delayed...missed train...no insurance claim

Hi
When you take out travel insurance you would assume that is you have an 8 hour delay and you miss the train you have prebooked tickets on and have to buy new expensive ones on the day that this would be covered by travel insurance. This is what happened to me and as our delay wasn't over 12hrs I cannot claim. VA are saying it's travel insurance claim and Virgin Travel Insurance are telling me to speak to VA! Anyone has any experience or advice on what to do in this situation? I am £193.60 out of pocket!Thanks

If your Virgin Atlantic flight was delayed by 8 hours you may have a claim for compensation against them under the EU261/2004 regulations - depending on the cause of the delay.

There are lots of sources of info about EU261/2004 online if you need advice but most airlines will do all they can to wriggle out of paying so you may need to be persistent if you think you've got a case.

As for your insurance - yes, you might expect to be covered for such an eventuality but if the small print says you're not, you're not - end of.

Just to clarify your Virgin Atlantic flight was 8 hours late and this meant you missed your pre-booked train? (VA are V Australia flight codes)

Any compensation will depend on why the flight was delayed. Do you know why and if so can you let us know. Some reasons are automatically excluded such as weather and ATC delays.

If covered then EU261/2004 will require VS to pay compensation but it does not cover consequential losses.

That is what your travel insurance is for and it looks like you are caught out by the policy wording which would be pretty standard but the time periods might be different with other insurers.

Yes, our flight was delayed and I missed prebooked train (the best way to get cheap prices from London to York) . Our flight was delayed due to a technical fault, I have looked into the EU compensation and will do what I need to so to pursue it. I meant VS not VA when posting originally. I think I have been caught out by my Silver Virgin Travel Insurance, who reads the small print? I will from now on! You would just assume you would be covered for something like this.

Ok, a technical problem should be eligible for compensation as it's deemed within the airline's control - however much they may try and argue otherwise.

Who reads the small print? Indeed - hardly anyone. But as the saying goes ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law. When you bought your insurance you will have been asked to accept the terms and conditions. Insurance companies must make a packet out of refusing claims from people who didn't read them.

If your flight was delayed for the amount of time you say then EU261 applies. They also have to give you a written statement outlining your rights under EU261. If they haven't you need to make that clear too. Nothing to do with your travel insurance at this stage unless I have misread your entire post. Which is possible as I just got back from the pub.

Sounds like you have a solid claim under the EU 261 so best of luck.

I must hold my hands up 're the who reads the small print comment. In fact I wasted about a week of my life recently reading the T&Cs of various insurance policies (and bothering fellow v-flyers with questions) and you'd be surprised that the majority of the policies out there are pretty much useless. Probably not what you want to hear, but it's definitely worth reading those boring small prints. If it makes you feel better, even if it's covered, you'd possibly be stung with an excess, and/or the claim might've been capped at some very low ceiling.

€600 per passenger should cushion the blow slightly :-)

Don't allow yourself to be fobbed off when they try and tell you it's extraordinary circumstances. Go via the government's money claim online service if you need to.

I would just say that whilst 'extraordinary circumstances' is being pushed back by the airlines in court (there is the Jet2 case where leave to appeal is being sought to the Supreme Court) there are some things that really are out-with of the airlines control and would really count as an extraordinary circumstances.

These are not issues of routine maintenance (which is what the airlines are pushing back in court over) but issues such as lightening strikes, having to divert because of a medical emergency or because a plane was damaged by someone else.

You would need to push VS hard to get a proper explanation. If they give you one then you likely won't have a claim but if they are trying to fob you off with a generic statement then I'd say you would have a good claim.

So

Contact VS to make a claim - specifically say it is EU261 related.

VS will push back

Contact them again asking for detailed info

VS will push back

Contact them again and give them 14 days notice before action to respond further.

Initiate a MCOL claim. The court will look more favourably on your claim if you are seen to be reasonable and have given VS an opportunity to respond. Less so if you go straight to MCOL.

