Anybody good with compo from airplane delays >3 hours?

wingnutta

wingnutta

wingnutta

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Location
Spain - Finally....
Hey all,

Delayed the other day from Manchester to the tune of 7.25 hours. Reason being damage to the aircraft. Had to wait for another aircraft.. not good :mad:

Reason i am asking is that i may go through with claiming the compensation because of that new ruling, however not sure if they can get out of it..

I thought the damage was caused inbound (cant argue with that), however it seems that it was caused when on the ground by somebody using the jetty/walkway thing that goes on the side of the plane. It caused a "gash" that was outside safe flying limits.

As with last time i was delayed they have used the "circumstances beyond our control" - but is human error good enough for that??? They employ the handling agent to do it (swissport) but they will obviously get compo from them for plane out of service!

Thoughts?
 
From a quick google:

If a technical issue is the airline's fault, you can claim. However, if the problem is caused by a manufacturer's defect - say, if a part made by Airbus or Boeing is dodgy – that's an 'extraordinary circumstance', so you can't claim.
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Seems like a technical issue caused by an operator at the airport, and not by the airline itself, might well qualify as 'extraordinary' too, which would mean no free money...
 
Well, personally I wouldn't claim unless I the delay directly caused me to lose money for one reason or another.

If it makes you feel any better, after spending several months in the most hellish place on earth, my 18 hour flight home was delayed by 56 hours for the same reason.
 
arctine said:
Well, personally I wouldn't claim unless I the delay directly caused me to lose money for one reason or another.

If it makes you feel any better, after spending several months in the most hellish place on earth, my 18 hour flight home was delayed by 56 hours for the same reason.
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Hurry up and wait is pretty standard in your line of work though :p
 
wingnutta said:
Delayed the other day from Manchester to the tune of 7.25 hours. Reason being damage to the aircraft. Had to wait for another aircraft.. not good :mad:
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Compo for an airline ensuring your safety and life at the cost of a few hours?
It doesnt matter how the damage occurred, they needed a new plane and got one. It took time, but its a damn sight better then you smashing into the ground at 200 mph.

Come on you cant be serious.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
Compo for an airline ensuring your safety and life at the cost of a few hours?
It doesnt matter how the damage occurred, they needed a new plane and got one. It took time, but its a damn sight better then you smashing into the ground at 200 mph.

Come on you cant be serious.
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Why not? He paid for a service which he didn't receive - if he wanted to arrive 7.5 hours later, surely he would have booked a flight 7.5 hours later...
 
and the T+C's will surely state that delays can occur for a variety of reasons and you have to suck it up.

from Singapore Airlines:

(a) Carrier undertakes to use its best efforts to carry the passenger and his baggage with reasonable dispatch. Times shown in the ticket, timetables or elsewhere are not guaranteed and do not form part of the contract of carriage and Carrier assumes no responsibility for making connections.

(b) Schedules are subject to change without notice. Carrier may when circumstances so require alter or omit stopping places shown on the ticket or in schedules and may without notice substitute alternate carriers or aircraft.
 
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There was a piece on Watchdog last week about Airlines miss using the phrase extra-ordinary circumstances to wangle their way out of compensating passengers.

Might be worth having a quick watch.
 
wesley said:
partial refund - yess

compo - no, dont be silly
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The EU 261/2004 regulation allows for upto €600 compensation.

I've successfully claimed from Thompson for a 7.5 hr delay.

It depends on the circumstances.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
and the T+C's will surely state that delays can occur for a variety of reasons and you have to suck it up.
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No, this is not true. There are strict EU regulations regarding air delays and airlines can write all the T&C's they want - if they are departing from or flying to the EU, they are subject to these regulations and must abide by them. This includes the airline you quote, who can say whatever they want about flights which don't involve the EU.

Many of the things which cause a delay to your flight are covered and you will receive compensation provided it isnt, as mentioned, 'extraordinary circumstances'. What falls into this and what doesnt is open to debate and, frequently, court challenge.

To all those saying 'Suck it up, might have died if they didnt fix it' you are somewhat missing the point. You've paid for for a service, you are obviously entitled to be compensated for issues preventing that service being delivered in the way you paid for. Of course its right a replacement aircraft was sourced, but then, it was wrong it was damaged in the first place.
 
pitchfork said:
So your free time is worth nothing?

I need someone to wash my pants, what are you doing this tuesday?
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My free time is worth less than making sure a plane load of people are safe.

Maybe he is entitled to compensation, I dunno. I just stated that personally, I'd accept the delay as unfortunate and unless it directly caused me to lose money, I'd forgive and forget on the basis that accidents happen.

You might completely disagree, that's fine.
 
I got delayed 30hrs coming back from Egypt in June (might have seen the news reports, twas an EasyJet flight) - I rang them up the next week, gave them the flight number and confirmed my details and 7 days later I got a 600EUR payment into the bank, must have been on the phone 10 minutes if that?
 
arctine said:
My free time is worth less than making sure a plane load of people are safe.

Maybe he is entitled to compensation, I dunno. I just stated that personally, I'd accept the delay as unfortunate and unless it directly caused me to lose money, I'd forgive and forget on the basis that accidents happen.

You might completely disagree, that's fine.
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im in the same line of thought. as if people keep bleeding compensation out of companies, then little accidents may not get reported in the future in an attempt to reduce the amount of compensation given out.

so yeah, i probably wouldn't claim for 7.5 hours of my time, but if it was going to be over night etc, then yeah. sign me up.
 
wingnutta said:
Hey all,

Delayed the other day from Manchester to the tune of 7.25 hours. Reason being damage to the aircraft. Had to wait for another aircraft.. not good :mad:

Reason i am asking is that i may go through with claiming the compensation because of that new ruling, however not sure if they can get out of it..

I thought the damage was caused inbound (cant argue with that), however it seems that it was caused when on the ground by somebody using the jetty/walkway thing that goes on the side of the plane. It caused a "gash" that was outside safe flying limits.

As with last time i was delayed they have used the "circumstances beyond our control" - but is human error good enough for that??? They employ the handling agent to do it (swissport) but they will obviously get compo from them for plane out of service!

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

What you've mentioned as the cause is not "extraordinary circumstances", under the EU rules you ARE entitled to compensation and despite what all the "OMG, don't claim compo" brigade say, you'd be a mug not to pursue it.
 
Why would you not claim if the framework is in place for that very reason?

By comparison, my train back from London yesterday was delayed 40 minutes and the staff actively told passengers to claim for the delay because you are entitled to it.
 
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