This may be the wrong forum, but advice would be appreciated on what to do.

I will keep this as concise as possible.

My mother was to get EI110 from JFK to SNN on Friday evening 7pm. At the airport they told her that the plane had gone tech and was re-schedules to 5am. This then changed to 11pm when the plane was swapped to a south american comet air (very old according to her and the crew had very bad english). Anyway that plane took off and ten mins later the pilot in broken english said 'they had forgotten something and have to return'. With many fire brigades on alert they landed safely. Transpired that the landing gear would not go up.

So EI got them on an AA flight to LHR, and then LHR to SNN some 23 hours late. In all the time they got a bottle of water and a dry bagel before the AA flight.

Anyway, these things happen, and she was just unhappy that the replacement plane was old and well....crap.

So, I talked to EI at SNN when getting her bags yesterday and brought up the issue of compensation in light f the EU regulations. The manager stated there will be no compensation as all actions were done in the safety interests of the passengers. I said nothing and tried to ring customer service, except they have no number, or e-mail. All issues have to go by snail mail to Dublin.

I find it incredible this airline is still accepted by OW, and how low they have fallen.

I must say that the issue here is not compensation, but as I live in Ireland I have to deal with this excuse for an airline.

EI have said their official response is that no compensation will be offered because:

They cancelled the flight EI110 for the safety of their passengers, which are extraordinary circumstances.

So if your flight is cancelled you will not be compensated because it is for your own good??????????

Nonsense, may I suggest you take this further, perhaps contact the EU or something?

I hardly think an aircraft going tech is an extraordinary situation!!

"When the delay is 5 hours or more, the airline must also offer
to refund your ticket (with a free flight back to your initial
point of departure, when relevant)." - From the new EU rules.

So out of curiosity, what's EI's rationale for seeing a difference between cancelling the flight before it takes off and cancelling mid-flight. There is no question that cancelling before the flight, for whatever reason absent weather, will invoke the EU rule. We can only assume that those reasons include safety concerns like if the wing falls off. I don't see a difference between a flight that takes off and one that doesn't. In fact, I think that the former deserves more compensation and an apology. I have been on two emergency landings at different points and they are not fun. EI is the only Oneworld carrier I haven't flown and I don't intend on changing that any time soon.

I agree with all the others. Take it further. She should at least get a free trip to the continent or something.