Hi - hopefully this is the correct place to post this. Was hoping I could get some guidance
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Traveling London Heathrow -> Barcelona on a Vueling flight I was delayed over 4 hours due to operational issues. At the airport the Vueling staff agreed, this fell under EC Regulation 261/2004 and the ruling in the Sturgeon Case and informed me I could submit a claim through the vueling website for €250.
After an initial response from Vueling denying my claim request, I followed up with a second email calling out specifically how I fell under this ruling (e.g. "Articles 5, 6 and 7 of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that passengers whose flights are delayed may be treated, for the purposes of the application of the right to compensation, as passengers whose flights are cancelled and they may thus rely on the right to compensation laid down in Article 7 of the regulation where they suffer, on account of a flight delay, a loss of time equal to or in excess of three hours, that is, where they reach their final destination three hours or more after the arrival time originally scheduled by the air carrier.")
I've copied the next response from Vueling below. Is there any truth in this? Are they lying to me? Are there any next steps that I can take?
Thanks in advance for the help!
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Dear customer,
We contact you again in order to offer you additional information concerning claim.
As requested by you, we would like to inform you that the delay has been caused because of operational reasons.
As regards the above, we must inform you that your claim is based on an interpretation of applicable legislation carried out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that extends the effects of EC Regulation 261/04 to delays of between 3 and 5 hours. This interpretation goes beyond the scope of the Regulation and gives it a meaning that was never originally intended when it came into force and was enacted by the European Parliament and Commission.
Similarly, we inform you that the validity and legality of the CJEU ruling on which you base your claim is currently under discussion, as it contradicts another ruling from the CJEU stating that the compensation provided for in Article 7 is not applicable in cases of delay. In this regard, you should take note that, while said discussion is taking place, countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany are not applying the ruling, and furthermore, various appeals and preliminary rulings have been made that are pending resolution by the CJEU which has been requested to clarify the definitive scope of the Regulation.
In light of the above, we must inform you that this company cannot issue compensation payments for delays of less than 5 hours until the problems arising from a single interpretation of said Regulation can be resolved given that any compensation paid out would have to be returned in the event that it eventually be established that the compensation provided for under the Regulation for cancellations cannot be extended to delays (and discussion is also taking place on the possibility of applying this retroactively to all amounts paid out to date), with the corresponding damage to your interests.
We would like to apologize again for all the inconveniences this incident has caused you and hope that despite this you will trust VUELING for your future flights.