Flight delay claim sharks who come back to bite you
Fury at plane delays has sparked a boom in compensation firms. But when they fail, many still grab a cut of any cash YOU get...
AFTER enduring a 12-hour flight delay, Bob Feltham was eager to claim the £1,335 compensation his family was owed.
By searching online and instructing a claims management company, he hoped to save himself from further hassle.
But, after almost a year of waiting, Bob lost patience and contacted Money Mail, which helped him claim the compensation directly from the airline free of charge.
Now the claims firm — Flight Delay Pay — is insisting he hand over £427 of the £1,335 and is threatening legal action if he refuses.
Its case rests on a clause in the contracts of many claims management companies that forbids customers from attempting to collect the money themselves.
Because these firms are unregulated, customers who feel unfairly treated have nowhere to turn for help.
Bob’s story is a stark warning for the hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers returning from trips abroad this summer.
An estimated 1.3million passengers were delayed by more than three hours in 2017, according to consumer group Which?
under Eu rules, travellers who are delayed by more than three hours can claim between €250 (around £231) and €600 (around £531) in compensation, providing the reason for the hold-up is within the airline’s control.
Passengers can claim this money directly from the airline, and most carriers provide online forms to make it simple.
However, increasing numbers of travellers are being targeted by claims firms offering to chase compensation on their behalf.
Experts warn that, with claims management companies no longer able to cash in on the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal, since the deadline passed last month, holidaymakers should expect a flood of calls and texts about flight delay compensation. Some firms are even targeting travellers on social media.
Bob, 66, and wife Caroline, 63, from Bristol, had flown to Corsica for ten days in June last year for their daughter Lucy’s wedding.
The couple had been due to catch a plane home at 6.45am from Bastia airport, with their other daughter Amy, 36, son-in-law Dan, 29, and grandchildren Jasper, three, and Harvey, one. But, soon after arriving at the airport, they heard the flight was cancelled.
The family were loaded on to a minibus with other passengers and taken 93 miles to Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport.
They were given no water on the threehour drive and, after arriving at the airport, had to wait two hours before they could board a 6pm flight to Stansted.
Once back at home, Bob that knew they were entitled to compensation for the delay, but wasn’t sure who to contact.
When searching online, he stumbled across the Flight Delay Pay claims company. Thinking that using a professional firm would make the task easier, he filled in the online form for himself and the rest of the family in July last year.
When the claim still hadn’t been paid a month later, Bob began to chase the firm. But, 11 months on, he still hadn’t had a payout.
Flight Delay Pay insisted it was doing all it could on Bob’s behalf.
BuT, in June this year, the firm emailed Bob to propose instructing debt collectors to chase his compensation from the airline, which would charge a 17pc fee if successful.
This would have been on top of the 25 pc fee Flight Delay Pay intended to charge, plus an extra £25 fee per passenger.
Bob, who works in the freight industry, did not want to pay any more towards the claim and so asked Money Mail to intervene on his behalf.
This newspaper went straight to the airline, Air Corsica, in June, which sent Bob a link to an online form so that he could claim the money himself. He received it within a week.
But now, he is now facing legal action from the claims firm, which says he broke his contract with the company.
Bob says: ‘Out of principle, I am not going to pay them, as I know I obtained that money myself.
‘I just feel that there wasn’t a lot of effort put into pursuing the claim.’
Flight Delay Pay claims that it had issued a court order against Air Corsica. However, the airline denies ever receiving this.
On its website, Flight Delay Pay, which is based in Lingfield, Surrey, and run by Paul Davidson, claims to have dealt with more than 5,000 claims since it was founded back in 2016. It also boasts that 70 pc of its cases are settled within 30 days.
Money Mail identified 36 firms offering similar services to Flight Delay Pay across Europe.
At least half a dozen enforced similar terms banning customers from contacting airlines themselves once they have engaged the claims company.
One, Claim4Flights, based in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, states: ‘The customer shall not pursue the claim personally nor shall it instruct any other third party to pursue the claim without the prior written approval of Claim4Flights.com.’
Complaints against claims management companies were previously resolved by the Legal Ombudsman. In April, the Financial Ombudsman took over this responsibility from City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority, which pledged to protect customers from ‘claims management cowboys’.
Since then, the Ombudsman has received 290 enquiries about claims firms and upheld around 41pc of all complaints in favour of the customer.
However, a loophole in the law means customers with complaints about claims firms dealing with flight delays cannot go to the Financial Ombudsman.
This is because, unlike companies that deal with claims relating to personal injury, financial services, housing repairs, benefits, criminal injury and employment, which are regulated, firms that manage flight delay claims are not.
Martyn James, of complaints site Resolver, says: ‘Disreputable claims managers have been targeting customers for huge cuts of their compensation, despite failing to do anything they promised. Debt collectors and heavy-handed tactics are totally unacceptable, and it’s time to clamp down on firms that fail to deliver.
‘Now that claims firms can no longer target customers who were mis-sold PPI, it’s inevitable more are going to start moving into this area of delayed flights.’
A Flight Delay Pay spokesman says the compensation delay was caused by Air Corsica failing to respond. He says Flight Delay Pay’s solicitors, PDT, won Bob’s case and the claims firm instructed debt collectors when Air Corsica would not pay out. He adds: ‘We were even going to the expense of employing debt collectors so, clearly, we were doing our best. ‘[The clause] is in our terms and conditions and we sent an email to Mr Feltham on July 3, 2018, stipulating this is a condition of our appointment. He is aware we have written evidence on this point.’ An Air Corsica spokesman says: ‘On February 21, 2019, we responded by email to a request made by post from the company PDT Solicitors, in favour of Mr Feltham, asking them to please send over the boarding passes; we never received an answer from PDT Solicitors.
‘The team paid Bob Feltham as he filled in the correct paperwork to process his refund.’