ccarmock wrote:A colleage was due to fly on VS301 from Dehli to Heathrow today. During taxi the Oxygen masks deployed in the cabin. Passengers were told it was a circuit breaker fault.
Flight will operate on Sunday as VS1301. He managed to book onto a BA flight so did leave today, however what is the policy on refunds, since VS are providing an alternative flight tomorrow. At the time he booked the alternative BA flight all they were being told was the scheduled VS301 on Sunday was full.
I am assuming the BA flight was more expensive than the VS? Does your colleague want a refund of the BA fare or just the VS fare?
Under EU legislation (Regulation 261/2004), he would be entitled to a refund, at the very least, for the full VS fare.
It gets more tricky with regards to getting a refund for the BA fare. VS is responsible for rerouting passengers on cancelled flights at the earliest opportunity, whether it be with themselves or a different airline.
If I am reading it correctly, it looks like your colleague was told the scheduled VS301 flight for 1 July 2012 was fully booked and no immediate alternative route was offered. Your colleague therefore booked an alternative flight. Since then, VS have managed to reschedule the original VS301 flight from 30 June 2012 for 1 July 2012?
I think VS should be responsible for paying for the BA flight, however it may be a bit of a fight. Was was the original VS fare compared to the BA fare? VS are unlikely to pay fully for an F fare with BA, if your colleague booked a Y fare with VS. Your colleague will need to stress when claiming that he needed to get to Delhi asap and no alternative route was immediately offered. Do you know how long after being told the VS301 on 1 July was fully booked that VS rescheduled the original flight?
In terms of compensation, your colleague would also be potentially entitled to compensation for the delay in arrival. The amount is determined by the time difference between the scheduled arrival with VS and actual arrival with BA. If this exceeded 4hrs, he could potentially claim €600. However, airlines do have a get clause. They can claim that if the cancellation extraordinary circumstances (i.e. was outside of their control), then they are not obliged to pay compensation. This should normally be due to weather problems/acts of god etc., however from personal experience with low cost airlines, they will claim technical problems with their aircraft were outside their control and refuse to pay out. Quality carriers like VS/BA are much more likely to fairly comply with the compensation rules.
A final point would be travel insurance. Does your colleague have any? This would potentially cover the cost of the alternative BA flight. Normally they will advise you to first claim through the airline and if you are having difficulties, they will then process your claim. I was out of pocket for a cancelled flight in June 2011 and the low cost carrier refused to pay for my alternative flight back home. It took nearly 6 months for the insurance company to pay out, as they wanted me to keep trying to claim from the airline. I would however tell your colleague to notify his insurance company asap, if he does have travel insurance. It's always better to have it on record rather than making a claim (if required) several months later.
