"Good morning to all and particularly to my fellow travellers on the ill fated MT430 flight from Gatwick to Antalya on the 6th of Jan.
Just a heads up. The letters given out at Antalya airport by the Thomas cook rep appears to suggest that you can only claim compensation if you had travel insurance. This is not the case - EU Regulations allow for compensation to be paid to passengers experiencing long delays and you can apply for this via this email address: customer.relations@thomascook.onmats.com
There is an actual claim form that can be found (eventually) on the Thomas Cook website, but after over an hour of unsuccessfully trying to fill in the form, spoke to someone on Live Chat who told me to email because the form was generally for UK customers (even though it has a drop down country box) It would appear that if you accept vouchers you can claim 400 GBP, but cash payments are 350 GBP.
You have 28 days to make this claim. You will need your booking confirmation number. Flight number and travel dates. I do know first hand of another fellow passenger who has successfully claimed and has been told to expect the money within the next few days.
Good luck and let's hope this is one of the hundreds of advantageous EU regulations retained when we eventually Brexit that people don't know about until they need them."
Thanks to my friend Lynda Yilmaz for the above information which I have just copied and pasted for the benefit of anyone that was on this flight. The flight stopped at Athens because of an overheating engine and I believe about ten hours later another plane arrived to take them on the final leg to Antalya.
I also have a friend that was waiting for this flight in Antalya, returning from a few days break here over the new year and has just been notified that £355 is winging its way to her bank account