PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT - Make sure to claim for your flight delay!

[tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz]

Morning all

Just wanted to remind everyone that under UK law (think it's originally law we benefited from whilst in the EU but it's one of the few things that remained in our favour post the shit show that was Brexit) if your flight is delayed or cancelled and delay is 3 hours + all travellers are entitled to compensation regardless and of flight/holiday cost.

We've just had £ in our bank this am from TUI following our flight home from Naples a few weeks ago being delayed then cancelled (flown home following afternoon).

Factors that determine the amount are -

How much notice you had,
Distance your flight is, and
How long the delay was (calculated up until aircraft doors are opened in landing )

Flight has to either leave from or land in EU or UK airport and cannot be due to circumstances beyond operatiots control.

Anyhoo ... definitely worth checking on operatiors website. Link for CAA authority below too.

My firm with TUI took 5 minutes to fill in and no paperwork or docs to support needed at all.

My claim for my lost case however

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/delays/

To bring it back to a claim story, I claimed for our flight from Gibraltar which was cancelled. We were bussed up to Malaga as no plane / pilot (don't know which) could be found which was rated for Gib as its a special location to operate in and out of.

We got back more in EU compensation than the whole trip had cost us. I had the house painted 😂

Highly recommend using the Money Saving Expert "Resolver" tool if you need to do this. It took me through each step, told me what evidence I needed and prompted the photos required. I uploaded the photos of boarding cards etc and it generated the emails straight to the right department at the airline. I had the cheques in a fortnight. And no, MSE don't take a cut / charge for it, it's a genuinely fantastic thing they offer for free.

We’ve used Resolver before and found it very straightforward to use.

I’ve also claimed direct with EasyJet for a cancelled flight (passengers were shunted onto the next flight 4 hrs later) and had the compensation agreed within 20 minutes.

As a PP said, budget airlines are running on tight margins and rely on quick turnarounds, so delays in the morning (say due to bad weather) will continue to accumulate over the rest of the day. Sometimes it’s just one of those things.

Absolutely. And some people are Professionally Unreasonable to begin with so it must be so difficult for staff on the receiving end.

I do really feel for passengers with kids because it's really no fun when stuck in a terminal with no info even on what refreshments you can get/when you can get them.

But yes I was just hoping to let others know because I didn't have a clue

And actually, fair play to TUI because I didn't even need to get help with mine as their online tool took minutes and I didn't have to upload a single document or picture. I received confirmation within 24 hours my claim was accepted.

It's worth checking too as they said they only accepted claims directly and not via third party - other airlines may be the same.

In the whole shit show I had with them this part was spookily easy

Good luck to anyone trying to make a claim from Ryanair and the person who used the bailiffs against another airline (cannot recall which) is something I applauded.

OPs information is useful.

We arrived to our villa at 4.45 am! The host had to stay up m, and obv we incur late charges.
my ds had lost the plot by then and couldn’t deregulate and was screaming / sobbing for a while before we went to sleep once we’d arrived . It had all got too much . He’s now also told us we lied and he will
no longer get on a plane for a holiday!

totally understand that this is part of his condition but to when a flight is delayed by over 5 hours, no snacks were provided to our section of the plan - not even to come and sell us stuff -we had to keep asking, by the time they came towards the end of the flight - there was barely anything left so we bought water! Luckily we had packed a specific sandwich for him - but other two kids had to go without. There were people around us complaint to staff to come with no regard - so I didn’t see any point wasting my energy on airline staff that still wouldn’t do what was asked.

I agree that airlines couldn’t be held at fault for bad weather. But the initial delay until 5.30’wasnt due to this but because of their initial delay and losing the slot time at 2.20 - this is what then caused them to fall into the weather delay. I mentioned the flight at 3pm because that didn’t fall into it because it flew on time and this would have been the case for our flight which was earlier..

