nikolast

I would strongly recommend http://eudelay.co.uk/ to try to get your compensation for you. After 3 months and 2 agencies, we finally got compensation from Vueling even though they were sending us the same mails which you posted above. You just have to be patient since Vueling won't pay without a fight. My flight was delayed for 4 hours and 15 minutes. We got 400 Euros each for flight from Barcelona to Belgrade.

Tonymc49

I had read a number of letters about Vueling not wanting to pay compensation for delays. My wife and I were supposed to travel from Cardiff to Alicante on 2nd Dec. Minutes before boarding we were told that our aircraft had landed at Birmingham because of a technical problem. We were told to collect our suitcases and get on a coach which would take us to Birmingham airport. After a three hour trip in the coach we had to once again book our cases in. Then we had to go through security again, only this time our passports and boarding cards had to be checked manually as they has already been processed at Cardiff airport. Perfume that my wife had bought and had sealed in Cardiff's duty free, was opened and tested at baggage control. This made it unpresentable as a gift.
We finally took off 5 hours later than scheduled.
In your experience with Vueling, what is the best way to obtain compensation without going through the Vueling rejection process?

more4less

Hi,

I would recommend you go through one of the companies that are specialized in claiming. They get a % of the compensation but going direct it is very difficult to succeed.

Good luck!

NickB

I would not agree with that. Claiming in the UK is realtively straightforward through Money Claim Online (MCOL).

I would start by contacting Vueling in writing (either normal mail or e-mail) asking for the €250 due to the long delay under Regulation 261/2004 and give them a reasonable time to reply (say a couple of weeks or so). If they do not reply, I would initiate MCOL proceedings. If they do reply with a (in all likelihood spurious) excuse, there might need to be a little to and froing before initiating proceedings. The OP may with to have a look at the guide to reg 261/2004 on the BA forum to familiarise himself with Reg 261/2004.

I would limit the claim to the €250 for delay and leave the problem with duty-free-sealed goods aside, as it would be more problematic to claim.

Often1

Why on earth would you sell your claim to a claims service when you haven't even made it and had it denied yet? MCOL isn't even yet in the cards.

All that matters is the delay on arrival. Forget all of the irrelevant detail as that has nothing to do with EC 261/2004 (coach to BHX, recheck luggage, security inspection of dut free and so on).

Make your claim short and sweet. Date, flight number, scheduled arrival, actual arrival and claim for EUR 250 pp.

NickB

1) MCOL was mentioned in reply to posts suggesting using a claim company. Given that the OP seems to be UK-based and the flight was from the UK, it made sense to mention that route.
2) The OP is anticipating, not entirely unreasonably, a rejection. It makes sense to consider what the next steps might be as it might influence how you go about the process. My post also stated that the first step is to make a claim to Vueling and see how it goes.

craigthemif

+1 Vueling are going to be impossible - it's obviously their policy to be difficult so that a certain number of claims will just go away - but that doesn't mean a token effort shouldn't be made direct before going the claim company route.

sony2012

I got 2h20min delay due to technical issues on Vueling for a short flight and I sent the request but they came back with the awfully untrue email like the ones we see here (is it even legal to send these emails? I am guessing they are leaving a piece of hard evidence of noncompliance)

So I replied back and detailed how they are wrong but they stopped responded. Now I am thinking about sending the complaints to German and Spanish (the flight was from BCN to MUC) but both don't seem to have any enforcement power. Would sending the formal complaints to these agencies be helpful at all? Or am I just wasting my time thus should seek intermediaries? If the latter, anyone can suggest firms in Germany?

Often1

You are wasting your time. The various National Enforcement Bureaus all have plenty of authority to take action against carriers which fail to properly compensate. But, none of them do. That is why there is little reason beyond customer satisfaction for carriers to pay before the clock stops.

It all depends on how much EUR 250 means to you, but I would pursue the carrier in a simple small claims proceeding. Likely something you can handle yourself.

sony2012

recently saw that Dutch authorities are monitoring Vueling. I mean if Vueling constantly do this, shouldn't they actually act upon it and at least levy penalties? Anyways, are there any reliable legal firms in Germany that handle this case?

sony2012

Just filed a complaint to the Spanish authority, which required just filling out the form in PDF along with bookings and boarding pass. And got a response saying that Vueling must write a report on the incidence, which can be costly for Vueling. If everybody who got rejected writes the complaints, I am sure Vueling will start looking at the cases more closely instead of instant rejection as they have to write a report in every case. Here is what i got from AESA
"Bearing in mind that the incident described may constitute an infringement of Regulation (CE) 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, AESA has requested a report about such incident to the air carrier."

Koby

Good info! If it's not too mcuh work, do you mind adding a link to that form or a information page?

sony2012

Spanish form is much easier because it is ready to fill in. Here is the link for the instruction.

The german one is a bit tricky because you have to print, fill and scan but they require the same information. Here is the link.

Koby

Thank you!

sony2012

Finally, I have heard from Vueling. First I have used the Spanish form to complain to the Spanish authority. As you can see from the link, it is relatively easy. The authority promised to require the airline to investigate and respond within a month. If I received a negative response, I was prepared to complain to the German authority but in about 30 days, I got my response from Vueling notifying me to send my bank details in order to receive the compensation. So if you can wait a month or so, I'd urge you to complain to the authorities. At least here I report a successful result.