Anyone successfully claimed compensation for flight delay

[Day]

Missus is in Florida, was supposed to depart last night at 7pm their time from Orlando, got to the airport at 3pm as the hire car had to go. Quick funny side story, time of the month for her, asked her mates mum for some painkillers, later realised they had given her sleeping tablets so she was struggling to stay awake.

Anyhow, had them lining up to board at 6pm, all of a sudden flight delayed by an hour air conditioning fault, all go and sit back down. 7pm the weather radar is broken, can't fly at night without it. 8pm captain says everyone will have to sleep on the plane tonight and they'll take off at 7am when the sun rises. 

8.05pm rioting in Orlando airport, Jumbo jet load of passengers laying into Virgin Atlantic staff. 8.30pm $15 food voucher but only one food outlet open, Burger King and they had limited chicken left.

10pm announced the flight is now delayed for 24 hours, now takes off Sunday at 6pm. Midnight they finally get put in a hotel with no luggage so no clothes or anything, had to remain on the plane.

Anyhow, so a 24 hour delay, the new EU thing says 600 euros (£435) compensation for anything over 4 hours. Looking into it tho airlines are reluctant to pay out, Googled and loads of people having to go through the courts still just to get the compensation.

Virgin say

Compensation will not be offered if the cause of the cancellation or delay is beyond the control of Virgin Atlantic, or for disruptions which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect our operation.

Doesn't that pretty much cover their arses over everything? faulty weather radar I would have thought would be classed as unexpected flight safety shortcomings. Can see why airlines are reluctant to pay out, 524 passengers can hold on a 747, £435 per person is serious money if full and all claim.

Remember the days where you'd have to suck this up and get on with it, got to whack a claim in now if you can, just don't know if it's worth all the hassle or if it's pretty easy now.

 

[RamNut]

I would never again buy ryanair travel insurance.

i had a sunday flight cancelled due to snow at east midlands.

whilst i got the cost of the flight back, the consequential losses were huge - accommodation booked and paid for etc.

the flight was cancelled at take off time and there wasn't another flight until wednesday, so for a weeks holiday it was pointless going.

there was no pay out for delay by bad weather because the policy states that the flight has to be delayed by 12 hours prior to cancellation. They said it wasn't delayed, it was cancelled.

There was no pay out for holiday cancellation because the flight wasn't delayed by 24 hours prior to cancellation. The policy actually states "if your journey is delayed by 24 hours"' and since they didn't have another flight for three days, you would assume that this applied. They refused to pay out.

i would suggest that the chances of being delayed by 24 hours prior to cancellation are virtually nil.

[McRamFan]

You just contact Watchdog and say they won't pay.  Virgin do not like bad TV coverage.

[Chris Mills]

Post it on Twitter. Seems to work for a lot of people.

You have to be the right sort of person to get anything from a company. I'm useless at it but a family friend is forever getting free things, she got 2 free sacks of potatoes because there were "too many eyes" in the ones she bought. She got two wheels of cheese from some big cheese manufacturer I don't remember the name of and has eaten at a posh local restaurant 4 times in the last month only paying only once because first she said she didn't like the food and it wasn't worth the money so they invited her back free of charge, then she wasn't happy with the service and they invited her back again, then some other reason and last week as she was waiting in the reception area to get picked up the waiter came out and gave the tab to the man behind reception to put down as a free meal and the guy said "Oh right, it's that woman that always complains isn't it?". She rang up and complained and got ANOTHER free invitation! Each time for her an a guest too!

Unbelievable.

[Day]

She's been on Twitter already having a pop, just got to the airport, they picked them up at 1pm, hour to the airport. There 4 hours before the flight......and it's now been delayed by a further hour and could be longer

Shouldn't laugh really.

[Rev]

She's been on Twitter already having a pop, just got to the airport, they picked them up at 1pm, hour to the airport. There 4 hours before the flight......and it's now been delayed by a further hour and could be longer

Shouldn't laugh really.

Try moneysavingexpert.com, there's a forum dedicated to Virgin flights on there with template claims letters and all sorts of advice.

[GboroRam]

Post it on Twitter. Seems to work for a lot of people.

