AerLingus Delays

Garvey4

This is my first time on this forum in hope someone might be able to offer advice. Briefly we were due to fly from Dublin on 25 September at 15.45 but due to a security alert the airport was closed down for two hours. After checking in were were advised to go to the departure gate. There were no Aerlingus staff to answer questions, give advice or offer vouchers for food - their customer service was zero.  Other airline flights left from our gate but still no information from Aerlingus, We were frightened to leave the gate to get something to eat, my husband and I are in our late seventies and found this very stressful. Around 20.00 we were eventually bussed to another gate where we eventually (very slowly) boarded. Relieved until the pilot announced that the co-pilot had not arrived, yet another delay. Relieved yet again when we taxied for departure only to be told that the plane had a fault and were had to wait for engineers to come on board to carry out repairs. We eventually departed at 23.12. Exhausted and hungry we were looking forward to some food on board only to be told there was no food on board though offered a complimentary small tube of Pringles! Arrived in Rome at 3am to a deserted airport. We had planned to travel from the airport to the city centre by train but no service at that time of night/day. We had to get a taxi which cost us 60 euro plus a tip an added expense to our trip and of course plus missing the evening in Rome and rather fatigued the following day.

While I appreciate the initial delay was not the fault of Aerlingus I feel our treatment and lack of communication left a lot to be desired other airlines did manage to take off. Our claim for compensation to Aerlingus has been turned down. It could be Aerlingus were within their rights to deny us compensation but would appreciate any advice that can could be offered

eskbanker

Have Aer Lingus explained why they're rejecting the compensation claim?  It would be expected that they'd assert extraordinary circumstances beyond their control for the initial part of the delay, and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that one of the consequences of the airport closure was the originally booked crew going out of hours, necessitating others to be brought in, but that's just speculation and they ought to explain this if that's what they're planning to rely on.

The regulations don't oblige the airline to pay for consequential losses such as taxi fares after arrival or lost time at the destination, but does your travel insurance cover that?