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Hello,
Just looking for a bit of advice with what I can claim for regarding a cancelled flight with Aer Lingus (operated by Emerald Air, booked through BA).
I was booked on EI3613 25/11/22 MAN-BHD (due to depart 1140, arrive 1235). This was cancelled at 1715 on 24/11/22. I was offered a seat on EI205 MAN-DUB which arrived in Dublin at 1450. This was no good to me since I had to be in Belfast for a 2pm meeting.
My only option was to book on Easyjet departing LIV (£128) and arriving Belfast International. That got me there in time.
I had been planning to drive to MAN and had booked parking there (£57). Clearly since I was now departing LIV it made no sense to drive to MAN so I cancelled the parking (full refund) and took a taxi to LIV (£50). My return flight, on the original booking, operated as planned into MAN. I took a taxi home from MAN (£110).
I submitted all these costs to EI and they have sent me £157, which they say is a refund of my outbound (cancelled) flight. They say they won’t reimburse the cost of replacement flights or ground transportation. I don’t believe this is correct but I haven’t been in this situation before so need to know what I should be claiming for. I also understand I should be paid EU 261 compensation of 250 Euro.
Please can someone tell me what I should be claiming for and how to take this forward with EI. Thanks!
The answer depends on what opportunity you have EI to rebook you beyond the flight you say was unsuitable. If you made your own arrangements without further contact, they are correct in saying nothing is owed for the replacement flights or other costs. They have refunded you for the original flight which complicates things as that effectively extinguishes your rights although it doesn’t seem you asked for that refund??
Morning, thanks for your reply.
I didn’t find out about the cancellation until 7pm that evening when I checked my emails. No online rebooking options were offered and I couldn’t get through to anyone by phone despite trying. I therefore booked the EasyJet flight without having spoken to anyone at EI.
Hello
Can anyone assist me further with this please?
Thanks!Hello
Can anyone assist me further with this please?
Thanks!You can write to EI to seek clarification of the reason for cancellation, but their refund is essentially saying they are washing their hands of the matter. You need to tell them you did not ask for a refund, but you did want to be rerouted but they failed to offer this online and set out your efforts to contact them. You were this obliged, in the absence of the assistance required by statute, to make your own arrangements for which you now want compensation of £x in addition to the cancellation compensation.
If this fails to elicit a satisfactory response (likely, unfortunately) you need to contact flightrights.ie
My understanding is certainly on the UK side the CAA considers a same day reroute satisfactory. So I’d say you’d have been OK to travel, claim expenses to get to Belfast and then maybe compensation depending on your arrival time and the cancellation reason
Unfortunately needing to travel earlier and therefore making your own arrangement has probably been dealt with by Aer Lingus/Emerald correctly and as you didn’t fly with them no further compensation would be due
Hello thanks for the replies.
I’ll get back to them and make the points as suggested.
If I’m not entitled to anything more then so be it, although it does seem very odd that it would be OK to be flown to a different city hours later!
If it went as far as a county court claim, a judge would most likely consider the reasonableness of both sides positions since the statute isn’t completely black & white on this.
Clearly if you were going on holiday to Marbella for a week & you were rerouted to Malaga as a Gibraltar flight was cancelled & the flight was 2 hours later then that’s not an unreasonable offer (assuming there weren’t issues with car hire etc).
If you’re travelling same day for a meeting in Belfast then arriving in Dublin 2 1/4 hours later isn’t going to work & the EasyJet flight was a reasonable alternative that they should have provided. The key will be demonstrating you gave them an opportunity to arrange this so always keep a record of attempts to contact them & screenshots/e-mails of any communication from them.
Asking for reimbursement for both taxis is probably pushing it as they would say you always needed to arrange transport home from Manchester anyway. If the cancellation isn’t for an exempt reason then the compo will more than cover the taxis.
Thanks again. I contacted them to give a breakdown of the sum and to request full reimbursement. Their response is slightly odd:
Thank you for contacting Aer Lingus.
We refund reasonable and receipted expenses for meals, transport and accommodation where applicable and relative to the circumstances, as required.
Please be advised that claims of a consequential nature such as lost wages, alternative airline tickets, pre-paid tours, pre booked accommodation, pre-booked arrangements, car parking, etc. unfortunately cannot be considered.
If you hold any personal travel insurance, they may cover for expenses of this type. You may request Proof of Travel by selecting Request A Document and Proof of Travel on the Travel Enquiry form. In the comments section, please explain that you require a letter to claim reimbursement for travel delay.
It seems they’re paying most of the taxis (although about £10 short) but not the new flight (£128).
I’m not sure where to go with this. If I get the E261 compensation from Emerald (the operator) then as someone said I’ll be about square and that’s fine. If I don’t I’ll be £128 out of pocket which isn’t a lot to be launching court cases etc.
I might go back to them one more time quoting the regs and then maybe to whoever the ARR company is for this?
As above, if you get stuck with EI, try
https://www.flightrights.ie/So the Regulator in EU Ireland is just as toothless, despite Brexit.
To have a pro-forma email that states ” alternative airline tickets” will not be reimbursed is shocking as well as putting it in the same sentence as wages and car parking…wth.
Enforcement is a disgrace. IE Regulator should clamp down on EI sending out such illegal tosh.
