Compensation for delayed flights Discussion Area

I have had my compensation refused by both the airline (Thomas Cook) and the CAA. The CAA stated:

"Thank you for your patience with us since you submitted your complaint, I apologise for the delay in providing a response. After reviewing your file, it appears that your flight was more than five and a half years ago. We are experiencing a very significant increased demand for our services at the moment, and as a result we are currently unable to deal with your complaint case within the next six months.
To form an opinion on whether the disruption was within the airline's control and therefore whether compensation is payable, our process involves corresponding with the airline and sometimes getting a technical expert to review documentation about the incident. Unfortunately this can take months, especially with so many cases on the go.

As such, we wanted to make you aware that in the UK the time limit for bringing a claim to court for compensation is six years from the date of the delayed flight. If you wish to go to court to seek compensation you would therefore need to submit your claim to a small claims court within 6 years from the date of your flight."

Should I take this to the small claims court and would I be like to win ?

Details about the delayed flight are below:

In October 2007, our return flight from Florida Sanford to London Gatwick was delayed for approximately 24 hours.

This was a package holiday and was booked with My Travel who have now been taken over by Thomas Cook.

I sent the template letter (recorded delivery) to Thomas Cook but after nearly 2 months I had not had a response so I decided to call them. I was told that to make a claim I would need the boarding passes to prove we boarded the aircraft (who on earth keeps their boarding passes?) and the booking confirmation letter.

The problem is, the holiday was booked 6 years ago in April 2007 so I no longer have any documentation.

With airline security being as high as it is, the airline must have a record of who was on the flight. I cannot believe that this information would not be available and wonder if its just an excuse to pay out.

The holiday was booked over the phone so all correspondence was in the form of paperwork which was disposed of a long time ago.

I was only able to find the booking reference and flight details from notes I had made in some old emails.

PS. I checked the FlightStats website but My Travel is not recognised and nor is the flight number (MYT068 on 20/10/07)

Hello All,

I have submitted a claim to US Airways and they offered me an $800 voucher, I have been looking and the flights and they are expensive and the routes are terrible.

Could somebody look at the letter they have senT me refusing compensation and tell me if they are talking nonsense?

Many thanks

LETTER

Thanks Lynda, I guess I should write to them and refuse as there letter does elude to the fact that it was fault with the air craft and thus is not EC.

thanks

111KAB wrote: »

Yes and highly likely

ps But get on with it!

Done ! I have just submitted a 'Money Claim Online' form.

I put the claim amount as 1800 euros (£1526), because there were 3 passengers.

The only thing I am not sure about, is the fact that one of those passengers was my daughter and as she was under 2 at the time we did not purchase a seat for her (she sat on our laps for 8 hours!).

Therefore I'm not sure if I can only claim for 2 people i.e. 1200 euros.

The court fee cost £80 to claim for all 3 of us, if I had only claimed for the 2 of us it would still have cost £70.

Ill let you know how I get on - the claim form states that Thomas Cook has 14 days to respond.