03/08/16

[Maik]

Desperate holidaymakers jet off to Corfu after being delayed for 38 HOURS at airport
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/desperate-holidaymakers-jet-corfu-after-8549165

[Maik]

Heat wave hits Greece, austerity-hit Greeks flock to nearby beaches

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=332066

[Maik]

British tourist tried to bite girlfriend’s cheek on easyJet flight from Greece

A British father-of-four faces jail after he tried to bite his girlfriend on the face in a drunken row on a flight home from Greece,

David Briggs, 35, from Pontypridd, threatened to attack his partner after she slapped him during the mid-air bust-up as they travelled back to the UK from Zante.

He repeatedly told an easyJet stewardesses to 'f*** off' and told a distressed woman sat next to them: 'Shut up you f***ing bitch'.]

http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/transport/airlines/17491-british-tourist-tried-to-bite-girlfriend%E2%80%99s-cheek-on-easyjet-flight-from-greece.html

[Maik]

Greece eases back on capital controls in bid to reverse currency flight
 
Greek finance ministry hopes that up to €4bn could return to the banking system

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/greece-ease-capital-controls-reverse-currency-flight-eurozone

[Maik]

Walsall woman left bed-bound after eating goats cheese in Greece
A young woman has been left bed-bound and wanting her life to end after she developed a severe infection from eating cheese on holiday.

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2016/07/31/walsall-woman-left-bed-bound-after-eating-goats-cheese/

[TonyKath]

Desperate holidaymakers jet off to Corfu after being delayed for 38 HOURS at airport
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/desperate-holidaymakers-jet-corfu-after-8549165

Small Planet airline - same as gave us a 20 hour delay to Kef 4 weeks ago.  Olympic need to ditch them for next year.  They have no spare capacity when something goes wrong.  And 38 hours for a mechanical problem is disgraceful. 

Tony

[U4ea]

Not at all funny to get that dekay, but at least there's compensation now, unless they manage to duck out of it.

Contracts are with Olympic, but who is liable......

[Aristarches]

Not at all funny to get that dekay, but at least there's compensation now, unless they manage to duck out of it.

Contracts are with Olympic, but who is liable......

I booked through Olympic 3 years ago.  We were supposed to fly with Small Planet but after a 9 hour delay we had to fly with Avion Express.  Despite this Olympic denied all responsibility and I had to claim against Small Planet in Lithuania.  Withput going into the gory details I never got a penny in compensation despite taking it to court.

I would rather walk backwards over hot coals all the way from the UK to Kef carrying my wife and luggage on my head than EVER use this benighted airline or Olympic Holidays again.

[TonyKath]

It's the airline that are liable.  We've only just now written the initial compo claim form.  We find like Ari that SP does not have an office in the UK so are writing to them in Lithuania.  They have an online claim form but it only works for a very limited number of scheduled flights.  So it doesn't bode well.

I gather the the next stage is to counter the the company's preliminary prevarication strategy and then after the inevitable further refusal to apply to the EU adjudicator.  Will let people know.   

Tony

[Aristarches]

It's the airline that are liable.  We've only just now written the initial compo claim form.  We find like Ari that SP does not have an office in the UK so are writing to them in Lithuania.  They have an online claim form but it only works for a very limited number of scheduled flights.  So it doesn't bode well.

I gather the the next stage is to counter the the company's preliminary prevarication strategy and then after the inevitable further refusal to apply to the EU adjudicator.  Will let people know.   

Tony

Good luck, Tony.  From my experience you will need it.

[U4ea]

Good luck with the claim Tony & Kath.

You may have already seen this, But Martin Lewis gives an in depth view of the procedures on the Money saving Expert site. Perhaps it might help others.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays

Basically he says if the airline refuses then go to the Ombudsman. If they aren't in that scheme then go to the CAA. As an encouragement to airlines to join the Ombudsman scheme, the CAA charges an airline £150 for each complaint it gets.  The big benefit of going to these is that they are UK based.

Technical issues are definitely covered.

[TonyKath]

Good luck with the claim Tony & Kath.

You may have already seen this, But Martin Lewis gives an in depth view of the procedures on the Money saving Expert site. Perhaps it might help others.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays

Basically he says if the airline refuses then go to the Ombudsman. If they aren't in that scheme then go to the CAA. As an encouragement to airlines to join the Ombudsman scheme, the CAA charges an airline £150 for each complaint it gets.  The big benefit of going to these is that they are UK based.

Technical issues are definitely covered.

Thanks U4ea

Cracking post - could be useful to lots of people, not just us.  We'd got some of that but Martin Lewis puts it all together.  When you google this stuff you get lots of rip-off sites who just want to refer you on to companies who'll take a third of anything you get. 

 

Tony

[U4ea]

In that case I'll send you a bill!

Not really of course, but who knows we might meet up in Kef ( or indeed Merseyside) sometime.

Glad you found it useful, and hope you get a good result.

[TonyKath]

Latest update - we should be getting the compo for our 20 hour flight delay in 2016 at last!! We tried (in order)

• Using the Small Planet website - useless as virtually impossible to get it to work - surprise, surprise!
• Writing direct to SP in Lithuania ourselves twice.  They ignored us - surprise, surprise!
• Claiming via the Civil Aviation Authority.  SP ignored them- you get the rest.
• Using the Money Saving Expert Resolver scheme.  Guess what!
• Using specialist solicitor - WORKED as we have JUST been informed that SP have told the court in Vilnius they concede the claim.  Not that we have actually received the dosh as yet and that could up to 9 weeks.....

It broke my heart to sign away 30% of our money to lawyers - which turns out to be 38% with VAT.  But, as they say that's better than 100% of nowt!  We used Bott & Co - easily found online.  They have a very efficient automated online claims management process and were good at letting us know what was happening.  Think they're quite a big cheese in the flight compo lark - saw some references to important court cases they had handled. 

And Olympic didn't use them in 2017.  Wonder if they got their money back from putting up 150 pax in hotels in Argostoli overnight plus charges for opening the airport early the next morning. 

It only took 15 months but glad of it!  Should I be optimistic that the Lithuanian court will will get our dosh to pass on to us via Botts....?!

Tony

PS Always, always always keep your boarding card stub as proof you actually turned up for the flight, particularly if travelling independent and flight only.  This applies even more to travel insurance claims which we also had issues over last year, and which I could now write a book about.