I don't have an answer to that, and the best advice is going to come from a professional, not a load of amateurs -

We have teamed up with Ros Fernihough, Travel Law Solicitor, to provide the best information available.

Ros has offered our members free impartial legal advice. Please note that Ros does not read or post on this board any contact to her must be made via :-

Tel :- 01922 621114

Best of luck,

Peter

We had a 33 hr delay with XL coming back from Egypt at easter although in our case we were well looked after and spent an evening and the next day in a good hotel just down the coast from where we were originally staying. my hubby is also self employed and lost 2 days money. We had the letter from xl at the time confirming the delay time for our insurance company but after a few days we also received another in the post from XL , very lengthy , apologies blar blar but the crux of the letter was dont bother to try to claim any compo from us as you are not entitled to any because you accepted the delayed flight . apparently according to their letter if a flight is delayed more than 12 hrs you are entitled to a refund only for that flight . If you eventually fly on the delayed flight you have accepted the delay and entitled to nothing from them . We did however make a claim on our travel insurance which is with insure and go and we have a policy with no excess. For delayed departure over 12 hrs we were entitled to £40 for each insured passenger including children + another £20 for each 12 hrs giving us £40 + £20 (another 3 hrs delay we would of had another £20). soin total as we have 3 children we got £300 but needless to say the children didnt get any share so you should be at least intitled to a little for the delayed departure but i have a feeling it will be a small set amount and nothing more for loss of earnings. I could be wrong though and it would be interesting to get the experts opinion if we too had been entitled to any more .

I agree with Peter. We can only express our own opinion. Professional advice is the answer.

As an observation, we get many questions asking about compensation here on HT - perhaps when arranging travel insurance, thought should be given to specifying the particular cover you need rather than the sort of blanket policy we all buy.

Many people in business do take out cover in case of accident or illness. I would have thought that cover could be obtained in the same way for delay.

fwh

Phoned XL, useless, got to write to them etc, can't speak with them.

My travel insurance I only get £10 per 8 hours delay, = £20
However I've rung Ros' firm one of her P.A's told me about the one of their guides, and they quoted this : -

EU REGULATION (EC) No.261/2004 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of the 11th February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights and repealing Regulation (EEC) No. 295/91

This law basically means I can make a claim against XL.

I will send my flight details, confirmation of delay letter from the airline itself, a letter proving my loss of earnings (from my agency who I work for), and also I will quote the above EU Regulation 261 and warn them that I've also ready spoken to a specialist travel solicitor who says I've got a case and will pursue matters further.

If I don't a suitable response from them I will as a matter of principal take on XL airlines as I am quite a tenacious person by nature and contact Ros into representing, hopefully a standard legal letter from her should do the trick worse case, or I may take them on in the Small Claims court if it's not cost effective.

Thanks for the replies/advice

Regulation EC.No.261/204, and secondly compensation claim for flight delay on the follow scale -
Quote:
Up to 1,500 km More than 2 hours 250 Euros (£173.04)
1,500 km to 3,500 km Up to 3 hours 200 Euros (£138.40)
1,500 km to 3,500 km More than 3 hours 400 Euros (£276.83)
More than 3,500 km Up to 4 hours 300 Euros (£207.63)
More than 3,500 km More than 4 hours 600 Euros (£415.26)

???

mikiesb

- I think you will find your information (covered in Article 8 of the Directive) covers denied boarding (oversales) or cancellation of the flight.

- Article 9 under "Right to Care" covers what the entitlements are in the event of a delay.

I think Excel have probably provided these via refreshments/food and overnight accommodation.

I doubt you will get compensation for loss of earnings, maybe an amount for the delay.

if you think about it you pay £100 for a flight and earn £500 per day and someone else pays £100 for a flight and earns £40 per day. You are both on the same flight and delayed the same amount of time. Why would you be able to claim for more compensation than them.

Kind Regards
Stewart

I have sent off today my letter recorded post to XL.

