Cancelled flight

Norawalker

We had flights with KLM from Manchester to Rio via Amsterdam. At boarding time they cancelled and provided us with a flight from another terminal with Air Portugal. The Air Portugal flight had a 9 hour wait in Lisbon resulting in us arriving over 9 hours later in Rio, our baggage going missing and missing a hotel stay. I’ve contacted KLM and they responded that we should claim off Air Portugal for our baggage. We did this and received some compensation for the baggage. KLM have had no further communication with us. Should we be able to claim off them for what was supposed to be a memorable (for our 70th birthdays) holiday

eskbanker

What was the reason for the cancellation of the flight?  If it was something deemed to be within KLM's control then they'd be obliged to pay compensation, but if it was beyond their control then they wouldn't....

Norawalker

they said there was something wrong with the plane and the flight was cancelled

eskbanker

Norawalker said:

they said there was something wrong with the plane and the flight was cancelled

It'll still depend on the root cause of the problem with the plane - if it was some sort of standalone technical fault then it'll be deemed as within the airline's control and compensation is payable, but if it was damage caused by external factors, such as bird strike or lightning, then they can get off the hook.

If you're unable to find out what actually happened then all you can do is to submit a claim under article 7 of the UK261 flight delay/cancellation regulations, which will be £520pp for a booking from the UK to Brazil:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/7

Come back here with more detailed information if they reject it....

Keithy13

Similar thing happened to us. See my thread KLM journey from hell.

Norawalker

Thanks for the information regarding flight cancelled. I emailed them yesterday quoting the legislation asking for them to reply before I took it further. Received an email back this afternoon saying £1012 would be paid into the bank details we supplied. So many thanks to this forums help

eskbanker

Norawalker said:

Thanks for the information regarding flight cancelled. I emailed them yesterday quoting the legislation asking for them to reply before I took it further. Received an email back this afternoon saying £1012 would be paid into the bank details we supplied. So many thanks to this forums help

Glad you got a quick result like that - you could technically push back and seek the full £1040 due under the UK version of the regulations (applicable when you were flying from the UK), rather than the €1200 you'd be due under the EU equivalent (which would appear to be what they've used), but it's a pretty small difference....