You have to be the right sort of person to get anything from a company. I'm useless at it but a family friend is forever getting free things, she got 2 free sacks of potatoes because there were "too many eyes" in the ones she bought. She got two wheels of cheese from some big cheese manufacturer I don't remember the name of and has eaten at a posh local restaurant 4 times in the last month only paying only once because first she said she didn't like the food and it wasn't worth the money so they invited her back free of charge, then she wasn't happy with the service and they invited her back again, then some other reason and last week as she was waiting in the reception area to get picked up the waiter came out and gave the tab to the man behind reception to put down as a free meal and the guy said "Oh right, it's that woman that always complains isn't it?". She rang up and complained and got ANOTHER free invitation! Each time for her an a guest too!

Unbelievable.

Yeah but how much of the chef's spit do you really want to eat?

[bigbadbob]

Yeah but how much of the chef's spit do you really want to eat?

if only it was his spit

[Day]

Supposed to have been boarding 20 minutes ago, just announced delayed further and a update will be out in 30 minutes, this is a new plane that's been sent out as well 'kin ell lol 

[ossieram]

Sounds like an ideal time to put the bra back on the dog.

[Day]

Took the underwear of the dog now she's departed, 26 hour delay in the end, stumbled on this flight radar site seeing if she's left and it tracks all flights around the world, mental how many planes are flying above America right now. Missus is on one of the yellow ones

[Wolfie]

Took the underwear of the dog now she's departed, 26 hour delay in the end, stumbled on this flight radar site seeing if she's left and it tracks all flights around the world, mental how many planes are flying above America right now. Missus is on one of the yellow ones

Flight Radar is a great app on iOS too.

[Wolfie]

I got €1000 back from Easyjet a few months ago for 4 flights which were delayed for 5 hours because of a fault with the plane. I used the letter template available from moneysavingexpert.

If the delay is due to any technical issue with the plane (i.e not weather or air traffic strike or any other outside problem) then the airline is at fault according to the law, so they should pay the compo. Airlines are fighting this at the moment but every case raised so far has gone against them.

I'm not sure if the weather radar is the on the plane or the airport?. If it's the plane then its Virgin's fault. If it the airport then Virgin are only liable for the initial hour delay I would have thought.

[Stive Pesley]

My parents are stil fighting to get compo for a 14 hour delay last February when it snowed and they were trying to take off from Manchester Airport

They kicked back their initial claim stating that they were not liable due to the "unexpected weather conditions" clause

They have pointed out that in February it is not UNEXPECTED to get a bit of snow. Snow in July would "unexpected"

It was also not "unexpected" as the weather forecast had been predicting for a couple of days that a front of snow would be arriving. In every definition it was the "expected weather conditions"

These people need to hang out at a few scandinavian or canadian airports. When the weather is "expected" it's amazing how airports can remain open and run quite happily thanks to a few gritters, snow ploughs and de-icing machines

[Day]

I got €1000 back from Easyjet a few months ago for 4 flights which were delayed for 5 hours because of a fault with the plane. I used the letter template available from moneysavingexpert.

If the delay is due to any technical issue with the plane (i.e not weather or air traffic strike or any other outside problem) then the airline is at fault according to the law, so they should pay the compo. Airlines are fighting this at the moment but every case raised so far has gone against them.

I'm not sure if the weather radar is the on the plane or the airport?. If it's the plane then its Virgin's fault. If it the airport then Virgin are only liable for the initial hour delay I would have thought.

On the original flight they were told an air conditioning fault then later a weather radar problem on the plane, apparently you can't fly through the night without it working, only in daylight. The flight was scheduled to take off at 7pm, when they got to the hotel at Gaylord Palms (no joke Google it) apparently the hotel knew at 8pm the flight had been delayed 24hrs and was expecting them. 

At 8pm Virgin were still telling passengers that the engineers are still fixing the issue, they didn't leave for the hotel until 11pm. They got $15 food vouchers when most places were shut and a phone card that had expired.

Yesterday they got everyone to the airport 4hrs before the flight, checking in they was told the plane is still broke and a new one will be made available but the flights been pushed back an hour from 6 to 7pm, didn't take off till 8.10pm as it was delayed again as the caterers hadn't finished.

Got to be worth compo surely, was looking on twitter loads of people kicking off, one tweeted a pic that had the Police out to calm things down  

[Wolfie]

On the original flight they were told an air conditioning fault then later a weather radar problem on the plane

Got to be worth compo surely, was looking on twitter loads of people kicking off, one tweeted a pic that had the Police out to calm things down

 

Yup. Issue with the plane = Airline at fault.

