Hi Mark2spark – MCOL (Money Claim Online) is a UK government service. Can it really be used to claim against Ryanair based in Dublin ?
I ‘d like to thank Centipede100 for setting up these separate airline specific delay threads.
I am slightly lazy about researching these things and Centipede100 just made starting my claim a whole lot easier. So I have got a technical (engineer needed to fix) type delay claim on a 850km Ryanair flight that occurred at the end of 2011. I am reminded by Centipede100’s flightstats link that the plane eventually landed just over four hours after its scheduled arrival time.
I do have some Legal Expenses cover on my LV home insurance but am not sure that I could use it to make an offensive (as opposed to defensive) type legal action against an airline even if I wanted to.
In any event I’d like to give it a go on my own. I sat next to the engineer and had a good chat with him so Ryanair won’t be able to pull too much wool over my eyes. Essentially the engineer had to be parachuted in* from Stansted with half a dozen boxes of bits. He had to change at least one of the primary navigation instruments on the flightdeck after the crew had closed the doors and were about to fire up and leave the stand (it was a stand that did not require pushback). I can’t remember unfortunately whether they had started engines before they noticed the fault but it is perhaps academic. It was supposed to be an “away” destination 25 minute turnaround jobbie but the return leg got aborted during the flightdeck checks after the safety briefing had already been given by cabin crew.
I understand Centipede100’s advice that these claims may still not be straightforward, and best not to write a letter containing the threat of legal action or at all unless I seriously intend following it through.
But up to this point I imagined I might have to use the Irish Courts if Ryanair issue a denial. Does anyone know for certain whether that’s the case ?
Ryanair
Customer Service Department,
P.O. 11451,
Swords,
Co. Dublin,
Ireland.Dear Ryanair,
Delayed Flight Compensation
Flight number: FRXXX
Date: XX October 2011
Booking Ref: XXXXXX
Passenger name: ME!
Amount claimed: 250 eurosI am writing to you to lodge my claim for delayed flight compensation. Our flight (detailed above) was delayed leaving xxxx and we arrived in xxxx some 4 hours after the scheduled arrival time.
I am aware that judgement has been handed down in the current ECJ case (C-629/10) on October 23rd 2012, and I wish to proceed with my claim.
We were informed that the flight was delayed due to a late-discovered technical problem with the aircraft which necessitated an engineer being sent on another aircraft from Stansted to fix our aircraft. We were already onboard with doors closed when the problem was discovered in the short turnaround pre-flight checks.
One can’t help wondering whether the fault was discoverable earlier in the day.
We were disembarked and after a while we were given a voucher which was enough to buy a sandwich or a drink.
Since technical problems have been ruled by the ECJ to be unlikely to be held as a valid defence of extraordinary circumstances to a compensation claim, then in the unlikely event you should be claiming any such defence I should be grateful if such details could be provided to me within 14 days of the date of this letter.
Should you neither settle my claim in full nor provide a full defence to my claim within the above timescale, I reserve the right to issue legal proceedings without giving you further notice in writing.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
xxxxx
And for this particular case might it be best for the first letter to be a more or less straight copy of the template letter or is there merit in tweaking it slightly as above do we think?
* Well not parachuted, but actually he arrived much faster than the captain had led us to expect!
