No doubt your husband will be glued to the Grand Prix at Imola this weekend and he can look forward to a tour - by minibus - that makes two laps of the track as well as stops at the starting grid, Tamburello corner and the Ayrton Senna Memorial. Is it possible to do a tour of the circuit and could you suggest a good hotel nearby? Ideally it would have a spa and tennis courts and I’m hoping that I won’t have to pay much more than £1,000 for a three-night stay. ✉ My husband loves Formula One and I’d like to take him to Imola, near Bologna in northern Italy, as a birthday treat in June. It apologised for “any inconvenience caused”. When I sent the airline details of your case it quickly agreed to pay the £500pp compensation you are entitled to for a long-distance flight delayed for more than three hours. While Aer Lingus could claim the “extraordinary circumstances” get-out for situations beyond its control, such as adverse weather or strikes by air traffic control, staff sickness doesn’t fall into this category. You certainly do have a valid claim under UK law, as do all travellers whose flights have been significantly delayed or cancelled at short notice due to staff shortages in recent weeks.
I’ve taken my complaint to the airline’s CEO to no avail and am now escalating this via the Civil Aviation Authority. It took Aer Lingus until the end of March to respond and it is refusing to accept my claim, citing an exemption to regulation EU261/2004 by virtue of “extraordinary circumstances”. I submitted a claim in early January for £500pp compensation for the 22-hour delay.
We were rerouted by bus to Heathrow for an American Airlines flight but on arrival were told there were no seats and, after a night in a hotel, flew the next day.
✉ My wife and I had an Aer Lingus flight booked from Manchester to New York on New Year’s Eve, which was cancelled due to crew shortage the Omicron Covid variant was blamed. Saturday April 23 2022, 12.01am, The Times
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