Hi All
Im trying to help out my parents with a compensation claim as they aren't very good with using tech.

They were due to fly from London Gatwick to Rome Fiumicino on Tuesday 24th September on VY6225 however this flight was cancelled while they were in the departures lounge. Eventually got on a email through saying this is due to operational reasons and they rebooked onto the next flight with seats (2 days later) which turned out to be wrong as I was then able to rebook them onto the Vueling flight to Rome leaving that night. On flight radar i can see the previous flight VY6224 leave the gate, start taxiing and then returning to a remote stand. At this point the status went from on time to delayed and then eventually cancelled. offered no form of refreshment vouchers or anything. At the very least they should have to compensate for the food and drink bought at the airport and the taxi needed from Rome Airport to the hotel due to arriving 7 hours later than planned.

Last night got an email through saying that the claim for compensation has been rejected as the cancellation was due to Air Traffic Congestion.

My question is in the initial email this wasn't stated and it just said operational reasons. Are they just trying to get out of paying for compensation or does Air Traffic Congestion fall under operational reasons. Also seams odd that it taxiied out with just a 25 minute delay so I find it hard to believe that they would need to cancel the flight for such a delay.