lgts

Hello everyone!

I would really appreciate your opinion on this. I had the following delay/problem on 12 Jan 2017:

A37101 (domestic SKG-ATH)
Original Departure time: 06:30
Actual Departure time: 09:30

DELAY: 3 hours (reason: multiple passengers wanter to get off the plane after 1 hour of waiting for takeoff)

Connection to A3616 missed.
Rerouted from SKG-ATH-AMS to SKG-ATH-BRU-AMS

Journey original arrival time 11:25
Journey actual arrival time 19:20

TOTAL DELAY TO DESTINATION 7 hours & 55 minutes

(By the way, baggage lost and delivered at the hotel after 24 hours...)

So for this almost 8 hour delay, what they offered in Athens was a free domestic ticket and a lunch voucher.

Do you think I should contact them for a better compensation since this ended up in an almost 8 hours delay to get from SKG to ASM?

Any advice highly appreciated!
Thanks

ajeleonard

EU compensation is €250 so claim that. Letting passengers off is not a valid excuse

lgts

Should I consider this a delay of 3 hourse between SKG-ATH
or a delay of 8 hours between SKG-AMS (as a whole trip)?

Thanks again!

NWIFlyer

I suspect this may still depend on the reason for the initial delay. If that was for weather or ATC, the OP might have a fight to claim EC261 delay compensation - the off-loading wouldn't have happened if the initial problem hadn't existed, so A3 would probably claim the root cause was extraordinary, even if their later decision to allow off-loading exacerbated the delay. I'm not aware there's any definitive case law that would help here.

If it wasn't weather, it's extremely clear-cut - everything would then be under A3's control and compensation would definitely be payable. There would then be no question that the initial cause was down to A3, and it would have been their decision not to close the doors at a given point so no-one else could choose to leave. That's the Commander's decision more than anyone else's.

The delay time itself is certainly the doors open time at final destination - there is case law to this effect, so that's not in dispute.

irishguy28

It's the whole trip.

You start from SKG. You want to finish in AMS.

I can't see any scenario in which the "delay" in getting to, or departing from, any intermediate waypoint (that you didn't actually need to be at) has any bearing on anything. Your journey was not to ATH, and the only reason you went to ATH at all is because this is how A3 routed you. The "delay" as seen from ATH therefore has no bearing whatsoever - it was not the place you needed or wanted to be.

(The above is written from the assumption that you had a single, A3-issued ticket. If, instead, you were travelling SKG-ATH and ATH-AMS on separate tickets, even if both tickets were on A3, then this changes the matter very significantly).

lgts

Thank you all for all the input!

Do you thinks it's more effective to call Aegean or email them?

irishguy28

Follow their instructions. https://aegeanairlines.custhelp.com/...etail/a_id/962

KLouis

@lgts: although you write nothing about it, isn't this all related to last Saturday's snow storm? Well, you're sort of lucky that you did make it to your final destination. Several planes (A3 and Ryanair) that made it to Chania could not get out of there for a day (ice and snow), and North of Crete they had more than 40 cm of snow in other places, including islands (up to 80 cm on Skopelos and Alonissos). Only the extreme Northwest of the country was spared... Still anyone thinks EC261 is due?

irishguy28

Snow in Greece is almost a textbook example of exceptional circumstances.

If this is the case, OP - just shrug your shoulders, and move on. No point wasting another second on this.

lgts

@KLouis: According to the captain, the delay due to the weather was only 30 minutes (de-icing). The rest of the delay -which is the reason for the missed connection- was due to unloading luggage and people who one-by-one were deciding not to fly that day. So, yes, the weather was not good at all, but the delay was not due to that. Please note that at least 3 take-offs took place while we where on the apron waiting for people to get off the plane.

DrHalxx

you can claim through one of the companies who charge a small fee

NWIFlyer

The purpose of the legislation is that airlines are held responsible for delays that are within their control.

In this case, there was a delay due to adverse weather. Subsequently some passengers decided they no longer wished to fly. Assuming the latter issue was not caused by A3 deliberately choosing to return to the terminal multiple times when it could instead have trundled down the runway and taken off, which clearly is not what happened because the plane remained on the apron (presumably just outside the terminal building if a typical SKG operation), neither of these are incidents within the airline's control. It would therefore be perfectly sensible for A3 to claim extraordinary circumstances.

You are on an absolute hiding to nothing on this one.

Kataskopos

definitely eight hours and 250 compensation ... i dount a3 will give you issues, they are extremely professional

Arrivals

Isn't SKG-ATH-AMS (even SKG-AMS) longer than 1500km, thus 400 € in compensation? Which leg is to calculate for that matter? SKG-ATH only?

nufnuf77

You calculate the total distance origin to destination hence SKG-AMS without the intermediate points.

it would be €400, but I think it's extraordinary as none of this would have happened had the snow not been there and de-icing needed.