Stansted Flight Diversion - Best Way to Recover Expenses?

[milzibkit]

Hi All

I'd be grateful for any advice. Our flight into Stansted was diverted last night. We ended up sitting in East Midlands airport for a number of hours awaiting a bus transfer back to Stansted. The ground staff there were clearly doing their best, but had very little to go on.

As we were travelling with a baby and with no information available as to when we may be put in a taxi back to Stansted and no knowledge whether we'd be able to collect our car from outside Stansted terminal, we arranged our own taxi home. We'd eventually been told by ground staff there was no hope of buses and we knew of many diverted flights from Jet 2 and Ryanair into EMA. En route, we found out we could indeed collect our car from the airport parking so we re-routed to Stansted.

The ground staff gave me the contact details for claiming back expenses (the taxi fare) but I'm not sure whether our best course of action is to be clear that we ended up going back to Stansted, or that we went home (home is further than Stansted, but only by a few miles). The fare was pre-paid for home regardless of where we ended up.

We were able to find a taxi because we were free to use any firm, our airline could only use a few firms through their agent which was shared with Jet 2 and Ryanair, thus extremely busy.

By going back to Stansted, have we scuppered any chance of recouping the expense of the taxi, or have we increased our chance? I expect our airline will say their taxis cost much less than ours, but we had no idea when or if said taxi would be provided and with a baby we didn't feel we could wait any longer.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Heathrow Harry]

https://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/607263-beeb-bailiffs-sent-recover-compensation-tui-easyjet-especially.html

[Johnny F@rt Pants]

I’d try writing to the airline if I were you.

[skyviewer]

We had similar situation in May 2010 with ash cloud scenario (I nearly said fiasco). We were flying Alicante - Doncaster & I knew before the departure that DSA was closed (so the airlines must have also known) but nothing was announced about diversion until we were an hour into the flight & informed we would be landing at Stansted & we were all told that buses would be taking passengers to DSA. At Stansted arrivals, packed with passengers from similar diverted flights, Swissport agents were handing out claims forms & informing there were no buses. I managed to get a taxi, also 4 other passengers who we knew from our flight, so saving the airline the cost of 2 other taxis. The following process was most obstructive, I think designed to put claimants off pursuing expenses claims. I think it was this era that created the legal precedents with the EU261 regulations. To cut the story short, after writing several letters (only allowed to fax at that time!) which I made sure were compliant with the legal procedures required for legal action, my final letter in October was to state that if I did not receive full payment within 28 days I would commence legal action for payment plus legal expenses. I received a letter & enclosed cheque 7 days later. Main points, retain boarding passes & proper receipts, not just card payment slips. If you have to send them to airline, get photocopies & keep copies of all correspondence quoting EU261. I think the procedure should be easier nowadays but check your airline's website for its proceedures, you aren't the only person with the problem.

[milzibkit]

Just to update on this, Jet2 confirmed today that they will reimburse me for the cost of the taxi in full. They took a while to respond but agreed to pay straight away.

[Johnny F@rt Pants]

That’s great news, I bet that wouldn’t have happened had it been a certain unmentionable airline from across the Irish Sea.