Thread: Virgin Holidays - Mcr Weather

I was wondering if there is anyone out there that could assist me in the best direction to go forward with my complaint.
I recently went on my honeymoon to a Sandals resort in St Lucia after getting married on the 29th Dec. We were due to depart Mcr airport flying with Virgin Atlantic at 13:30 only to be delayed 4 hours and 45 minutes due to "a technical fault with one of the engines" I quote this as they claimed the same problem a couple of months earlier when my brother went to Barbados with Virgin Atlantic too.
Now, bearing in mind when I booked this holiday with Coop travel back in January 2006 almost 12 months earlier they informed me that as we were booking so early and the fact they we were honeymooners we are more than likely to receive a free upgrade and as it was a virgin holiday we would receive champagne on arrival and the honeymoon experience in our room being champagne etc. Needless to say this didn't occur.
So what was supposed to be an amazing honeymoon experience became just and ordinary holiday. I also pre-booked a Romantic Meal on the beach for us as an extra on the holiday that failed to live up to what was described. We eventually received the honeymoon experience the Sunday before we came home, and the second attempt at the romantic meal experience the following Tuesday.
Finally when we were due to come home on the 18th January 2007 Manchester was suffering horrendous weather conditions, causing all airlines to be grounded. It wasn't until around midday St Lucia time that I had the initiative to phone someone in the UK to find out why we were not making tracks to coming home. We found via the internet that we were in fact delayed until Saturday the 20th 2007, 36 hours later. This information was not relayed to us from any Virgin Representatives until at least 1.5 hours later. From that we then had to wait around at our hotel until about 5pm St Lucia time to find out what was happening with us. We had all checked out at 11am that day so we didn't have rooms available at that point.
At 5pm the hotel informed us that we would in fact be staying on the location for the further 36 hours.
We eventually made it back to Mcr Airport by 8:30 pm on the 20th January 2007.
It has been suggested to me from different people that I should pursue this for several reasons, 1st. Loss of enjoyability whilst on holiday (apparently one of the few occasions in law where you can sue for your loss of enjoyment especially in light of the fact that it was our honeymoon.)
2nd The outbound journey was delayed by more than 4 hours due to a technical fault with the airline, the distance to our destination was in excess of 4100miles and according to the EU ruling chart found at BBC news website as below:

COMPENSATION: OVERBOOKING AND CANCELLATIONS Length of journey Delay to destination Compensation Up to 1,500km More than 2 hours 250 euros (£173) 1,500-3,500km Up to 3 hours 200 euros (£138) 1,500-3,500km More than 3 hours 400 euros (£277) More than 3,500km More than 4 hours 600 euros (£415) Source: Air Transport Users' Council

3rd Again, the delay we suffered on the return journey. Although I feel sorry for the people that were due to fly out for their holiday we were also unconvinced as I was due to be working being self employed for the Friday and Saturday. Also we were at the point where we had packed our cases and were ready to come home. Our dogs had to stay an extra 2 days longer in the kennels just to name a few of the implications.

My question is who do i need to complain to about the delays and the poor experience would it be Coop, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Atlantic, Sandals, or my insurance company?
Would you consider the above good enough reason to request compensation on the grounds set by the EU even with the "grey area" that is mentioned in the articale, or would the weather conditions be considered as "Extraodinary conditions".
And finally how would i go about the whole saga, don't want to waste my time writing dozens of letters only to find i'll never get anywhere with it all.

Thanks in advance,

HC

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