Compensation for 24 hour delay?

[angusburns]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone has been successful in getting some sort of compensation (eg refund of ff points) when they were delayed for 24 hours or more.

I was booked DPS-BNE-SYD @ 9.10pm last week, which was delayed until 8am the next day for forecast fog in BNE, then delayed again until 1pm due to a mechanical problem with our plane, so they sent another. Finally left at 2.15pm and got to BNE too late to connect to Sydney, so had a 3 hour sleep in a hotel and then back to BNE for a 6am flight to Sydney.

Part of me says that you got home OK, so too bad about the lack of sleep both nights, another part of me says that they have inconvenienced me so they should offer something to say sorry.

I noticed on a web page, if a flight is more than 5 hours delayed in the EU, the customers are entitled to a full refund.

Anyway, I am just posting to ask if anyone has been able to successfully apply for some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. I called Virgin and they were adamant that I flew on the booked flights, eventually, so no refund or credit. Three of us, so about 100,000 Velocity points worth of seats.

I have read of people getting credits etc for flying in seats with non-functioning entertainment systems, so thought it was worth asking.

Would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks!

Angus

 

[Cynicor]

Travel insurance normally kicks in for this sort of thing. Meals, accommodation expenses etc. You can have quite a nice meal sometimes, it's even better when they misplace your luggage!

 

[jaspon]

i think you should have least got delay vouchers or similar when in DPS to use for food & drink etc at the airport,
The hotel in Brissy should have been booked/paid for by virgin as well, plus any incidental costs, i think thats around $50 p/p

 

[angusburns]

Travel insurance normally kicks in for this sort of thing. Meals, accommodation expenses etc. You can have quite a nice meal sometimes, it's even better when they misplace your luggage!

Thanks, Virgin covered all costs, I was just wondering if they ever compensated for the lost day, loss of sleep, disruption to plans.

I don't think so, but have heard that some people have been compensated for broken in-flight entertainment units so thought that maybe someone was aware of a mechanism.

I may go back and ask QBE, but the wording looks like they repay for expenses incurred due to the delay, not for loss of time and productivity.

No big deal, more curious than anything now - just annoying to have lost the day and only had 3 hours sleep so the next day was not very productive, and they just say "too bad"

This is the situation in the EU: Guide on how to claim compensation for delayed flights | Daily Mail Online

 

[flying_double]

One of the problems in these cases is that people can view the disruption differently. If it was me, I wouldn't have slept on the overnight sector anyway, so the switch to a day flight plus a hotel bed for a few hours in Brisbane would have been a net gain!

By all means have a crack at getting a little extra for the specific inconvenience you experienced though. Let us know how you go.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

You try to contact the velocity rep on this forum via PM if they still check their account?

 

[anat0l]

There's no fixed mechanism or policy for this.

You can send an email to Virgin and articulate your case for compensation, including how much you think you should be entitled to. There's never a lot of precedence for this kind of stuff. Keep any communications with Virgin non-emotional.

In this case, your "damage" would be claimed against Virgin for the plane having gone technical, not the fog, since the latter, Virgin has absolutely no control over. Even in the EU, you can't claim compensation for delays which are due to weather; the airline is legally obliged to take care of you (e.g. give meals and accommodation as necessary), but not cash compensation.

Once again, check over your insurance policy to the letter and see if you are entitled to claim anything for being delayed.

The EU situation you measure is enshrined in European Union regulation which is applicable to all airlines who are based in EU member states, and all airlines when they operate a flight from an EU member state. It is well known and quite tight, although the time frames for actually receiving a claim can vary widely. The difference between having binding legislation and actually having it enforced easily are not one and the same thing.

There's not many other jurisdictions in the world where such a regulation exists.

 

[Mattg]

It really depends on the airline. I've heard that Emirates sometimes gives vouchers for a free return trip to wherever the original booking was made to if these kind of disruptions occur. The US airlines generally won't give you anything. And the rest are somewhere in between. It's all a bit of a lottery, really.

 

[Bolthead]

My wife and I rcently received compensation (we didn't ask for it) on a recent flight from PVG-SIN. We have booked a Y+ flight (PVG-SIN-SYD) with SQ and due to their rollout of Y+ being delayed our first sector had to be flown in Y. We were in the USA at the time when they rang us and the nice lady on the phone offerd us $150SGD each in inflight vouchers plus further compensation regarding a future flight which she said they would explain at the airport in PVG. I wasn't particularly worried about it so when we got to the airport they gave us the vouchers (12 months use by date) and an upgrade voucher from Y to Y+ for a single sector anywhere in the SQ network. (each) So this means that we can now upgrade from SIN-LAX or SIN-LHR which is great considering the flight we were on originally was only a short international sector. (PVG-SIN) We are very happy...

PS: We also got the status points for Y+ and not for Y so once again that was good.