Virgin Atlantic refusing to reimburse us, what are we entitled to?

xos

I'll try to be as concise as possible with this however it's a long story! Last month we flew from London Heathrow to Honolulu via Los Angeles. About 1hr into the LHR-LAX flight, our plane had to return to LHR due to a technical fault on the aircraft. It turns out it was an error from a member of ground crew who left a pin in the nose gear door panel that should have been removed, resulting in said panel being unable to close after take-off. After refuelling and awaiting another slot for the runway, we took off roughly 4 hours after our original departure time. During the flight VA flight crew were apologetic and reassuring and came round to check connections and let us know that we would be sorted out once we arrived at LAX. We were told that the onboard crew wouldn't be informed what was happening with our connection but ground crew would meet us and help us. Of course this didn't happen. We landed in LAX at 1630 for a 1700 flight which was impossible to make (we had to get through security, collect bags then get to another terminal to drop bags and go through security once more). I have emails from VA with the "updated schedule times" due to the delay, and the LAX-HNL flight was still showing as the 1700 flight, meaning they expected (or simply hoped) we would still make that flight.

A whole host of other issues happened at LAX that I won't bore you with but once we finally made it to the VA ticketing desk to see what had been arranged for us we were offered flights 2 days later, with a hotel in LAX for 2 nights. This was obviously not acceptable and we told them as such, however they refused to find us anything sooner. We looked ourselves and managed to find available flights with Hawaiian (incidentally a partner airline of VA) for the following morning that we would be able to book ourselves. Again, VA refused to book us on this flight and couldn't explain to us why. She did however inform us that we could book this ourselves, then be reimbursed by Virgin so this is what we did as we couldn't miss 2 days of our trip.

We contacted VA customer care later that week to a) complain about the incredibly poor service we had received at LAX and b) request reimbursement for the Hawaiian flights we had purchased. The response from them, after 21 days of waiting, was that they were not liable for these flights but would refund the unused flight between LAX-HNL.
Obviously we were unhappy with this and went back to them with several questions as to why they didn't organize anything during the 10 hour flight+4 hour delay, why they expected us to make a connection within 30 minutes and asked them to explain why they weren't liable for the expense when we were instructed otherwise at the airport. Again, 15 days later, their response was poor. They ignored each of these questions so we are still no further understanding what happened and they are still adamant that they aren't liable. They sent me a link (can't paste it here as I've not had an account long enough) to their expense claim form that states we can't claim for replacement flights, however this is just a random page on their website and doesn't appear anywhere in their conditions of carriage, nor does it appear in the regulation that it is quoting EC261/2004.

Has anyone else had any experience trying to claim reimbursement for replacement flights? Any help with this is appreciated. I know we would probably be able to claim this back through our travel insurance however we shouldn't have to.

Thanks

eskbanker

Firstly, was the whole LHR-HNL journey booked as a single through ticket under one reference number, or ticketed as two separate components?  This will dictate whether or not the second leg falls within the scope of the UK/EC 261/2004 regulations, and determine your rights accordingly.

Either way round, you should be eligible for compensation of £520pp for the delay, over and above any reimbursement you may be entitled to....

xos

eskbanker said:

Firstly, was the whole LHR-HNL journey booked as a single through ticket under one reference number, or ticketed as two separate components?  This will dictate whether or not the second leg falls within the scope of the UK/EC 261/2004 regulations, and determine your rights accordingly.

Either way round, you should be eligible for compensation of £520pp for the delay, over and above any reimbursement you may be entitled to....

Thanks for the response. Yes it was booked as one single ticket through Virgin Atlantic.

DE_612183

whats the difference between what you paid and whats been offered?

xos

DE_612183 said:

whats the difference between what you paid and whats been offered?

When we got the breakdown of the "refund" offered it came to £10 refund with a £10 admin fee so £0 total. We are also querying this. The total costs of the flights we had to book was in the region of £1700 as it was last minute.

eskbanker

The regulations require them to offer "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their [your] final destination at the earliest opportunity", so, if they considered that to be two days later and you found something sooner then they should reimburse you for that, especially if they already stated (in writing?) that they'd do so.

Keep complaining and escalating until you obtain their final response, after which you can take it to ADR:

https://www.aviationadr.org.uk/how-to-complain-about-virgin-atlantic-flight/

xos

eskbanker said:

The regulations require them to offer "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their [your] final destination at the earliest opportunity", so, if they considered that to be two days later and you found something sooner then they should reimburse you for that, especially if they already stated (in writing?) that they'd do so.

Keep complaining and escalating until you obtain their final response, after which you can take it to ADR:

Yes I had read that, thank you for confirming that I had understood this correctly! Unfortunately they didn't state in writing, it was the woman at the ticketing desk who told us that they would reimburse.

I will keep pressing on, thank you for the link.

JPears

Doesn't really matter what anyone said, as long as you bought a through ticket with VA, they are liable for:

1. Compensation due to the delay/missed connection.

2. Reimbursement of the additional expienditure in replacement flights.

3. Costs of overnight accomodation and food/non alcoholic beverages.

You can take this to an ADR or straight to Small Claims Court with a substantial degree of confidence.

It may be the case the US ground staff you dealt with were not au fait with the EU and UK legislation.

xos

JPears said:

Doesn't really matter what anyone said, as long as you bought a through ticket with VA, they are liable for:

1. Compensation due to the delay/missed connection.

2. Reimbursement of the additional expienditure in replacement flights.

3. Costs of overnight accomodation and food/non alcoholic beverages.

You can take this to an ADR or straight to Small Claims Court with a substantial degree of confidence.

It may be the case the US ground staff you dealt with were not au fait with the EU and UK legislation.

Thanks for your response! We have applied for the compensation due to the delay so we will see how that comes back.

Virgin are adamant they aren't liable for the expenditure in replacement flights but I'm going to keep pushing as the flights they offered weren't the first available flight.
I think there is also a stipulation that they are liable for any damages caused due to delay unless they can prove they have taken all means necessary to avoid that delay. Offering flights 2 days later when earlier flights are available is not avoiding the delay!
It seemed as though the US ground staff were not au fait with much, it was as though no one in history had ever missed a connection before.

JPears

Ground staff should know the regs but I doubt it forms part of their staff training.

Whilst we were waiting to check in at Leeds for our replacement KLM flight after BA cancelled, a family who were flying to Schipol then onwards to America, were told they would be on standby at Schipol for their booked flight.

Not allowed, they must ask for volunteers, not bump people off.

I took father aside, sent him a copy of the regulations and Vauban's guide to his phone with the relevant guidance to show them.

KLM changed their tune by the time we had checked baggage in.