Whether I earn peanuts or whether I earn lots of money is irrelevant, it's the money I've lost from XL not getting me home due to a problem with THEIR PLANE, therefore it's their fault.

20 hours delay, crap hotel, no representatives until 11.30 pm at night (due to take off @ 6pm), misinformation, lies, stress, aggravation...

The money I've lost is substantial, therefore I will pursue.

By all means persue it but my reading of the regulations is that they aren't required to compensate you for loss of earnings, only for the delay in the same way that anybody would regardless of earnings. You're quite right - it doesn't matter how much you earn because it is irrelevant. Please don't shoot the messenger but I think that the lesson for all self-employed people in your circumstances is to take out a suitable travel insurance policy that does cover you for loss of earnings in this sort of eventuality because airlines aren't required by the EU regs to compensate you for loss of earnings, only to compenste you against an agree scale for the inconvenience.

As advised by others you really do need to provide someone like Ros with all the basic facts and leave her to argue the case but do bear in mind that the biggest claims relate to people who are bumped off over-booked flights or situations where flights are cancelled and that isn't what happened to you. Excel did take you home and didn't refuse you carriage.

SM

mikiesb, I'll tell you my story, it may give you some hope., it may not but I did get some compensation for a delay of a similar length of your own.

About five years ago we were due to fly home on a Mytravel flight from Heraklion to Birmingham. It was the last flight of the season. There were it was noted several reps on the flight.

About 45 minutes before departure due at 1pm, we noted that our plane had landed and so went through passport control, to the departure lounge. We were still there, looking at our plane three hours later. There were no announcements, no information, no reps and the reps spotted earlier had disappeared. I asked one of the men on passport control if I could go back through and find someone who might be able to help us. He reluctantly and illegally allowed me back. I spotted a Mytravel rep and asked what one earth was happening. He didn't know. I informed him that he could at least ascertain what the problem was and then make some announcements to everyone who was waiting for the flight.

I went back through but it was another hour before an announcement was made stating that the flight was delayed but giving no further information. By this time it was getting dark and the lights inside the plane could be clearly seen. That is until 6.45 when the lights went out and the crew were seen departing from the plane. It was clear it and we were not going anywhere.

By this time most passengers were getting a little restless to say the least but we still were not getting any information. Finally at 8pm, seven hours after we had been due to fly we were told the flight was postponed and we were to make our way to baggage reclaim to collect our luggage.

By 10pm we were standing in a long queue awaiting allocation to a hotel. The problem was that most hotels had now closed for the season and they were having difficulty finding rooms for 300 people. At 11pm we arrived at a hotel right next to the main power plant for Crete with two very tired, hungry children, one in a buggy and with all our luggage. We were allocated a room on the 5th floor, there was no lift and nobody available to help us.

We managed to get up to the room, get the children to bed and then sink into oblivion ourselves before being rudely awoken at 5am because we needed to get to the airport. The hotel laid on yesterday's stale bread with butter and jam for breakfast. We then returned to the airport where at 9.30am we finally took off to loud cheers.

Just as we were about to board the day before the captain noticed some serious inconsistencies with the air system. An engineer was called and agreed that a certain part needed replacement. The part was not available in Heraklion and had to be flown in complete with specialist engineer to fit it from Manchester! We were not informed of this until during our flight home.

My complaint was not about the delay because I was rather pleased they discovered such a problem before we took off and technical problems happen but about the way we were treated. There was no information, we were left to fend for ourselves for a very long time. No refreshments, no food, no drink and in our case virtually no money so we managed to feed the children but not ourselves. No food was available at the hotel and breakfast was inadequate to say the least. My partner and me had no food for nearly 24 hours. The reps handling the whole episode were either ignorant or rude or both and didn't give a fig for any difficulties individuals may have had, such as medication problems etc. They were also uncommunicative and totally unhelpful.

