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Hiya,
During the Crowdstrike debacle Vueling cancelled a LGW to OVD flight to use the plane for LGW-BCN a few hours later. The airport was working at that time and flights were taking off and landing as expected (with some delays but no cancelations).
Vueling says the cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances but you can clearly see that:
1. flights were still taking off and landing from LGW
2. Same can be said about OVD
3. The equipment was later used for a LGW to BCN flightSo basically the cancellation was of an operational nature (I also would argue that the Corwdstrike failure is not “extraordinary” as nobody forced them to do an update of THEIR systems and yet they did, no different to an mechanical failure which has been, time and again, proven not to be “extraordinary”).
Vueling is not part of any arbitration scheme so what should be my next steps if I want to insist on them paying the £220 they owe me for a cancelled flight?
Thanks!
Hi again! I hear that Vueling are a bit of a nightmare for anything like this. You’d probably have to take them to MCOL, though I don’t know where you’re supposed to serve papers on them. People on here have taken recalcitrant foreign airlines to court though, so hopefully they will be along soon. I dare say @JDB and @meta are the best people to ask!
@yonasi – unfortunately your points 1 – 3 have no bearing on the situation. The only thing that matters/question that arises is whether the cancellation of your specific flight is covered by ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and that all reasonable measures were taken to avoid the cancellation. You don’t say whether Vueling did anything or offered anything to rebook you.
As you have identified, Vueling doesn’t participate in any ADR in the UK and while AESA now has some scheme it’s less than useless. This leaves you with the last resort – issuing a claim in the County Court – MCOL which will cost you £35 (if it’s just one x £220) and possibly a £27 hearing fee. I imagine that Vueling will defend the case on the basis of the Crowdstrike incident and, even knowing nothing about the specifics of your flight, their prospects must be quite good.
Thanks @JDB . Vueling was in shambles. They basically cut all ways of communication (callcenter off, no Twitter/email/etc.) They had a flight from LGW to another Spanish northern town later that day but it was impossible to book even with available seats.
They eventually rebooked me on a flight … from OVD to BCN to LGW … THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
A few days later I was able to request a refund, that was quickly actioned but they still forgot to refund some extras I had (so had to chase them again for that).
The £220 would be for cancelation compensation. I agree to try to argue Crowdstrike is not an “extraordinary event” may be hard (but I suppose it falls under the category of “technical faults” which were deemed not “extraordinary”).
@yonasi – the Crowdstrike incident wouldn’t be considered a ‘technical fault’ which can only rarely be considered ‘extraordinary circumstances’ because most are deemed to be within the normal operations of the airline. The difficulty with Crowdstrike is that it was a global issue affecting multiple airlines and airports and clearly a third party fault outside the airline’s control. Unfortunately, I think you were just unlucky that it was your flight amongst those that were cancelled. There is always the possibility that airlines used Crowdstrike as cover for cancellations that in fact had other origins, but you would need some pretty strong evidence to support that.
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