Vueling cock up

[SimplySimon]

Flight from Florence to LGW was moved this evening to departing from Bologna, allegedly due to wind in Florence making it impossible for the inbound flight to land. We were bused to Bologna. There we were bused to the aircraft and then back to the terminal. Crew hours exceeded. No help from any Vueling staff anywhere. Booked hotel. Told by Vueling that the flight home is from Florence tomorrow morning but no hint as to how to get back to Florence in the morning. What do I do? v confused and v tired.

[SamG]

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/ec-mkv

The aircraft went back to Florence empty

I can’t see that the flight is showing as delayed to today, I suspect it is/was cancelled although no public data sources confirm this, it just didn’t fly. Is there anything showing in “manage my booking”?

There is a flight at 7am or 5.30pm . You could take the train back to the airport and try deal with them there if you haven’t heard anything.

Otherwise there is an Easyjet from bologna at 12.20 for £79pp – if you tried contacting them a couple of times (I suspect a futile activity) I’d be tempted to just book that and go down the EC261 route on the basis you assume the flight was cancelled (no information, aircraft positioned out to base etc) and no rerouting offered (screenshot the phone records and manage my booking) . You may be able to claim on insurance anyway

[SimplySimon]

Thanks @SamG – I am on the EasyJet from Bologna.

[Lady London]

Was the flight from Bologna definitely the same flight number as it would have been from Florence? if it changed this would mean actually they’d actually cancelled your original Florence departing flight and moved you to a different flight from Bologna instead.

Do everything to check the reason they gave it does not sound right. I believe expertflyer will show the official recorded reason for 48hrs after the planned departure time.

In any case, sounds like reroute costs, hotel/meals as duty of care till you could get a flight, and compo claim for either delay or cancellation (esp if you can prove weather at FLR excuse was bunkum)

Could you let us know how your claim goes please?

[Richie]

I’m a frequent visitor to Florence. Windy weather at FLR is nothing new. Vueling know this and should’ve been able to operate your flight from BLQ without crew going out of hours.

[SamG]

Lady London wrote:

Was the flight from Bologna definitely the same flight number as it would have been from Florence? if it changed this would mean actually they’d actually cancelled your original Florence departing flight and moved you to a different flight from Bologna instead.

Do everything to check the reason they gave it does not sound right. I believe expertflyer will show the official recorded reason for 48hrs after the planned departure time.

In any case, sounds like reroute costs, hotel/meals as duty of care till you could get a flight, and compo claim for either delay or cancellation (esp if you can prove weather at FLR excuse was bunkum)

Could you let us know how your claim goes please?

Florence has a short runway so the weather probably was a problem, I doubt they’d divert unless they had to!

I have checked expertflyer from Bologna and Florence and it doesn’t show anything, not even that the flight was cancelled! I suspect this is because Vueling is a low cost airline and not fully connected up to all these external systems.

Unfortunately this isn’t surprising behaviour by Vueling, they make even BA look organised during irrops. Good luck with your claim , I would have taken easyjet too rather than mess about anymore

[Richie]

At least Vueling tried. BA diverted to BLQ and left us at FLR and returned to LCY empty.