• this flight was cheaper than the 2.20 flight but we chose it because even 40 minutes would make a big difference to our sons experience .

weve had a days rest and are going to enjoy our holiday before the journey back. never ever again booking flights with whizz air though!

I guess we'll never get to the bottom of what went on initially but I hope your flight back goes OK..

never ever again booking flights with whizz air though!

For info the UK CAA really seem to like a quiet life and don't like putting their foot down Wizz Air managed to provoke them into action:

https://www.caa.co.uk/newsroom/news/regulator-brings-enforcement-action-against-wizz-air/

It was against Wizz Air. I though managed to get our compensation from Wizz Air without having to go to court. Though my last email which they paid soon after did state that was my next move.

@AdvicePleas I understand it’s been a very difficult journey for your son and as a result it’s been a hard day for your whole family too, but it’s a fact that delays do happen. You have also chosen to fly with the most low-costy of the low-costs who are notorious for late flights and poor on board service. Normally a person choosing to fly with Wizz Air would be resigned to the fact they will get there late and uncomfortably, as a trade off against getting cheap flights. However, a huge domino effect of lateness can occur to any airline - I fly for a major long haul airline and the aircraft I was flying recently had both a lightning strike and a bird strike on one outbound flight and needed 4 hours of engineering inspections before it could fly again leading to a huge delay for the passengers returning home. On a long haul flight there is more time built in on the ground for this, but if it occurred on a short haul flight with minimum turnarounds it could have sufficient effect that the aircraft would still be trying to catch up with its schedule next day.

You sound like your family are infrequent flyers, so perhaps this is all news to you. If you are to fly with your son again I would recommend perhaps a different airline to Wizz (wouldn’t recommend Ryanair either.) I would certainly bring food for the whole family on a European flight with any airline these days, and any other comfort items that would help your son. No one in their right mind would rely on a low cost airline to provide food - have you seen the size of the storage the average short haul aircraft has on board? And travel with the understanding that airlines are not like buses running on time, and you won’t be disappointed when the flight does not operate like a bus. As I’ve said earlier, the concept of catapulting people in their thousands through the air in pressurised tubes at great height and speed to land in a different country in one piece on a narrow runway in all weathers is incredible enough - expecting all of this to happen on a tight schedule is beyond incredible.

I have recently received money (£350 each ) from air Portugal for flights last summer which were delayed over 5 hours

Took a long time for the claim to be even acknowledged. Not an easy system but I n know they legally have to pay out . There is a group on FB just about air Portugal and this subject

It's worth fighting for

Yes you’re right ,
we are relatively infrequent flyers, although this sounds odd as this is our third flight in a year ( down to particular circumstances )
but prior to that we hadn’t flown in years and years mainly with 3 young kids and plus sons additional needs, we felt it was Better to avoid flying.

I had never heard of whizz, heard mixed reviews and as this was a last minute booking , the flights were not cheap but were the best ones according to the times we wanted.
we accounted for sons dinner , had snacks and drinks for the other two, normally I actually make food at home - we had bought chicken nuggets but as the flight was initially delayed at the airport for three hours - , and then two hours on the plane - beinh 7, 10 and 12 - had eaten them all.
I never said we relied on them - jist the fact that they offered it to passengers but then completely missed the middle of the plane - and even when selling snacks later - stopped before they came to us.

I understand that aviation is an incredibly amazing thing but I disagree with poor service and accountability for this ; how can anything be regulated? somebody has to fly this these companies and whilst it’s a no frills company, if there is a pattern of behaviour that’s causing them to have delays, perhaps the only way they will initiate change is if customers are compensated for it .

who knows.. we’ve had a wonderful day of having seafood and swimming ... although ds said he loves home and school more!
thank you to everyone who’s responded with advice!

Seafood and swimming sounds like bliss! I hope you all have a lovely holiday from here on x

Wizzair isn't particularly cheap when you add up all the extras they charge for. Regardless, they need to run on time.