Always a bit funny on these on topics.

As i believe, as long as the airline looks after you in terms of meals, water and provides suitable accommodation depending on the time of day and length of the delay and you have chosen to stay with the flight and the delay then that is all they are required to do.

Insurance - most policies will pay out a measley sum depending on their terms and lengthy of delay.

After 5 hours of the delay and you decide to offload yourselves then the carrier should reimburse the unused portion of the ticket. However, if you are on a charter flight and no price is displayed on the actual ticket itself then you may not get back half of what you actually paid. Airlines normally have some kind of chart and from past experience a cyprus to the uk flight may only get you back £40-£50.

There are many other rules that all seem a loophole and the airline can deny your claim if they have done all that is possible to accommodate passengers and can back up their claim by providing evidence that the delay was down to extraordinary circumstances - a bird strike i would say is one.

Heres one link i found but persoanlly, i would put it down to experience. The airline offered what it was meant to but as it was easier for you, you decided to go home and be in what i can imagine, far more comfortable and easier surroundings than most other people have to endure during delays.

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/08-air-long-delays.html

Thanks

Personally I don't think you will be able to claim anything. You say that the airline did comply with the rules offering you food and possibly accommodation should the delay have continued. You chose to reject the offer. Not that I blame you as I live only an hour from the airport and would rather be at home in comfort instead of some hotel in such circumstances.

It might be worth trying your insurance but you do need to consider that any payment will be reduced by the amount of excess.

fwh

As you were given a letter stating the delay time etc. your insurance company should compensate you but it usually isn't very much and quite often only kicks in at 12 hours and then so much again after the next 12 hours. There is no excess on travel delay on my policy.
The airline has done all it needs to do under the circumstances.

Thank you for your replies.

Yes we were lucky we could go home but it didn't feel very lucky at the time! I just wanted to be on my way to Cyprus not back home again

Will try our travel insurance and see what happens

Amber

Amber

Check out EC 261/2004 and the Wallentin-Hermann judgement. If you follow the legal tenets raised in that judgemnt I believe that you have a legitimate claim for compensation under Articles 5 & 7 of the regn. You will almost certainly have to take the airline to small claims court as they don't hand over comensation automatically to passengers who write with a claim and they will usually trot out every excuse in the book to put you off.

Flightmole forum (google it) has some interesting background and successful cases to report.