There are som terms and conditions on the Thomas Cook flight page http://book.flythomascook.com/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi

Was it a flight only or package holiday, as the terms may vary.

Kath HT Admin

Kath,

The flight was a 'Flight Only' purchase. As far as I can see the T&C state "Delays sometimes occur. We work closely with all airlines to make sure any delay is as short as possible. When a delay occurs we will try to make sure refreshments or meals are provided when appropriate and practically possible." This seems to be a 'cop out' leaving the door open for ThomasCook to claim it was 'inappropriate and impractical'. If you don't think it worth pursuing we'll write it off to experience but vow NEVER to fly ThomasCook again!

No you should still pursue.

Hopefully one of our members who has a similar expeirence will be able to advise.

Kath

Hi, We were also delayed for five hours at Dalaman in the middle of the night waiting for a Thomas Cook flight to Bristol, by chance on my way to the loo I heard a man shouting upstairs in the food hall, all passengers for the delayed flight can choose food and a drink from burger king, a pizza place or I think Kentucky chicken. My husband and I had this deal and it was all paid for by Thomas Cook we had a burger, chips and drink. The participating food places had a note stuck to them saying food provided for Bristol delayed flight. They did not really give this out we were just lucky to hear it. I wonder if this happened for your son but they missed out?
I was really annoyed when we got on the flight and they could not even give us a cup of tea for the delay they were still charging £2!

Hi David,

I dont often disagree with Kathy but I think you might want to consider whether this should be put down to one of lifes experiences.

A 6 hour delay should result with the airline offering refreshemnt vouchers and no more. The fact they didnt offer them maybe for a few reasons. A creeping delay when they didnt no at the outset how long the delay maybe or that there wasnt the handling agent staff available to issue them.

The circumstances of Easyjet offering a full refund will almost certainly have been different to what the Daily Mail report said, a 6 hour delay on a return flight does not qualify for a full refund under any circumstances. Journalists looking for a story are rarely correct on these issues.

1 hour delay on baggage at gatwick, having flown in there many times this now seems almost the best you can get especially if arrive at night, down to the airport authorities, handling agents not Thomas Cook.

I dont want to be unsympathetic but you are asking about grounds for compensation, they should have issued refreshment vouchers to maybe the value of £5.00 but that is it. They may have had a technical problem air traffic delays or several other reasons which they can quite probably explain away quite legally.

A final comment, Air Traffic delays are horrible have been at their mercy before but they do happen. Some airlines deal with them better than others. Thomas Cook are a reputable airline and normally try to do the right thing. It sounds like they were off the mark this time in not issuing refreshment vouchers but there may have been reasons for this. I wouldnt cut my nose of to spite my face in saying never use Thomas Cook again, aircraft delays happen to all airlines.

Sorry to not be in agreement or telling you want you want to hear but I think its worth a deep breath and saying what a pain and hope it doesnt happen next time.

Kind Regards
Stewart

I dont often disagree with Kathy

No problem Stewart lol.

I have been away from the forums for sometime and may be a little rusty on my advice.
Kath

Cheers Stewart,

Sound advice. I'm just one of those guys who doesn't like the little person to be constantly downtrodden, but hey life's too short and at the end of the day all I am likely to get for my son is a "Sorry. Circumstances beyond our control." Plus probably a statement that refreshments were available but he just didn't hear the announcement - i.e. prove us wrong! Thanks for everyone's input.

David