I had kept a log of exactly that had happened when and who I had spoken to and how they had dealt with me when I realised on returning air-side that we were probably on our own. I sent this log written on the back of bags and any other bits of paper I could lay my hands on to Mytravel to prove that they were taken contemporaneously.

We got £200 compensation on first offer. I took it. Perhaps we could have got more, I don't know but as I said my complaint was based upon how we were treated and not the delay itself.

Mikiesb, go boy, go.

When I was writing software for Danair, Sealink Cross Channel Ferries, ITC, Airtours and others I never had the pezazz you had.

I'm impressed !

Not entirely certain that your style will succeed. But good luck to you mate.

Re-read my last post. For Clarity, I was being IRONIC.

Mikiesb: think about your problem before "going-off on one". Sometimes crap happens.

Mike

It might be worth a phone call to Ros to clarify. But I have never heard of someone making a succesfful claim for loss of earnings due to a delayed flight.

I'm sure the EU regs wouldn't cover this. They just make provision that you are returned from from B to A, given minimum food and water supplies and are put up in a hotel should the delay run over a night.

you are right your earnings are irrelevant thats why i posted.

You asked for advise and I gave it.

Kind Regards
Stewart

Your loss of earnings was an unforseen consequence of a delayed flight. EU regulations does not cover unforseen consequences as you loosing a days wage could not have been predicted or was within XL's scope of care to you. XL had to provide refreshments and shelter and ultimately the flight.

Also perhaps not the best idea to tell XL you have a case based on Ros's PA's opinion.

We were delayed for 18hours last month at Dalaman airport due to a technical fault that occurred on the outward journey.We were given a KFC meal and drink at the airport then taken to a decent hotel for the night where we had breakfast and lunch before being taken back to the airport for departure.People were asking the Thomson reps about compensation for loss of earnings and were told it had nothing to do with Thomson and to claim off their travel insurance.It seems the airlines have no responsibility to pay compensation.

Over 20 years ago I recall a much delayed flight my wife, I and our baby son were meant to board for Manchester (departing somewhere in Spain - I forget the specifics). We were told the flight would instead land at Gatwick and we would be transferred by coach to Manchester.

I regularly flew Man-LGW with Brit. Caledonian on business and knew the times of returning flights. I explained the need to return to Manchester sooner rather than later as I had business commitments and told Airtours that I would be booking the B. Cal flight for the three of us and billing Airtours.

I did exactly that and they paid in full.

Sometimes it's more important to resolve the problem at the outset rather than go with the herd then claim compo. afterwards. Approx. 8-10 of us took the B. Cal. flight out of a plane-load of 200+.

Over 20 years ago I recall a much delayed flight my wife, I and our baby son were meant to board for Manchester (departing somewhere in Spain - I forget the specifics). We were told the flight would instead land at Gatwick and we would be transferred by coach to Manchester.

I regularly flew Man-LGW with Brit. Caledonian on business and knew the times of returning flights. I explained the need to return to Manchester sooner rather than later as I had business commitments and told Airtours that I would be booking the B. Cal flight for the three of us and billing Airtours.

I did exactly that and they paid in full.

Sometimes it's more important to resolve the problem at the outset rather than go with the herd then claim compo. afterwards. Approx. 8-10 of us took the B. Cal. flight out of a plane-load of 200+.

I love that attitude Mike, and I'd definitely try and do the same if in the same situation.

Do you reckon it would work these days though?

As an aside, when I was an unaccompanied 11 year old, engine problems meant on a BA flight to Singapore, with a connecting flight to Jakarta meant I missed the connecting flight. BA put me up in a hotel in Singapore for 20 hours, ensured I got to and from the hotel, but left me to my own devices in Singapore, so I took a stroll round the city. It was a great adventure back then - but I wonder if it happened today what the outcome would be? Newspaper coverage? Compensation?

looks like i will never fly with xl or book an hoilday with them x

thanks for the info x