Often1

Emailing back and forth is useless unless you are making progress. It may sometimes be worth doing one followup email if you are making progress or there is some clear factual error, e.g., the carrier has the wrong flight number.

As it stands, I would send a Letter Before Action (forms on the MCOL website) and follow with an MCOL action if you do not receive your compensation, a satisfactory answer, or an settlement to which you choose to agree. It will ultimately be up to IB to prove an "extraordinary circumstance". While it would make sense for IB to respond with some facts, I suppose that it can simply deny the claim and leave it to litigation.

LPQ

Thank you C-W-S and Often1.

I was following the EU Complaint Form Instructions. This states that the Complaint Form be submitted to the airline, then - after 6 weeks - to the National Enforcement Body (Spain in my case) before Court action. I didn't want to foul up the potential success of any MCOL submission by not completing the preceding two steps. I am UK resident and the e-ticket states it was issued in the UK from Iberia's Registered address in Hammersmith. (I am not impressed that Iberia seem to have issued a receipt relating to the contract using a misleading Registered address. I see from another thread that Iberia should have been contacted instead through Waterside.)

So, following your advice, (and in return, I'll report back on the success or otherwise of my actions) I will submit a Letter Before Action to the Iberia Waterside address.

Note: I'm impressed. Between the two of you, almost 70,000 posts have been made.

danger

Knock me over with a feather: Iberia denied my compensation claim. The reason given, simply "As it was an extraordinary circumstance that we could not prevent, despite taking all the measures at our disposal, European Community Regulations do not establish any compensation". Clearly a cut-and-paste. No information on the alleged "extraordinary circumstance" and nothing specific to my claim.

What is AESA? I'm based on the other side of the world so I'm not familiar with the terminology. I have come across the CAA (https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Res...-CAA-can-help/) , though, which I was thinking would be my next step.

corporate-wage-slave

It's the Spanish National Enforcement Body, which every country enforcing EC261 is required to have. The CAA is the UK equivalent. Now which is the right NEB for you depends on where you live, where you bought your tickets and perhaps the details of the flight, but in the case of Iberia this often boils down to AESA. Their English website is here and you'll note a button on the right which covers delays and cancellations.

https://www.seguridadaerea.gob.es/LANG_EN/home.aspx

The next page is in Spanish but online tools should help you there, however the claims registration system has an English option:

https://sede.seguridadaerea.gob.es/S...aspx?idioma=en

danger

Thanks for that helpful explanation.

Right now I'm living in Australia. My flight was purchased with AA miles, online from Australia. I flew DUS-xMAD-LIS (many months ago). The DUS-MAD was late arriving and I missed my MAD-LIS. The next flight was something like six or so hours later.

corporate-wage-slave

You probably have the option of processing via Germany too, then, but given that going to court in Germany would presumably be non trivial I suspect AESA is your route, and to be fair to them though AESA is fairly slow, they nevertheless regularly hold Iberia's feet to the fire in this area and Iberia then does the necessary. Assuming it was neither weather nor ATC that led to the delay I think you now have the material - once scanned - to process via the AESA claims system.

danger

Sounds like AESA is the way to go. Thank you. It wasn't weather but it may have been ATC. I have no idea. If IB can prove that it was indeed extraordinary and that they took all reasonable measures (the two pillars of the legislation), than I have no issue. But simply emailing me - from an address that says "do not reply", no less - that it was extraordinary circumstances without anything further is just pathetic.

I'm not sure what material I would need. I have a copy of my original reservation, an automated email from IB about my re-booking, boarding passes and their email saying extraordinary circumstances. Hopefully that's enough. I'm in no hurry. I appreciate these services exist so as long as it's looked at, I'm happy. I'll file in the next couple of days.

Yllanes

That's enough for you to do the AESA claim, yes. In particular you need some response from Iberia denying the claim. As c-w-s says, they'll take their time. However, it is trivial to make the claim and then they'll ask IB for a proper justification and decide whether you are entitled to compensation.

LPQ

I promised to report back on progress since Post #14 above with my claim against Iberia. I hope I haven't kept you waiting.

Patience or perseverance? It's needed.

There was a 12 hour delay on a flight in May 2018 triggered by an event a few rotations earlier in the day to the aircraft. There were two of us travelling on the same booking. Iberia refused liability. I read continuing similar tales on this site regarding Iberia and EC261 so a summary of our actions might help as support and encouragement for others. There were quite a lot of emails and submissions throughout the whole of the 21 month period from the delayed flight until today.

Letters to Iberia using the suggested Waterside address received no response. Nor did AESA respond to submissions to them using the EU Complaint Form. An MCOL attempt for one passenger against Iberia using the Waterside address was rejected because Iberia didn't have a UK registered office. European Consumer Centre (EU equivalent of the Citizens Advice Bureau) took on the case and were successful in AESA giving a ruling against Iberia. Iberia paid up immediately.

The claim for the other passenger on the booking was then submitted to AESA who responded quickly. Even though we had supplied them with their previous ruling for the same booking, AESA refused to deal with the case and referred it to FOCA, the Swiss Regulator. FOCA understandably immediately rejected the request to investigate with the recommendation for us to start civil court proceedings against Iberia. ECC took on the second case and eventually Iberia agreed compensation. It arrived yesterday.

Legislation on compensation does exist but compliance is low and its enforcement ineffective.

TTmex

So I have contacted Iberia twice now, once through the original claim and once opening another thread with customer relations. In both cases absolutely zero response, not even an automatic - we've receieved your email response. Can't say I'm surprised, but I will persist. Does anyone know if it's possible to send a registered letter that must be signed for, or if that is even worth it.

Any other tips on how to progress this?

corporate-wage-slave

As previously advised, see posts 52 and 54 in this thread for two approaches which worked.
IBERIA - Refusing Compensation and lies

Post 14 and 24 above are on the same lines.

TTmex

Yeh, I'll have to try a pre-action letter as well then. Annoying that they are not even acknowledging receipt of the emails.

Thanks