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Final 12 months I used the British Airways web site to ebook a June 2022 flight from Gatwick to Florence for me and my husband. The flights price £770, and when the affirmation e-mail got here by, it turned out they had been with BA’s sister agency, the Spanish airline Vueling.
Nonetheless, two hours earlier than we had been as a result of take off, Vueling cancelled the flight, “as a result of meteorological causes” in Florence.
Cellphone calls made by numerous different passengers to household in Florence quickly established the climate there was sunny and calm, so we assume the flight was cancelled for one more cause.
We made our means by prepare from Gatwick to our house close to Southampton and managed to ebook a flight with one other service to Florence two days later. We misplaced two days of our vacation, plus lodge prices.
Since then, we have now been making an attempt to get a refund of the outward-bound leg of the flight and compensation for cancelling as per the EU guidelines.
Vueling initially simply ignored our requests. Finally, after involving the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), it responded in September, reiterating the flight had been cancelled on account of “extraordinary circumstances”. It refused compensation, and no refund was paid.
In March, it accepted our request for a refund however just for the £20 paid for the additional prepare journey from the airport again house, not for the cancelled flight.
After additional correspondence, it stated I needed to contact BA to get the refund. BA has, in flip, refused to just accept duty and instructed me to take my declare to Vueling.
Nearly a 12 months on, I’ve obtained £20 and am at a loss as to know what to do subsequent.
AB, Hants
This letter arrived inside days of one other from a reader who was equally complaining that Vueling had ignored his demand for compensation after it had cancelled his flight. He had been making an attempt to ship pre-action papers however discovered that none of its listed UK addresses would settle for them.
I requested Vueling, BA and the CAA about each instances however have principally come up towards a wall of silence. Such as you, BA tells me to speak to Vueling however the airline has – you guessed it – ignored me, too.
Coby Benson, Bott and Co’s airline compensation professional, says the legislation is obvious on this reader’s case, and Vueling ought to have supplied a full refund inside seven days of the cancellation, or supplied a free substitute flight.
“AB due to this fact has the selection of a full refund or reimbursement of the substitute flight if it was dearer.
“I believe there’s a robust argument that compensation of £220 a passenger is due as a result of Vueling didn’t take cheap measures to minimise the disruption they skilled.”
Of the corporate’s failure to interact with clients looking for compensation for cancelled flights, he claims this sort of behaviour is now completely typical.
“Its actions frustrate the method of passengers implementing their shopper rights. Ordinarily, I might advise passengers to challenge court docket proceedings. Nonetheless, Vueling doesn’t have an handle in England on which to serve court docket proceedings.
“Previous to Brexit, we had been in a position to challenge court docket proceedings towards it with relative ease utilizing the European small claims process. Nonetheless, that’s now not an possibility.”
For that reason, he says, Bott and Co has stopped taking instances from Vueling passengers.
There’s one completely satisfied end result to this. After my intervention, Vueling did lastly make contact with AB, and it seems it’s refunding her the £380 for the cancelled outward leg she was due 11 months in the past.
If AB and the opposite letter author want to pursue their compensation claims, they may attempt sending them to Worldwide Airways Group Waterside, PO Field 365, Harmondsworth, UB7 0GB. It would work.
Failing that, Benson says it’s best to each search for a no-win, no-fee lawyer in Spain (Vueling’s house nation) the place proceedings might be issued with relative ease.
Within the meantime, I’d urge Guardian readers to keep away from this airline, except they take pleasure in preventing authorized battles. Large corporations that function transparently, and throughout the legislation, are normally completely satisfied to speak to the press and permit claims to be heard in court docket, so why isn’t Vueling?
The CAA, which is meant to implement UK airline passenger rights, additionally declined to remark.
Possibly it’s quietly determined to surrender on this one.
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