Flight delay compensation, all other EU airlines

Sezme - Vauban's Guide for you however before reading (lengthy document) which delay is the correct one as 24 mins seems a large discrepancy? Note delay determined by arrival at destination time compared with scheduled arrival time.

PATOMIKE wrote: »

.I am going to claim for the delay how do I claim for the terrible service ? do I do it at the same time ?

EU261 compensation is a fixed amount. Send in receipts for the refreshments that you purchased and reclaim these under EU261 Duty of Care in addition to the fixed amount (If you did not purchase refreshments then there is nothing to reimburse) Whilst the airline failed to provide these and the coach delay and hotel standard were not good, it is ikely you would get an apology rather than ££s

SO, have finally heard back from Norweigian and they have rejected our claim due to 'extraordinary circumstances' which was 'acute illness amongst the crew'. As far as I know, and we were told this on the day, ONE crew member went home ill. By the time a replacement was found, the rest of the crew had worked too many hours so we then needed a whole new crew!

Surely this is avoidable?! If one of my staff caused that much disruption by being ill I'd be sacked! They also quoted 'the European Court of Justice Verdict C-549/07 Wallentin-Hermann' which seems to be have been caused by a failed engine, hardly the same thing!

So I'm obviously not accepting this. Does anyone have advise on what steps to take next? Full sorry story of our delay below if anyone wants to read. Any advise welcome, any good no win no fee solicitors?

Thanks.

Upon arrival at the airport we were told there was a 10 minute delay. We checked in bags, car seats and a stroller, made our way through security and to the gate which had already been called. Once we were waiting at the gate we were told there was a 90 minute delay (actually one hour 40 minutes), and we should wait in or around the gate. This was due to a member of the crew going home sick, and a replacement was en-route from London. 11am came and went, and we were then told, by rather ill-informed Gatwick staff that the delay was now until 2.40pm and we should go back to the terminal and return to the gate for boarding at 1.40. This very quickly changed to a 3pm departure and to keep an eye on the screens for gate information. A text told us we were entitled to food vouchers so we headed for the airline information desk.

It was now 11.30, having been up since 5am, and with two hungry and bored kids, we thought we'd get lunch. Once again a rather rude Gatwick member of staff told us we'd have to wait as apparently vouchers for that flight weren't available yet! So along with the compensation claim I am also claiming for the food purchased during our delay and on the plane at a cost of £56.83.

Drinks £7.55 (no receipt given but can produce bank statement if needed)
Food £24.33 (image of receipt attached)
Snacks £17.75 (image of receipt attached)
Plane £7.20 / 85NOK (image of receipt attached)

So lunch came and went, and we finally had another gate number. We headed for the gate and waited. Half an hour or so and boarding started, only for an announcement to come over the speakers to say that this flight wasn't for us, but another flight number and we should return to the terminal and 'wait'! Needless to say everyone was getting rather fed up now and we all headed for the information desk again. While waiting, at around 3.30 we were called to our third (and final) gate! Around 4pm we were all on the plane, and ready to go. Or so we thought.

Then came the message regarding luggage, or lack of. Due to a 'strike' (what strike??) the luggage wasn't able to make it onto the plane, and would arrive at 11.30pm Norwegian time and could be sent to us the following day! I explained to an air steward that we had car seats checked in and we couldn't go anywhere without them. She very rudely told me she had no information and couldn't help! Wife in tears, kids bored to tears, this was going from bad to worse. 10 minutes later another message from the captain. The bags had been 'found' and would be loaded! We could see the loading going on, and something wasn't right, but it seemed like they managed to get everything on eventually. An hour and 15 minutes later, we finally take off, approximately 7 hours and 45 minutes late.