Well that was an experience!
Just back from a jet2 holiday this morning to Praia de Rocha, had a great time but had a 9 hour delay coming back last night.
Booked the holiday with a 12.05 pm flight home, we didnt depart intil 21-15!
After sitting in Faro airport for over 8 hours Tempers were wearing thin, the issue was a tyre that was found to have some damage on the safety inspection.
Would you believe that the closest replacement was in Leeds?
And at 11.00am when they found the issue they didn’t have a plane/crew availableuntil 2pm to fly it over!
Safety is paramount of course, but I shall be making my “Montreal convention” claim!
Should get a good whack refunded for that, we got about a grand back for a six hour delay.
My longest delay was in Port Harcourt airport in West Africa, a total of 34 hours between check-in and actual departure.
Now that'd be bad enough in any airport, but PHC ranks as one of the worst airports in the world IMO and it's one you really wouldn't want to hang around in. No air-con, no seating, invariably crowded, stinks to high heaven and possibly some of the vilest toilets you could ever imagine. Corruption is rife, you need to bribe everyone for everything and every hour you're told it'll be 'next hour' before your plane leaves, so you can't risk leaving and coming back later.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
If over 1.5k km you get a decent refund for 3hr plus delay. I got 2000 euros for a delay for my family of 5 two years ago (more than the price if the flights)
Faro may be under 1.5k km though so the amount will be less. Use Resolver.co.uk to manage the process for free. They provide the templates and manage the notifications for free. Great service.
Last edited by mangoosian; 18th July 2018 at 21:22.
Thats crazy Ralphy. PH is the worst place I have ever been. The airport was a congregation of tents when I was there so no issues with smell but it was a sea of people all on the take and the 2 hrs I spent there was memorable for being bloody horrible. The most detestable city I have ever had the misfortune to visit.
At the time of the Eyjafjallajökull (and yes, I did have to 'Google' the spelling) volcanic ash cloud, I was in Croatia for a short three-day break.
Ended up 'stuck' there for an extra week, touring around the place. Not really the greatest of hardships. The fact that the extra week was all begrudgingly paid for by Mr O'Leary from Ryanair compensation made everything taste that little bit sweeter! Thanks, Mick.
I used to travel fairly regularly for work and have done a few claims now. Just make sure they don't try to refund you if you got cheap flight before you can process a claim. I believe if you take the refund it means you can't claim and with ryanair, easyjet etc the flight is usually less than the compensation.
I have always found Jet2 to be brilliant which is why we always book with them. That sounds like a nightmare though but given the circumstances you wouldn’t want to take any chances. I think their HQ is
Leeds which is possibly where most of their planes are. You should get decent compensation with that wait though!
In May half term, BA oversold our flight to Athens. We were bumped into the next flight 3 hours later and received 1600 Euros (£1400+) compensation as a family of 4, plus refreshments.
We’d only paid £750 for the flights in total, so the 3 hour delay turned into free flights plus £650 in our pockets.
I’ll take this happening again, especially as a 3 hour delay hardly impacted our holiday.
BA were excellent, and everything was offered to us, without us having to ask first, and with no quibble.
Yeah, although it didn’t come without a fight! O’Leary fought it tooth & nail, and it took a test court decision against them (not by me!) before he begrudgingly agreed, but they still made it hard work to claim.
Our claim was under EU 261, not Montreal.
I think the issue is that bad weather - or an ash cloud - counts as ‘extraordinary circumstances’ such that airlines can avoid compensation, but crucially, it does not/did not absolve them of an ongoing duty of care re reimbursement for accommodation, food/drink, transport & two phone calls, hence we got a week’s worth of Croatian holiday paid for.
Your experience was awful though, especially when you just want to get home after a holiday.
I reserve especial irritation for EasyJet & Fly(may)Be. Useless.
I had exactly the same with Ryanair and the volcano. Was stuck in Germany with work for an extra week and they outright denied my claim. I wasn’t so bothered so forgot about it, then around a year later a cheque arrived in the post when their hand had been forced.
I have just came back from Prague a couple of weeks ago, ended up being delayed taking off from Liverpool.
In the end we were 2 hours and 58 mins late, Ryanair knocked our claim back as it was under 3 hours. 2-3 mins extra and we would of got back 250euro each, typical.
I might dispute it but they will probably just knock it back.
It's a few years since I was making a claim and knew the rules pretty well! I can't remember whether the time is measured by when the cabin doors are opened rather than when the wheels touch the tarmac, which makes a big difference in situations like yours.
