Eastern Airways Compensation

callumbuchan1874

Hi all,

Unfortunately had two cancelled flights in August from Aberdeen to Teeside.

Was informed by Eastern the compensation process would take between 10-13 weeks and I’ve now just been informed I’m looking at another 10 week wait.

I find waiting this long to be completely outrageous and I’m just wondering what I should do next? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Callum

eskbanker

If you didn't take replacement flights in lieu of the cancelled ones, they're obliged to refund tickets within seven days, but there is no such regulatory stipulation for timescales to pay compensation.  Have they confirmed that compensation is definitely due and they're taking their time in actually paying it, or are they referring to an end to end process that includes the decision itself?

callumbuchan1874

Thanks for the reply Eskbanker,

They have indeed confirmed compensation is definitely due. They blame an influx of claims recently for the delay in paying out, did a fair amount of reading up online and it appears the only way for Eastern Airways to escalate the process and actually pay out is to issue them with a Letter Before Action. Although at this point I don’t know how much good it would do, just the extra ten week wait seems completely unreasonable.

eskbanker

Yes, the thought of an LBA did cross my mind - it's possible that in itself it would prompt them into movement but if it failed to do so, the whole process from issuing LBA to actually seeing the money after a court judgment might be significantly more than the ten weeks, so as a method of expediting payment there's quite a risk of it being counterproductive....

martindow

Indeed. and it also relies on them responding to a successful claim in a timely way.  Court judgements can sometimes be just the first step on the road to receiving the payment.

jimi_man

I suppose the way to look at is that it’s not your money that you are waiting to be returned to you, it’s just a ‘bonus’ so it’s not like you have to have it immediately.