Hi FlyerTalkers,
Has anyone had any experience with a flight cancelled by Vueling (owned by British Airways)?
I booked a flight with BA but found out that it would be operated by Vueling.
On the day, the flight from LGW was delayed by over an hour. There was another 45min wait at the gate for the departure to OVD.
The staff at the desks were ready and the aircraft had arrived and we could see it parked by the gate.
Then when we thought they would start boarding, they in fact, announced that unfortunately the flight had been cancelled and continued by saying that the decision was that they didn't think the incoming flight crew would have enough hours to take our flight to our destination. We were sent to the baggage hall to collect our suitcase and were told that we could claim compensation.
Then the flight crew disembarked and it was not a good sight to see them (they looked embarassed) leave the gate by passing through disgruntled passengers.
As we refused the flight they offered us as it was unsuitable, we went back home and filled the claim for compensation at the Vueling website.
They were supposed to reply within 10 days but it took over a month to have a response.
They refused our claim by saying that "your flight was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, specifically, a storm that caused low visibility, so we had to take additional safety measures that limited the number of flights operating from the airport.
As it was an extraordinary circumstance, which we were not able to avoid despite putting all reasonable measures in place, in accordance with Article 5.3 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament, and with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, you are not entitled to any form of compensation."
We refused their reply and asked for the evidence and proof of our flight cancellation. Their reply didn't make any sense.
Surprisingly my email to them (to the same email I've been exchanging communication with them) bounced back as no longer "operative"!!
How come are they claiming a storm if the weather was fine and the plane hadn't left the ground for our flight to OVD?
If the incoming flight faced bad weather, is it acceptable to use this as the reason for our flight cancellation even though, our flight was not "the flight in question"?
No ground staff mentioned bad weather at the gate. And if that was the case, the airline should have known about the incoming flight plight and it is their responsability to have a standby crew ready to take our flight and replace the incoming flight crew, right?
What do we do now? Complain to the CAA? How can we get the proof or evidence of our flight cancellation if the airline now doesn't talk to us and blocked our email?
Airlines can't use extraordinary circunstances to justify all flight cancellation without showing any proof and not pay the compensation under the Regulation EC 261/2004 that we are entitled to.
How do they get away with it? How can passengers be heard?
Any advice will be helpful.

**Just to add that the travel agency sent me an email saying that the flight "was disrupted due to operational events (schedule change procedures)". Does it classify as extraordinary circunstances? Do they mean the storm/weather condition?
As I bought this flight with British Airways, would Vueling have sent a report or inform BA of this flight cancellation as Vueling operated/code shared the BA flight?