My friend died while we waited for payout
A RETIRED head teacher has been waiting so long for compensation that the friend she travelled with has since died.
Jill Brookling’s Thomson Airways flight from Barbados to London was delayed for 13 hours and 58 minutes in April 2011.
But six years and nearly 20 letters and emails later, she is yet to receive a penny of the £150 she claimed.
Mrs Brookling, from Wakefield, Yorkshire, was travelling with friend Cath Kemp, then 75, who she had met on another trip.
Mrs Brookling, now 64, was on a £1,500 12-night cruise, which included stops at Madeira and the Canary Islands – but a planned trip around Barbados was cancelled when their flight was delayed by more than 12 hours.
She made her first claim application to the airline in May 2011. Since then, she says it has tried to block the claim with different excuses.
She contacted the Civil Aviation Authority, but even when the CAA ruled in her favour, the airline refused to back down.
Mrs Brookling said: ‘Cath passed away before I got the money ... It’s arrogance, they think I am going to go away.’
A Thomson spokesman apologised for the delay but said it needed more information from Mrs Brookling. He added that all claims were handled ‘as quickly as possible’.