MSE News: Bmibaby 'breached rules on volcano compensation'

A question about : MSE News: Bmibaby 'breached rules on volcano compensation'

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

The airline told a passenger stranded by the ash cloud it will not pay hotel costs while he waited for a flight home ...

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Bmibaby 'breached rules on volcano compensation'

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• same for KLM AF, they say they have their own policy and will only pay one nights expenses. Now they ignore messages sent to them through their website, their only form of contact. Newspapers have done stories and one got a statement saying they would now pay but passengers arent getting any responses now. KLM tell us they have their own "policy" and dont believe EU Law covers this event and if we want to take them to court we are welcome to.
• The additional time in a case would occur if the member state asked the EU for a preliminary ruling. It should not cost the claimant any more, but can take a long time.
  Airlines do not sign up to legislation, it is placed upon them and they (along with any other individual) can choose to challenge it. It is likely that no one challenged it because the situation that arose was so far beyond anyones imagination.
  If I was affected, I would be issuing an action against the airline. However, it would be more as a learning experience and for the fact that I enjoy litigation. I certainly would not be sure of winning.
• I along with plenty of others have been waiting since April 19th for a refund from Viking Airlines for air fares that are refundable under the EU regulations. This is not compensation for expenses, it is simply a refund of air fares that I cancelled due to the long delays.
  In fact, despite extensive research I am only aware of one Viking customer that has received any payment.
• To be honest, I think this is standard industry practise now to fob off customers.
  I came back to the UK after my holiday in Beijing, only 2 days after the airports re-opened due to the Volcano incident.
  KLM delayed my baggage by 3 days and told me to claim expenses for clothing (which were conveniently stashed in the suitcase) and toiletries.
  After sending in the receipts, I was told:
  1) They don't compensate people if you live in the UK and have got delayed baggage, completely ignoring the fact that they messed it up. (In a letter)
  2) I called them and explained the situation, just to be told that it's ridiculous to claim for clothes. The supervisor was a bit better and said that they would review the case.
  A few days later, I received a cheque worth 180 quid back (-30 pounds I spent on their premium phone lines!?!)
• Monarch were shocking in their treatment of our family of six in Lanzarote, as mentioned in other threads. I am amazed that Monarch haven't had much bad publicity over this (maybe the problem was specific to where people stayed as I have read that Monarch covered bills in mainland Spain).
  - EC261/2004 Right the Care refused point blank and no rights were explained at Airport/anywhere.
  - local office threw our written request for care back at us and told us to get out!
  - we had TWO flights cancelled on us whilst stranded (the 2nd not due to Ash Cloud at all)
  - back at home, Monarch tried to deflect claims to insurers and still say anyone claiming accom/food costs AND an insurance travel delay payment would be 'doubling up' on the same claim (errr...no, any travel delay cover from my insurer would cover lost earnings & unreceipted costs).
  - in an apology for our treatment they tried to pretend they had 'prioritised families'. This is untrue, they prioritised anyone who was not flight-only, regardless of need. We are a family and were told to get lost (literally, by Matagorda Monarch staff) along with another family with a small child.
  - they are now offering a capped 'average' claimed by customers (without saying where those customers were staying, was it in the peak April holiday weeks, etc). The offer caps food AND accom at Ј20 pp per day(!), airport transfers at Ј10pp and phone bills at Ј35 (per party I think) even though we had no option but to spend over Ј100 in calling their premium flight line every day, getting cut off, taking 50 minutes to answer - just to get new flights. We were not among those 'allowed' to simply re-book the flight online (because their website had processed our flights via their Avro charter arm).
  As Cityboy knows, I am not letting this go and would be happy for MSE to contact me in reply to my email.
  Have not gone down the Court route yet, just waiting for a reply re Legal Expenses cover on our House Insurance first.
• Hi to all interested in this situation with BMIBaby. I submitted my case to the small claims court a few weeks ago after the letter before action got the no payout response. After a bit of wrangling about the amount of payout I have made an out of court settlement for Accomodation, food and 2 phone calls. They would not pay for my extended car hire though. Took a bit of effort but recovered the majority of my loss due to the ash cloud. Hope this gives others the impetus to percivere with their claim.
• just wondered how to go about getting my money back, i also have been fobbed off with 'contact your insurer'. I have no idea what to do next
  help!
  thank you