i can't find the edit button, should add that at 1.20am we were advised that we would now be leaving in the afternoon as the crew in Manchester had ran out of hours!

Hi Leanne,

What a horror story.

You should try both, Thomsonfly and your travel insurance. You will certainly get a bit of something from your insurance, depending on the level of cover. You will have to push the airline though. Write a clear and concise account of what happened, as you have in your post.

Just to clarify. Delays are dealt with by the handling agents, in this case Servisair. So, it is normal not to see a Thomsonfly member of staff on a delay at UK end. In resort, it would be the same, handling agents dealing with the nitty gritty of the delay with Thomson Holidays Reps on hand to assist only.

Best of luck,

Louise

Louise

Some of our members may be able to assist, but you could also consider contacting Ros Fernihough, Travel Law Solicitor. She is able to provide the best information available regarding your claim..

Ros has offered our members free impartial legal advice and has helped many of them in resolving problems.

Please note that Ros does not read or post on this board any contact to her must be made via :-

Tel :- 01922 621114

Sorry to hear about your experience but we can only offer opinions in the main.

fwh

thanks guys, I'll try Ros tomorrow when I get a chance, working 8.30am - 6.00pm at the moment!
I've sort of drafted a letter at the moment, i'll post it here and if anyone has any suggestions please let me know as i'm useless at putting things down in writing! The same letter will be going to My Travel (our tour operator), ThomsonFly (carrier) and the Air Transport Users Council.

Dear Sir/Madam,

HOLIDAY REFERENCE NUMBER: *****/***
THOMSONFLY FLIGHT TOM2321 GLASGOW TO MALAGA - 15 JULY 2007

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment at the events of 15.07.07 at Glasgow Airport when the TOM2321 flight to Malaga was delayed due to a technical fault. Please find below a detailed account of the 32 hour delay.

15.07.07 - 8.25am - TOM2321 due to fly to Malaga from Glasgow
15.07.07 - 8.35am - Technical fault with aircraft, advised by pilot of a delay whilst this was fixed, given breakfast on the plane and then offloaded.
15.07.07 - 12noon - No further information as yet from ThomsonFly, then told the next update would be at 12.30pm. £3 light refreshment vouchers given at this time.
15.07.07 - 12.45pm - Advised that further information would be given at 2.00pm, more light refreshment vouchers to be given but these were never received.
15.07.07 - 3.00pm - Transferred by coach to a hotel for complimentary lunch and dinner. Advised estimated time of departure would now be 23.50. Coaches to pick us up again at 8.30pm from hotel to return to airport. Hotel not equipped to deal with passengers sent there, sat in corridors on the floor from 3pm until 9pm.
15.07.07 - 8.45pm - Receptionist at hotel phoned airport as buses had not yet came, airport informed receptionist that the buses would be coming at 9.30pm instead of the original 8.30pm although no-one had phoned the hotel to inform us.
15.07.07 - 8.55pm - Buses arrived to take is back to airport.
15.07.07 - 11pm - Flight time changed AGAIN to 00.15.
15.07.07 - 11.15pm - Flight time changed AGAIN to 00.45.
15.07.07 - 11.20pm - Servisair Duty Manager confirmed that the aircraft originally scheduled for the Malaga flight had been fixed whilst we were at the hotel and sent to Palma, because a delay of more than 1 hour is a bad delay and they would rather keep one flight delayed for a day than have two delayed flights.
16.07.07 - 00.00 Flight time changed AGAIN to 01.45, apparently the aircraft was in Manchester just waiting to come to Glasgow, and then Malaga.
16.07.07 - 00.20 - Reg (EC) 261/2004 given to passengers after a 16 hour delay, however I believe this should have been given out when the delay reached 2 hours.
16.07.07 - 02.00 - Informed that we would be taken to a hotel for the night and brought back for the flight which was scheduled to leave at 14.30.
16.07.07 - 02.15 - No taxi's to take us to hotels because ThomsonFly were refusing to pay for them.
16.06.07 - 02.30 - Flight time changed again to 15.30.
16.07.07 - 03.00 - Spoke to My Travel rep at the Customer Service Desk to see if anything could be done to get us on a different flight to Malaga, but were informed that this was not My Travel's policy unless the flight was cancelled.
16.07.07 - 05.00 - Finally got to hotel.
16.07.07 - 11.30 - Picked up by coach to be taken back to the airport.
16.07.07 - 15.00 - Waiting at gate to board and fire alarm sounded.
16.07.07 - 16.50 - Plane finally took off bound for Malaga.