VS will then have 30 days to either cough up on a 'we are not admitting liabilty' basis or defend the action. It looks like BA do the former rather than have a judgement against them

Working from memory here when it happened to us 18 months ago on BA but Go on to flightstats.co.uk (you may have to register with them) and get the Time Line for your flight. That will tell you where your plane was before it got to you and you will have details of possibly why your flight was delayed. Get all the evidence you can for your claim and mail copies to VS in registered/signed for letter claiming under EU261. Requesting at least an acknowledgement of your claim within 2 weeks.
For just an 8 hour delay I'm pretty sure you will not be eligible (if indeed you are eligible) for the full 600 Euro's but its worth a try - good luck.
For us BA paid up the full amount each, plus a tidy sum of Avios each, within 3 weeks.

A few years ago I too decided to buy cheap train tickets to get back to Derby following flights into LHR. I enquired as to what would happen in the event of a significant delay to the inbound flight. I was told by the train company that as long as I had a letter from the airline, along with BPs for that flight, the train tickets would be honoured. That said the flights were never delayed for this to be tested.

When we booked our train tickets a few weeks ago, we chose the insurance option and to my knowledge, it was £2 per ticket one way. We just selected it for the return journey and you must contact them via a call or email within I think 2hrs before the train departs, might be 45mins, it's one or the other. So if you're sat in the departures lounge and know the flight is delayed you can send a quick email. Let's hope we don't need it but it's a nice bit of comfort.

Hope this helps for anyone in future but sorry to hear about your delay and the following problems.

AC

My twopennyworth.

EU261 should be applicable - 8 hours is way over the max delay so, depending on the reason, full comp is due.

As far as the travel insurance and the train delay is concerned, although they hide behind the T&C's (and, as you say, no-one reads them anyway)they may not be able to. Not an expert in Contract Law but T&C's need to be fair and equitable

Refer it to the Financial Ombudsman.

We recently did this for pet insurance when the dog was ill. The insurance refused to pay out stating the T&C's. The Ombudsman told them to pay and we got a cheque within 2 weeks. Which was a bit silly of the insurance company as I believe they get hit for about a £500 fee for every Ombudsman referral. So ended up costing them a lot more than if they just 'played fair'.

Also, did you pay for the train tickets by Credit Card? If so, chase them via the CC company.

EU261 should apply as your delay was over 2 hours (I think it's 3 hours for €600).

I would add that after a couple of rounds of back and forth with VS, you also have the option of going to the Civil Aviation Authority before going to the small claims court etc. It was the CAA who helped me sort my claim with AF after 2 years of going back and forth. I wish I had got them involved earlier.

EU261 should apply as your delay was over 2 hours (I think it's 3 hours for €600).

It is 3 hours for delays (and that will increase if the proposed changes to the regulation get approved) but 2 hours delay for when duty of care kicks in - but 2 hours is for short flights. If it is 3,500 KM or more long then it is 4 hours before the airline has to provide anything e.g refreshment vouchers.

PLEASE remember it all depends on the cause of the delay.

If it was caused by weather = NO payment

If there were issues at the airports that delayed flights = NO payment (some exceptions to this though mainly if the delay is due to the airline not the airport operations)

If ATC put restrictions on flight movements = NO payment

Until we know what reason VS have given emilyclare for the delay we really can't say whether or not she is due any compensation at all.

Interestingly, the 2 hour delay coming back from Cancun in June made us miss our advance ticket train on a Virgin West Coast to Wolverhampton. Having turned about 15 minutes after the planned train had left (had set a reasonable time of like 2.5 hours to get from LGW to Euston). At first the dude on information thought I'd have to pay again, but in the queue another virgin customer service person took them off, marked them ok and we were on the next train.

Might have been Upper Class and First Class on the train helped (but the first class tickets were 23 quid each though). So on a Virgin route, I expect a decent connection. They are also very like this with Eurostar delays inwards, but Eurostar is also as good with Virgin delays too...