Not sure what you’re on about. Brexit has no effect on the ROI or any other EU nations regulators.
When the regulation was created it was left to individual countries to developers (or not) enforcement mechanisms under their own national laws rather than creating an EU body. So some countries have well strict enforcement but others don’t.
It’s why the claims time limits vary because some countries have longer statute of limitations periods than others do.
@Abdul as per above, baffled as to what Brexit has to do with Irish aviation regulation and in fact the regulator there does intervene in individual cases to cajole airlines to deal with claims.
I think there is also a dig in there about the CAA – to the extent it is toothless, that is not because of any incompetence, laziness etc. but because Parliament has never granted them the powers to intervene in disputes between airlines and passengers as it is deemed the passenger has sufficient free or low cost remedy via arbitration or the County Court. The CAA is conscious of its lack of powers which is why they joined forces (to write to airlines in the summer) with the CMA which has very significant powers.
You also refer to EI’s “pro-forma email” which in fact correctly states the position re Article 9 Right to Care obligations. You are confusing those obligations with the Article 8 rerouting ones where “alternative airline tickets” could be relevant.
It’s why the claims time limits vary because some countries have longer statute of limitations periods than others do.
We are told by participants here the statute of limitations doesn’t apply to Article 8, and there is a clear temporal link, maybe just 14 days for rebooking at a later date. In other Member States, there is no temporal link other than the statute of limitations? It can’t be both. In the Netherlands, you can’t ask KLM to fly you at a date over two years.
The OP wants a refund for a flight he booked because he couldn’t get EI to re-route him on a flight that would suit their needs. Their rebooking offer was Dublin for a flight to Belfast. The OP bought a low-cost airline flight from LPL-BFS which was the closest flight to the cancelled trip and EI refuse to reimburse it. The carrier replies saying they will not refund “alternative airline tickets”. How is it not an Article 8 issue?
It’s interesting the Irish chose to make their Regulator just as useless as the CAA.
Airlines that refuse to refund reasonable alternative have lost countless cases in the Courts. A German court recently found using a chartered Jet was even reasonable where the carrier’s alternatives were no good.
@Abdul – You regularly make reference to “countless cases” but this is meaningless unless you provide the case references so that people can read them. I, and others, have asked you this previously.
In respect of temporality, what you are missing is that UK261, as with every other piece of legislation, is subject, inter alia, to a test of reasonableness. The phrase in the APR “at the passenger’s convenience” is deliberately, and quite normally left open to interpretation by a judge in whichever jurisdiction, and such interpretation will depend on the specific circumstances of each case. Yes, we have a six year statute of limitations in England, but that does not mean that the above phrase has to be interpreted to mean that if you go to MCOL in five years, BA will be ordered to issue you with a ticket for your 2023 cancelled flight. It would be patently absurd. Sometimes a short period might be reasonable, and other times it’s possible two years might be reasonable; it depends on the facts and considerations of the intent and purpose of the legislation which also go completely against your views.
Just an update to say that I’m getting nowhere with either EI or Emerald. EI just send the same template email saying they won’t reimburse alternative flights and Emerald don’t respond at all (EI having directed me there fore the EU261 compensation).
Following the advice above I have now opened a case with the Irish flightrights regulator and will let you know. I guess a MCOL will be the last resort if I can be bothered.
Thanks again for the help.
Update: the Irish regulator has said they cannot assist – the fight was a U.K. domestic one (albeit operated by EI). Emerald are still stonewalling so it looks like MCOL and see.
Update: the Irish regulator has said they cannot assist – the fight was a U.K. domestic one (albeit operated by EI). Emerald are still stonewalling so it looks like MCOL and see.
I’m sorry to hear that. I would write them a letter before action. It’s not strictly necessary to do so prior to MCOL, but if you set everything out clearly in a proper hard letter saying you will proceed to MCOL in the absence of a satisfactory response within 14 days, they may capitulate or throw something your way. I personally wouldn’t bother pursuing it MCOL as it’s not a lot of money, will require you to pay disproportionate fees, do a fair bit of work and ultimately the case itself has a few ifs and buts.
Whatever you send or sue from now on in this, personally I’d address to them jointly. So “To” both, not “cc” either. Both names and addresses as “To” header on each copy, so both airlines have it clear that if it goes to any formal action, you are naming them both as co-defendants so the judge can decide who’s liable for what with all the eligible parties ‘in the room’.
This also puts a stop to them fingerpointing at each other and giving you the runaround between both of them. You don’t care. One or both of them is liable and the judge will decide.
Just an update on this. Aer Lingus initially defended the money claim online county court claim and we agreed to mediation. A week before the mediation they offered to settle all my expenses (and the £35 court fee) but not the E261 compensation which they insisted was for Emerald to pay. I accepted their offer and discontinued the claim.
I personally won’t bother with the Emerald E261 claim. It’s only £100 or so and that doesn’t seem like a good use of court time.
This is disappointing and it’s sad that the refuse-to-deal-with-it tactics of Emerald Air, partner or subcontractor or whatever of Aer Lingus (it’s never clear and should not be up to the passenger to understand), accompanied by Aer Lingus, have once again succeeded in not even dealing with a claim that one of those 2 should have given a reasonable response to.
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