We never spoke to a ThomsonFly rep until 02.15 when we went to find out about getting to the hotel they were putting us up in, and even then we had to go looking for the rep, no-one came near us.
I am forwarding this letter to ThomsonFly and the Air Transport Users Council as I feel we were treated despicably and to discover the aircraft had been sent to Palma after being repaired was the final straw for the majority of passengers.
I feel compensation is the least we deserve after missing one and a half days of our holiday due to ThomsonFly's incompetence. As My Travel subcontracted this flight to ThomsonFly I feel it is your responsibility to sort this out as soon as possible.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Whilst I symphathise with what happened and agree that you deserve compensation, I also think its unfair to call Thomsonfly incompetent. Surely an airline taking an aircraft out of service due to technical problems is the competent thing to do.

Unfortuntely in the peak holiday season it can be very difficult to source a standby aircraft at very short notice.

As I say, I completely understand the frustration and cost this delay caused to you, I also think that Thomson and Thomsonfly have proved over the years to be very competent compared to some other fly by night outfits we've all had to put up with (remember AIR SCANDIC??)

Anyway all the best with your claim.

Thanks
Mark

Hiya Leanne
I sympathise with you 100% and your experience with Thomsonfly makes my 9 hour delay look like a stroll in the park.
It has taken me 2 registered letters to Thomsonfly just to get them to reply and I finally received a patronising letter from them yesterday, which has done nothing but fuel my anger further.

They state that they don't pay out for a delay and I have been advised to claim off my insurance, but they know as well as me, that you need a delay of more than 12 hours to make a valid claim with your insurance company.
I want to know when does a delay become a cancellation,? the fact that the plane was never there and never was going to be,? the fact that we couldn't check-in at the original airport.? the fact that they move you across the country and the crafty barstewards use the same flight number in another airport to avoid the word cancellation?.

I don't wish to hijack your thread, but like you, they knew the day before that my plane would not be there in situ the morning of my flight and I don't consider early June to be holiday peak period.
Their handling agents were completely useless and couldn't organise a pee up in a brewery, they bussed me around the country, dumped me in a hotel and then dumped me in Coventry Airport and the least said about that, the better.
The first time we clapped eyes on anyone with the ability to put a constructive informative sentence together was in Malaga Airport and I think if they had said one word wrong, then by that time, I would have "lost it".

I'm supposed to feel grateful that they got me to Malaga and ignore that fact that I paid them nearly £1,400 to be treat like a piece of meat.
In the letter they state that last year 95% of their flights departed within 60 mins of scheduled departure time, but according to the league tables issued by the CAA for 2006, 8.8% of Thomsonfly planes left more than an hour later than they should have done.
As you can guess, my next letter will be to the Air Transport Users Council and I'm still waiting for the patronising letter from Thomson to arrive, I lost the best part of a day and a gala dinner"¦and I suspect that like you, we were knackered with blood pressure and tempers running high....which took us 2 days to recover from.

Basically the letter says " we are truly sorry for the inconvenience and we will pass your comments on to our handling agents, but we've had your money so off "

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiii

thanks Sanji, I'm writing to them all!

Mark, whilst I appreciate your advice and I do agree that to take an unserviceable aircraft out of service is a competent thing to do, what i DO NOT think is competent is to fix the aircraft and send it to another destination whilst 300 passengers are sitting on the floor of a manky (and i mean manky) hotel for 6 hours. and for the MyTravel rep to tell me that they wouldn't change my flight because ThomsonFly hadn't cancelled it, and that it was just tough that i was going to miss a day and a half of my holiday because they subcontracted the flight to ThomsonFly but apparently had no control over what happened to its passengers (we were on a package holiday booked through MyTravel) and, like Sanji, to claim from my travel insurance.

Having just received a reply to a delay with Thomsonfly that accured in mid June, in which they stated also 95% of there flights leave within 60 mins.!!!!!!!!!!!........I came upon this thread...... think this company is unblieveable....in my case they commandeered our Manchester bound flight at Paphos, and diverted it to Gatwick, as the Gatwick flight had techical problems. They bused us back to Man arrived some 9-10hours later... I could tell the whole episode but, I will not go on in fairness to Leanne, but the letter they sent me was pathectic. I have spoken to 3 people last week alone who recently flew out of Manchester with Thomsonfly...........everyone one had flight delays exceding 60mins......what a surprise.
In my case they failed to give us the EU delay regulation letter till we boarded the bus at Gatwick.........I understand it should have been given at the first point of the journey(providing you are in the EU). Thomsonfly did not comment on this point in there 2 page letter to me.
So Leanne I wish you luck and hope if they didn't give you this letter that maybe you can get them on that.......I note they gave you refreshments after 4 hours which is in the rules, but somewhere in the time scale accomodation (not the floor)has to be given.
Good luck
Jay

hi Jay

we were put up in a hotel for sleep but not until 20 hours had passed, we werent taken to the hotel until around 4.30/5am.

Like you, we didn't receive the regulations letter until we had been delayed for 16 hours, i was also under the impression you were meant to get it when first delayed.

I've sent my claim form for insurance off and the letter to mytravel, thomsonfly and air transport users council so we'll see what happens. I've also emailed it to them just incase, due to the postal strikes lately, the letters go missing!