Hi all,
My 1pm LGW-BIO flight, which departed ~45 minutes late, got diverted to Barcelona on 22.12.2024. Flight number VY6302. I cannot share the link as I haven't posted enough here yet, but a google search of VY6302 22 december yields a flightaware link with the details of the diverted flight.
The pilot made an attempt to land once in Bilbao(BIO) but was not succesful. I did not perceive any significant movement on the aircraft. I was expecting another landing attempt, as it has happened every time I have been in a similar situation, but we were diverted to Barcelona instead, where the base of the airline is(there are many airports in the vicinity of Bilbao.). Note that ALL aircrafts but this one managed to land on the day in Bilbao Airport. I overheard a flight attendant mentioning that they were working since 6AM, so I wonder whether that, fuel or something else could be the cause.
Vueling representatives were nowhere to be found in Barcelona, and we had to ask for the airport personnel around migrations to assist us and find the representative. We were told that was not in line with the protocols and that this was a wrongdoing by the airline.
After some time, someone showed up (late, some passengers had gone through customs by then) and only offered us an overland transport by coach. Barcelona is far away from Bilbao, we’re talking about roughly 8h on the road. All this after a very long day. We were told that we could ask for alternatives in customer services if we were not happy.
Our luggage took quite a while to arrive as well. Screens pointed out to conveyor belt number 13 and they eventually showed up in number 1. We only found out because other passengers were frantically searching for them all over the place!
We eventually managed to get to customer services, but were neglected, even though I clarified that I had been suffering from back problems and could not spent that many hours seated in a coach. They would not pay for our accomodation and/or send us in the next flight to Bilbao the following day, even though there were tickets available. We wasted a lot of hours and energy at the airport with no success.
Eventually we made our own accomodation and transportation arrangements. Vueling does not want to pay for them, neither the compensation. They just say:
In relation to your claim for compensation, Vueling has conducted a thorough analysis of your case, which falls within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (the "Regulation") and the implementing case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
In your case, however, we regret to inform you that no compensation is payable as the incident on your flight was caused by adverse weather conditions which resulted in the application of restrictions, limitations and additional security measures on the number of flights to be operated at the airport, all of which are considered to be "extraordinary circumstances", in accordance with Article 5.3 of the Regulation and in accordance with the doctrine of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Due to the nature of the event, Vueling was unable to avoid the occurrence because it was caused by unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances (even if all reasonable measures were applied), all of which were beyond Vueling's effective control and therefore Vueling was unable to apply any additional measures to try to minimise the inconvenience.
Any suggestions about how to proceed?
Thank you very much!