EDIT: Have a read of this linked from Martin Lewis site and written by someone who helped me.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w6hmpy5ysx...ation.pdf?dl=0
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com....php?t=5042802
Confirms my memory that " Since the ECJ’s Henning judgment of September 2014, “arrival time”is counted as the time the aircraft doors are opened"
The Martin Lewis site forums on the subject are an absolute mine of useful information and helpful contributors so I would definitely recommend you have a look there.
None of the airlines like paying out what they should so you need to make sure you know your rights!
Last edited by David_D; 21st July 2018 at 13:11. Reason: Added
Wot? No statutory interest?
No really. That’s good news.
Do airlines take their legal responsibilities in these delay cases that’s they used to? I nearly had to turn up to court with my family’s claim against Virgin Atlantic. Fortunately, I’d done my homework so they caved in.
Last edited by David_D; 11th May 2019 at 21:19.
We had one a few years back... On our flight out to Cuba. There was a delay of 24hrs. We flew the following day. It turns out the Airline did not have enough take up for our flight, so they delayed by 24hr and a trip to Paris for good measure to ensure there was enough seats filled. our 10hr flight turned into 18 which included stopping in Paris for refuelling and not being able to get off the plane.
This was a Cuban airline, in a very old Russian plane, to be fair to them they did pay the EU scheme with no hassle which pretty much covered our holiday cost, but did feel sorry for some who had only gone for a week and effectively lost 2 days of their holiday.
We were delayed around 6 hours on a flight from Miami to Uk last November when the starter motor on one of the engines got ingested by the actual engine. It looked like a roman candle on the parking dock, quite alarming really.
From memory we got around £1300 back from BA. The whole process was quite simple and didnt take long to be sorted. Nice little bonus and a deposit for this years cruise !!
Stuart
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Claims should really be automated in this day and age, they know where the delays are, who was on board, how they paid and what the compensation rate is. This should be across the board from airlines to railways!
Good result in any case RJM25R
Some great results being achieved here - good work.
I was delayed coming back from Germany last week - flight was delayed and then got cancelled. Was rebooked onto another flight so was delayed about 2 hours in all. Worth claiming anything?? It was a work flight so co paid, not me.
We were delayed by 3hr 55min on a Spain / UK flight a few weeks ago. EasyJet processed the 800 euro claim within a couple of weeks and without any argument. So that has paid for quite a few lost flights in the future.
This was because of EU Reg 261/2004 Flight Delay rules and I am wondering if it will still apply when we Brexit as it only covers travel within the EU.
The only other comment I can make is that I agree with the above statement that the compensation process could easily be fully automated as the airlines have all the necessary information.
I was delayed on Friday trying to get back from Schiphol to Southampton on the 0955 Flybe flight.
Arrived at the airport at 0745 to find that the flight had been cancelled. Queued up to be told the next available flight home was at 1835... to Manchester... and then a connecting flight back to Southampton at 2035. Was given an 11eur voucher for a "snack" to keep me going at the airport as "11eur is the most we are authorised to give you".
Eventually arrive in Manchester, waiting in departures... at 2000 the connecting flight gets cancelled too!
Collect bags, head up to information desk in check in area... massive queue for the desk! Speak to one guy who had queued up for 4 hours only to be told the next available flight was in 2 days time and there was nothing else they could do.
Sack off 4 hours of queing and hire a car with 3 randoms from the cancelled flight and drive back to Southampton - eventually get home at 0230 Saturday - should have been home at 1030am Friday!
No reasons given for either cancellation, but no doubt they will try and wriggle out of giving compensation by blaming storms earlier in the week.
A couple of weeks ago we went to Neuchâtel. On the way back we had a 36 hour stop over in Dijon. Of course, we were going by train, and the stop over was by choice. Breaking the journey back didn't add to the rail fare. :)
Interesting thing. When we were in Neuchâtel we talked to a couple coming from the same place as us (Oxford) by plane (as much as possible) on the same day. It took them at least as long to get there as it took us going by train all the way. I think it was more expensive for us, however.
Best wishes,
Bob
Last edited by rfrazier; 30th July 2019 at 12:14.
My daughter is just processing one from Friday from Rhodes - 22hrs late following it being cancled
Easy jest told them to sourse their own accomdation- being her dads daughter she rang easyjet and was booked nto a hotel overnight- not on really
She said the support at the airport was dire
We were delayed flying back from Tenerife couple years ago. About 5 hours I think.
I used a company called bott & co. Got a few hundred quid each back if I remember correctly
Presumably there’ll be no EU261 if a no deal happens.
Yes there will as the incident happened before no deal. But after?
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
As far as I am aware, the EU Reg is just that rather than an EU rule brought into UK law so I would imagine after 31 October no claims available under the Reg. Whether that means a claim under "basic" UK law (eg contract, etc.) can then be made, I'm not sure. That would be for an amount of damages rather than a fixed sum so could be less.