I am hoping you can help us with a claim for a delayed flight on 13th of February 2013 to Cancun Mexico.
My wife and I booked the holiday through Thomson flying from Gatwick at 9.15am. We live in South Wales, a 4 hour drive from Gatwick, and therefore travelled through the night to check-in at 07.15am.
Boarding was delayed and we were told there would be a hold up because of technical problems - a hydraulic leak. We eventually boarded the plane at midday but were then further delayed by 1 hour 30 minutes while a seat was repaired.
They said these delays were beyond their control and we were offered free Premium films on board to compensate for our delay.
In total we were delayed over 4 hours. So instead of arriving at our hotel mid-afternoon we arrived at 7 in the evening very tired and went straight to bed losing the first night of our holiday.
I believe that under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 we are entitled to compensation of £508 each. That is the rate for a flight over 3,500km and a delay of over 4 hours.
More... Why a three-hour flight delay could now get you £500: How to claim compensation after couple's landmark court victory Going on holiday? Best debit and credit cards to help you avoid overseas fees Has your flight got cheaper after you bought it? How to get your airline to pay YOU the difference Can you get a better travel insurance deal? Find out hereI sent Thomson a claim a week after we returned and received a reply a couple of months later.
The reply basically states that the fault was beyond their control and that they would not be awarding any compensation. I have attached a copy of their reply.
I do not believe in the compensation culture and have never claimed for anything in my life but we paid a lot of money for the holiday and have been extremely disappointed in Thomson's response to the delay, both at the time and their letter today.
Their response looks to be a totally standard reply to a claim and aimed at discouraging any further action.
We would be very grateful if you could please investigate this further for us.
C.W, via email.Tara Evans, from This is Money, replies: On paper, this sounds easy. Your flight was delayed and a ruling in the European Court of Justice last October stated that such delays, even those caused by technical faults, merit compensation.
You can read more about this ruling and how to claim compensation via our guide.
In practice, despite this ruling, some airlines are still refusing to pay out.
I spoke to Thomson press team on your behalf to highlight the court ruling and see if they would change their minds regarding your compensation. Unfortunately they would not budge.
A spokesman said: ‘Thomson Airways operates a fair and thorough process to deal with EU Delay Claims in line with the regulation. The law in this area is complex and many situations will not result in an entitlement to compensation.
'The clause "extraordinary circumstances" does encompass a number of eventualities, including some technical issues with the aircraft.
'We’d like to reassure customers that we are committed to maintaining an excellent on-time performance across our flying programme, and we work hard to maintain the title of most on-time charter airline.’
I don’t really understand this response. The law states that if the delay is a fault of the airline then the customer deserves compensation. It was surely Thomson's responsibility to ensure it had functioning aircraft. That seems simple to me.
I asked Thomson to explain further but they declined.
Airlines are still able to deny payouts for ‘extraordinary circumstance’, for example if there is bad weather or strikes, but Thomson are using this as an excuse for a technical fault.
You can challenge this as the regulation gives no definition of exactly what extraordinary circumstances are, but does give some examples.
It says: 'As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances 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 incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.'
The crucial part of this is that it says 'which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken'.
This means that you could challenge the technical fault argument as Thomson should have a reasonable expectation that things will go wrong and they should have contingency plans in place.
The next thing you should do is contact the Civil Aviation Authority (passengercomplaints@caa.co.uk or 0207 453 6888) and to see if it agrees that you are entitled to compensation.
If they do, it won't be binding but it might be enough to put pressure on them to pay up.