My parents are stil fighting to get compo for a 14 hour delay last February when it snowed and they were trying to take off from Manchester Airport

They kicked back their initial claim stating that they were not liable due to the "unexpected weather conditions" clause

They have pointed out that in February it is not UNEXPECTED to get a bit of snow. Snow in July would "unexpected"

It was also not "unexpected" as the weather forecast had been predicting for a couple of days that a front of snow would be arriving. In every definition it was the "expected weather conditions"

These people need to hang out at a few scandinavian or canadian airports. When the weather is "expected" it's amazing how airports can remain open and run quite happily thanks to a few gritters, snow ploughs and de-icing machines

As expected as the snow should have been, it's not the airlines fault that it snowed or that the airport wasn't adequately prepared for it. I'd be amazed if they win compensation for it.

[Stive Pesley]

As expected as the snow should have been, it's not the airlines fault that it snowed or that the airport wasn't adequately prepared for it. I'd be amazed if they win compensation for it.

Yeah I know, but it was a shambles. They boarded them and then somehow got to the back of the queue to take off, and they were sat onboard for 8 hours with no aircon, no food, weren't allowed to get off the plane etc.

They were meant to leave at 7am, all flights were delayed but departures resumed at about 11am. They boarded them at midday - then finally departed at about 8pm

I was at home watching the live departures board and there were about 30 planes that were scheduled to leave after them which ended up leaving before them because of the way they messed up the queue..

Bear in mind that they are both in their 70s, they didn't cope very well. Someone ought to be liable for the debacle

[GboroRam]

Yeah I know, but it was a shambles. They boarded them and then somehow got to the back of the queue to take off, and they were sat onboard for 8 hours with no aircon, no food, weren't allowed to get off the plane etc.

They were meant to leave at 7am, all flights were delayed but departures resumed at about 11am. They boarded them at midday - then finally departed at about 8pm

I was at home watching the live departures board and there were about 30 planes that were scheduled to leave after them which ended up leaving before them because of the way they messed up the queue..

Bear in mind that they are both in their 70s, they didn't cope very well. Someone ought to be liable for the debacle

The airlines won't be interested in how people were impacted - only I'm how much liability they have.

[MuespachRam]

Missus is in Florida, was supposed to depart last night at 7pm their time from Orlando, got to the airport at 3pm as the hire car had to go. Quick funny side story, time of the month for her, asked her mates mum for some painkillers, later realised they had given her sleeping tablets so she was struggling to stay awake.

Anyhow, had them lining up to board at 6pm, all of a sudden flight delayed by an hour air conditioning fault, all go and sit back down. 7pm the weather radar is broken, can't fly at night without it. 8pm captain says everyone will have to sleep on the plane tonight and they'll take off at 7am when the sun rises. 

8.05pm rioting in Orlando airport, Jumbo jet load of passengers laying into Virgin Atlantic staff. 8.30pm $15 food voucher but only one food outlet open, Burger King and they had limited chicken left.

10pm announced the flight is now delayed for 24 hours, now takes off Sunday at 6pm. Midnight they finally get put in a hotel with no luggage so no clothes or anything, had to remain on the plane.

Anyhow, so a 24 hour delay, the new EU thing says 600 euros (£435) compensation for anything over 4 hours. Looking into it tho airlines are reluctant to pay out, Googled and loads of people having to go through the courts still just to get the compensation.

Virgin say

Doesn't that pretty much cover their arses over everything? faulty weather radar I would have thought would be classed as unexpected flight safety shortcomings. Can see why airlines are reluctant to pay out, 524 passengers can hold on a 747, £435 per person is serious money if full and all claim.

Remember the days where you'd have to suck this up and get on with it, got to whack a claim in now if you can, just don't know if it's worth all the hassle or if it's pretty easy now.

 

you do know what really happened don't you son.....she has been round at mine for the last couple of weeks and cant stand to say goodbye....

[Day]

Made the claim on Friday night through Virgin Atlantic website, last night received an email back saying they are paying £427 compensation and will send a form to enter bank details. Also getting air miles back.

Well that was easy. £427 per passenger will cost them a few bob