Anyone Else on Jet2 Flight LS1294 25th March 2023 Tenerife to Birmingham and claiming compensation?

deltabox

Hi Guys,

I have recently submitted a claim to the airline for compensation. Through this website and other peoples comments as our flight was cancelled and rescheduled the following day we were entitled to £350 compensation for each traveller making a total of £1050.

Very swiftly in less than 24 hours they have rejected the claim on the basis of an up and coming case from 2019 Lipton vs BA City Flyer. It would appear that a staff member being sick is out of there control. In the case below the pilot was off duty and had been drinking before his flight!!!

I would have thought it was the airlines responsibility to ensure this doesn't happen or they have an alternative standby pilot? I hope the pilot in that case got the sack!! It also appears that brexit has something to do with it and the law???

here is a link from what i found on line of the case jet2 are referring to....

https://www.outertemple.com/lipton-v-ba-city-flyer-ltd-extraordinary-circumstances-and-a-guide-to-applying-retained-eu-law/

looks like all the hassle may have been for nothing but interested to hear how others got on but assume we are all getting the short shrift.....

eskbanker

They've declared on their website since last year that they're suspending claims relating to crew sickness, pending the final ruling in that case:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79650947/#Comment_79650947

Edit:

deltabox said:

In the case below the pilot was off duty and had been drinking before his flight!!!

I would have thought it was the airlines responsibility to ensure this doesn't happen or they have an alternative standby pilot? I hope the pilot in that case got the sack!!

Note that the discussion about alcohol in that case was purely hypothetical and not a reflection of actual events.

deltabox

Thanks for the information. So I’m assuming when the outcome of that comes we apply again or appeal via other routes? 

eskbanker

deltabox said:

Thanks for the information. So I’m assuming when the outcome of that comes we apply again or appeal via other routes? 

I imagine so - it seems a bit of a long shot that Jet2 would proactively contact those who claimed while the appeal was pending, so it's likely to be a case of reclaiming from scratch, assuming of course that the outcome is in the consumers' favour!

Is crew sickness consistent with what you were told on the day or do you believe the root cause to be something else?  As I recall, Jet2 have form for using generic boilerplate wording when rejecting claims....

deltabox

I got the impression it was the pilot on the plane who had just flown from birmingham to Tenerife. We were boarding when they told us and the air steward I spoke to told me  directly as if they only found when they landed?

We literally were boarding as the people come of the plane before he told us

bagand96

deltabox said:

I would have thought it was the airlines responsibility to ensure this doesn't happen or they have an alternative standby pilot? 

deltabox said:

I got the impression it was the pilot on the plane who had just flown from birmingham to Tenerife. We were boarding when they told us and the air steward I spoke to told me  directly as if they only found when they landed?

We literally were boarding as the people come of the plane before he told us

Jet2 like most UK based airlines operate flights as returns with the same aircraft and crew.  So your aircraft/crew would operate BHX-TFS-BHX.  If the pilot reported sick before operating from Birmingham (a Jet2 base) then they would have standby crew available to call upon.

In your case it would appear the pilot reported sick whilst on the ground at Tenerife. Very rare but things like this do happen and if feeling unwell to the point it affects the safe operation of the flight then crew have a legal duty to report sick.  The problem comes that Tenerife is not a Jet2 crew base, the nearest standby crew are somewhere in the UK.  This then becomes very difficult for the airline to recover hence the cancellation.

Obviously there's an argument that airlines should have standby crew available, and they do.  But it's not practical or commercially viable to have standby crew available at every destination airport.  The regulations and judgements up to now do not give the airlines an "out" for this circumstance, but BA Cityflyer (and most other airlines I expect) obviously want a test case.

As @eskbanker rightly says the BA Cityflyer alcohol thing was hypothetical in the court case and not the reason for the pilot being sick on their flight.

deltabox

Thanks for the reply and information @bagand96. From being on the flight and the word going round many will be unhappy.