NWNF regulated solicitors, who could claim your delay compensation and also for your wife's illness, if it was due to food poisoning in a TUI hotel. There would be a charge for their services if they were successful on your behalf.

Good luck.

ming60

Thanks for the reply Tyzap.
Yeah, the flight delay was definitely a technical problem. However, we think my wife contracted the illness, although not immediately noticeable, at the TUI hotel we had booked our 2 week holiday, probably the day before the flight home. She felt a bit 'under the weather', and she still didn't feel too good on the morning of the flight home. Then the news of the delay. Her condition worsened during that day we were transferred to the temporary hotel (I don't think it was a English TUI one), she had repeated diarrhea, which caused us to call the doctor.
I'm sorting the medical issue, and extra days, with my travel insurance.

So, even though we weren't on the rescheduled delayed flight, you think we'll still be able to get the flight compensation. I'll wait for TUI's reply.