Flybe fail to refund

[terminal7]

On 4th September my wife and I were travelling to London City to catch a flight to Dusseldorf at around 15.0 About 2 hours before departure we received a text stating that the flight had been cancelled and that we should phone them. Before phoning I checked whether the plane that was on a shuttle to/from Dusseldorf had actually left Dusseldorf - in fact it had been cancelled doe to a technical issue. On the phone I was offered a cancellation with refund of outward leg or a booking on a later flight. I pointed out that the later flight was also dependent on the plane leaving Dusseldorf sometime - in fact as it turned out the later flights was also cancelled. Anyway I confirmed that I would seek a refund and the operator said no problem - would be sent to accounts and I would be repaid. I also phoned the hotel - who stated that as I was cancelling actually after the actual booking had already started there was no way they would refund payment for that night.

I have reclaimed the refund as well as compensation as per EC Regulation 261/2004 - this claim was sent on the Flybe site on 5th September. Apart from a standard acknowledgement on 6th September stating 'As a result of recent disruption, we have experienced higher call and email volumes than normal. It may take longer than usual for us to respond, but please be assured that we will reply to you as quickly as possible. Please keep a note of the incident reference number in the subject line when contacting us.'

Nothing has been heard since - despite a further request from me on 17th September for them to make a refund. On their site - dealing with this case - there a statement counting the time down to escalation and just now has reached 'In 11 hours you will be able to escalate your case to Customer Relations'.

Should I just proceed to a small claims court claim or do as I am told and continue to wait!

[UncleIan]

What difference will 11 hours make exactly? Wait, keep trying to sort it through the proper channels as you don't seem to have exhausted that option yet.

[twotwo22]

CEDR rather than small claims

[terminal7]

Well 11 hours has passed and needless to say not a peep.

What is the benefit of the CEDR?

Thanks

T7

[terminal7]

Just been on the site and note that they will not accept complaints until 8 weeks has elapsed after claim - so another 2 weeks for Flybe to respond.

T7

[dspp]

A consideration is that it has been longer than I can remember since Flybe was in good financial health.

I see that is not changing
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=13976

So whatever you do, don't let the clock run unnecessarily.

Personally I get very mixed experiences on Flybe. Sometimes it is great (but highly priced), sometimes it is late (but highly priced). The combination of Flybe + SOTON certainly is one to avoid for early morning departures, and they are deservedly known as FlyMayBe.

regards, dspp

[terminal7]

I followed up previous rather one=way correspondence and progressed to escalate towards the ADR. About a day before the final deadline - hey presto - I am informed that Flybe will pay 250 euros per person compensation - subsequently received. I assume that if I had not claimed the airline would have done nothing. Not sure whether my regular emails that followed the initial claim made any difference and they were just waiting to the very last moment before agreeing to pay.

T7