Flight home from Zante to Birmingham delayed by 33.5 hours, 2 flights cancelled, home on 3rd

joanna3293

- Our flight was due to leave Zante at 12.40 on Sunday, we spent the day at the airport and were told in the evening that the crew were out of hours and as the flight did not have a crew it couldn't take off.  Rep told us that Jet2 already knew this was happening and we should have been told the evening before to prevent people spending a day at the airport for no reason.
- Shipped to a hotel overnight and told we would fly the following evening, then another update saying they would pick us up at 5.30am for an 8.15am flight.
Few hours sleep and back off to the airport on Monday morning.  Flight delayed but we finally boarded, then told there was no hot food, no hot drinks and no cold drinks.  Sat on the plane for 3 hours, given a warm bottle of water (after a passenger complained).  Captain then said we had missed our slot by 30 seconds and were waiting for another flight time, then there was a problem with one of the engines, captain eventually asked us to disembark due to the excessive heat and passengers starting to feel ill. 
- Taken to another hotel and left there with no information until the evening when we were picked up and taken back to Zante airport to finally board a flight at 10.30pm, arrived back in the UK just after midnight (UK time).
So in our case we had not one but two flights 'delayed', in reality they were both cancelled. Flight delay time 33.5 hours, travel time door to door 43.5 hours with a few hours sleep in a hotel.  I don't know where to start with compensation but I am assuming that as they did finally get us home we can only claim £350 for such a massive delay.  I presume we cant also claim for a refund for the tickets.  We've both had to take two days annual leave but we're not self employed so I'm guessing we cant do anything about that either.  In fairness to Jet2 they did take us to a hotel and they did feed us, the reps were apologetic and looked exhausted themselves.  Any advice on where to start with a claim and what to ask for would be greatly appreciated.  We have kept a couple of receipts from the airport and also need to claim for extra car parking charges from Birmingham

onashoestring

You aren’t entitled to a refund as they did get you home eventually. They also correctly provided hotel accommodation while you were delayed . 

Did they provide meals whilst you were delayed? - If not providing that have you kept receipts you will be able to claim for these ( reasonable cost ) 

Additionally You may be entitled to claim the set amount of compensation ( per person ) for both of the cancelled flights - however it does depend on the reason for the cancellation and if it was the airline that was responsible. 

joanna3293

Thank you, the first flight was cancelled because Jet2 expected the flight crew on the Birmingham to Zante flight to make the return flight back to Birmingham but the staff refused as they were over their hours which they could legally work.  The second flight was cancelled because they missed their slot to fly by 30 seconds and then the captain said that there was an engine failure - the first cancellation was definitely their fault but I'm not sure if the second would be?

TELLIT01

You should be able to claim compensation relevant to a flight delayed over 'x' hours.  The rescheduling of flights shouldn't really come into the calculation.  Reasonable additional costs such as additional car parking will probably also be covered.  If you are going to be delayed with anybody, Jet2 is probably the best option. I've had dealing with them in the past and they've always been very responsive.

Westin

From my interpretation of your post I think this was a (very lengthy) delay rather than a cancellation.

joanna3293

Westin said:

From my interpretation of your post I think this was a (very lengthy) delay rather than a cancellation.

Yes, I agree, the third flight had the same flight number as the first one and also the second one so it all looks like a long delay rather than three separate flights with more than three hours delay on two of them.  It seems as though compensation is triggered at 3 hours but there isn't a point where they are responsible for paying out more compensation for a longer delay.  33.5 hours is a huge difference to 3 hours but they arent made to be accountable for that.  I guess lessons learnt, we knew delays were possible this year. Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.

bagand96

I don’t think you’ll be able to claim for more than one lot of cancellation as it technically was the same flight, just massively delayed as the posters above have stated.

I would imagine this is one of those situations where a many different factors conspired against you (and Jet2).  For the crew to go out of hours for your original return then the outbound BHX-ZTH must have been delayed, because a return BHX-ZTH-BHX is well within legal crew hour limits. Could have been ATC delays on the outbound, late arrival of the aircraft from an earlier flight etc. 

Likewise with the second flight, initial problem was an ATC delay, but then subsequently a tech problem.  The regulations state airlines don’t have to pay if it’s extraordinary circumstances outside of their control.  ATC delays are outside an airlines control, tech problems and crew hours are within. It can become quite tricky to unpick it though when there’s many factors contributing to a delay, and the regulation gives no guidance. 

In one way be grateful you were with Jet2 and not BA/easyJet/Wizzair who may have just cancelled full stop. I’d stick your compensation claim in to Jet2 and see what they say.  I’d be surprised if they decline for such a huge delay.

annette777

we booked a cruise through an agent.  The flight was delayed for 10 hours which meant we missed our cruise ship.  The agent managed to get us to the ship 3 days later via 2 flights and a ferry.  We had to pay for meals and taxis etc for which we only received £100 compensation.  Ryanair will not deal with us as it was booked through and agent.  The agent said it was due to baggage handlers and so not due compensation.  Sound very unreasonable to me.

eskbanker

annette777 said:

we booked a cruise through an agent.  The flight was delayed for 10 hours which meant we missed our cruise ship.  The agent managed to get us to the ship 3 days later via 2 flights and a ferry.  We had to pay for meals and taxis etc for which we only received £100 compensation.  Ryanair will not deal with us as it was booked through and agent.  The agent said it was due to baggage handlers and so not due compensation.  Sound very unreasonable to me.

The airline isn't obliged to pay compensation for delayed flights where delays were "caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken" - if the root cause was baggage handlers employed by the airport then that's not the airline's responsibility, but those actually un/loading the aircraft are contracted by the airline.  Unusual for a ten hour delay to be attributed to baggage handlers though, where and when was this?

Even if compensation isn't due, the airline still has a duty of care to provide meals during a delay, and accommodation/transportation if delayed overnight, but it's not clear why they'd be on the hook for 'taxis etc', in the situation where you'd booked a point-to-point flight ahead of an unrelated (as far as the airline's concerned) cruise, or was that funded by the agent?

P.S. It's not generally good form to jump into someone else's thread with a question about a different situation, but since this one hasn't been used for more than six months, I don't suppose anyone will mind!