EU261 Help

Hello All

A dear friend of mine was on his way back from Vegas yesterday / Monday with Thomas Cook MT173 and was on the receiving end of a pretty brutal delay. This ended up at 24 hours..!

They were given a hotel and some food, however I am sure that they are still entitled to the 600 Euro compensation. The reason given for this delay was (what I am sure cannot be true) a flat tire... Surley this would not delay a flight for 24 hours..? Also, would this be within the control of the carrier - I would say yes as a replacement is not that difficult to get at a major international airport...

Can any of you advise if this would be worth a claim, or where we should start... Also, can anyone find out why the metal was delayed by such a long time!

Dan

We have just put in a EU261 claim to Monarch after a 22 hour delay, due to a technical fault and a new part having to be flown in and fitted.
Martin Lewis has a template and online tool to make and track a claim on his website http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays#resolvertool
After completing the online application Monarch responded by saying we had to fill in their own form which they would respond to within 28 days.
We only claimed on the 17th August so we have had no response yet.
I would say it is definitely worth trying to claim and don't forget you can appeal if their first answer is no.

Yes this is worth a claim and doing so should be easy.

Check what it says on their website about claiming - they may have a form or a specific address (physical / email) to use.

If there is nothing specific then send a simple email to their normal customer services address clearly stating you (well your friend) are claiming under EU261 and the dates and flight number. Keep it quite simple and stick to the facts and don't rant.


Your friend should have been informed of his EU261 rights from the get go but apparently many airlines think they can just ignore the law in this respect.

Whilst being given a hotel room etc also comes under EU261 it is a totally separate provision and an airline can't use the fact they provided them as an excuse not to pay the delay compensation.

Yes, thats a claim IMO. Flat/Punctured tyre is not an extraordinary circumstances imo. Its one of them hazards that happen in life & why we carry spare tyres in our cars. Its an eventuality that happens to us all!

Thanks all - this has been resolved now... Thomas cook handed out a leaflet to everyone on the flight and admitted liability. They even told all the PAX they should get 600Euros as it was totally their fault - either great CC, or a crew that didn't need the aggravation..! They gave vouchers, hotels and the such and apparently looked after everyone pretty well...

However, the reasons behind it are a total joke..! Turns out they blew 2 front tires during landing (wow, that must have been brutal!)... The spare they had tire, but alas this didn't fit so they had to get 2 from Hawaii flown in from there.

Sounds to me like total rubbish - could be true, but I very much doubt it. LAS is a major airpots - surely they would have there tires for the very popular A330..? More so than Hawaii I would guess, but what do I know... I think Thomas Cook are lucky the pax are pretty relaxed - with VS and others flying back to the UK surely they could have moved them to another flight?

Either way, totally sorted - but thanks for the help all..!

Well that is very proactive of Thomas Cook if they had leaflets ready and the CC told them they would get compensation (probably someone at HQ on the ball).

Same with the hotel etc.

Now all of this is a requirement under EU261 but many airlines seem to have the habit of not being so prepared.

Yes it could have been possible to put people on other airlines but that would be dependent on them having space themselves and TC willing to pay them to swap passengers over and given this is the end of the school holidays chances are flights would have been pretty full. Plus not sure where the TC flight was flying to you could have had problems in getting pax to the proper destination.


Many years ago a Zoom flight I was due on was 12 hours late because of a problem on the inbound. On the actual flight I was told they needed to get a part from Ottawa to Toronto which took over 4 hours in a car! I commented that there are regular flights between the two that take an hour. The CC I was talking too agreed but apparently 'management' weren't willing to pay to have it flown nor to see if they could source the part at Toronto. They went bust not long after.

Apparently with plane parts and needing to have records of where the part came from to maintain the chain of custody it's not quite so easy to source them.

Well that is very proactive of Thomas Cook if they had leaflets ready and the CC told them they would get compensation (probably someone at HQ on the ball).

Same with the hotel etc.

Now all of this is a requirement under EU261 but many airlines seem to have the habit of not being so prepared.

Yes it could have been possible to put people on other airlines but that would be dependent on them having space themselves and TC willing to pay them to swap passengers over and given this is the end of the school holidays chances are flights would have been pretty full. Plus not sure where the TC flight was flying to you could have had problems in getting pax to the proper destination.


Many years ago a Zoom flight I was due on was 12 hours late because of a problem on the inbound. On the actual flight I was told they needed to get a part from Ottawa to Toronto which took over 4 hours in a car! I commented that there are regular flights between the two that take an hour. The CC I was talking too agreed but apparently 'management' weren't willing to pay to have it flown nor to see if they could source the part at Toronto. They went bust not long after.

Apparently with plane parts and needing to have records of where the part came from to maintain the chain of custody it's not quite so easy to source them.

As I say Tonty - I don't know a lot about spares for Metal - but, I would have thought someone at LAX has a few spares that are needed... Tires, for example would be one - yes its not QuickFit - but they are a part that will need replacing. Perhaps I should set up Dans Tires there, might be onto something..!

I will agree, TC were by all accounts on the ball with the compo and hotel issues. I have heard of many pax being left at the airport to suffer a long wait - so fair play.

Shame, Ted (my mate) said this really left a bitter taste after a great trip... On a plus, after showing him this forum and talking about price and the flights he will now only be looking at VS. Every cloud eh...