Aww nightmare Spike. I hope you are on your way very shortly.

oh no. That is awful. Not a good start to your holiday.

Spike.

We were stuck in Goa waiting for that plane and as you know it was eventually substituted.

We were also unluck enough to be delayed for 24 hours on our outbound flight on 02/03/2014.

Two 24 hour delays in one holiday was not nice.

Anyway we eventually arrived back home today around 11.00AM.

I fully intend to claim under EU261 notwithstanding the current appeal process ongoing.

However I was quite astonished to receive an email this evening from the chairman of TC apologising and enclosing a voucher for near £600.00.

Top mak Thomas Cook.

BTW we were on a fly only.

Well done Papa

Completely unsolicited as if the Chairman himself had been made aware of the storm brewing on social media and forums such as this.

Hope everyone involved gets the same.

Was that £600 per person on the booking?

No. Worked out at 147 per person per flight.

Papa wrote:

No. Worked out at 147 per person per flight.

In that case, you've been had. You are entitled to 600 euros x 2 (£1008) in cash per passenger for the delays to both flights.

Yes I am well aware of that and that voucher in no way prejudices me from usimg EU261 which I fully imtemd to do. However the result of that claim rests on an appeal taking place later this year.

I still tbink the voucher was a good gesture.

Good gesture, but could it be also used as evidence of admission of fault? Or, because you've accepted this money have you given up the right to claim compensation?

I think there is no doubt about fault. TC will and have argued as have othet airlines that technical issues are exceptional circumstances.

The appeal will decide that.

I feel that their offer of a voucher which of course is not cash in no way stopsvme claiming under EU261.

It all hinges on this appeal.

Papa wrote:

I think there is no doubt about fault. TC will and have argued as have othet airlines that technical issues are exceptional circumstances.

The appeal will decide that.

I feel that their offer of a voucher which of course is not cash in no way stopsvme claiming under EU261.

It all hinges on this appeal.

The Huzar appeal will not make one iota of difference as to whether technical issues are classed as extraordinary circumstances or not since that has already been determined in the ECJ case Wallentin-Hermann v Alitalia: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62007CJ0549:EN:HTML

The appeal by the airline in the Huzar case is on a very narrow aspect of the judgment in that the circuit judge went beyond the scope of the Wallentin-Hermann case law on the subject.

Even if the Huzar appeal is won by the airline does not mean at all that airlines have a valid defence of Extraordinary Circumstances to claims for delay compensation due to technical issues

Glynis HT Admin wrote:

Good gesture, but could it be also used as evidence of admission of fault? Or, because you've accepted this money have you given up the right to claim compensation?

A goodwill gesture cannot be used as an admission of fault.

The acceptance of a goodwill gesture cannot be used as a full and final settlement offer under 261/2004:

Article 15
Exclusion of waiver
1. Obligations vis-Ã -vis passengers pursuant to this Regulation may not be limited or waived, notably by a derogation or restrictive clause in the contract of carriage.

2. If, nevertheless, such a derogation or restrictive clause is applied in respect of a passenger, or if the passenger is not correctly informed of his rights and for that reason has accepted compensation which is inferior to that provided for in this Regulation, the passenger shall still be entitled to take the necessary proceedings before the competent courts or bodies in order to obtain additional compensation.

Very useful to all to have these authoritative answers...................... many thanks

Thanks for that

Well, we did set off at 12.15pm still not happy but well in to our hols and enjoying every day. Thomas Cook would be better if they just told the truth.. It was well known in Goa 5 hours prior to us being told that the flight was cancelled NOT delayed. So a few answers to be found on our return, until then we are having fun with the usual crowd and have bumped in to a very happy Danny the pipe man off this site, nice guy.

Glad to hear you are now enjoying your hols Spike

My daughter and her hubby flew out with T/C 24 hour delay out (plane in Barbados) 24 delay flying out pron with plane in Barbados?? this was March. They have got compen for the flight out but not the flight home as it was beyond their control. Daughter has taken it to the Aviation Authority. They got £1200 comp from T/C By the way they were on I think it was Watchdog with complaints exactly the same. So what happens in Barbados that they are always stuck there. Think there are porkies been told.

We followed all procedures with a decent letter to T Cook, and got a reply we were expecting (''due to extraordinary circumstances, blah blah blah..'') and offered £50 per person in travel vouchers with them. After reading into info found on the net we rejected this, and got a quick response that they will not offer anything else and we should contact the CAA.
In the process of doing this, we received further information that the problem with the aircraft had happened on other flights. Looking into the info we had, this could now not be classed as extraordinary circumstances, as a recurring fault should be corrected or a replacement plane brought in prior to departure.
We then found out that quite a few others had been paid the full compensation amount of €600 per person, so why not us ?
We then received a phone number of someone of high authority at TC (a director) and after speaking to them they accepted full responsibility and offered the full amount of compensation.
It's sad that TC had to fob us off and possibly others also, in the hope we accepted the 1st offer and went away, but paid out full compo to others - doesn't make sense (other than them saving money).