Originally Posted by
HarryKUK
They are claiming compensation off United (not via EU261 as that doesn’t apply, just via their own customer relations policy) as they are the ones at fault, but I just wondered purely out of my own curiosity what EU261 says about the move from United to the first BA to the second BA flight - would this be considered IDB from the first BA flight or would they argue this isn’t BA’s issue since United (a non EU carrier) was to blame initially and hence EU261 doesn’t apply here?
I suspect it won't be regarded as IDB, but there is certainly an argument that could be played out. I don't think it's an entirely clear case. The argument for denying compensation is that I would be pretty sure that BA did not accept the reservation, at least at the ticketing level, but UA got a reservation in anyway via a ropey GDS interface. So presumably the customer never had an e-ticket saying "you are on BAnnn". And at that point EC261 would not apply. On the other hand, the internal machinations of the inter-airline ticketing are not the concern of the passenger, and since EC261 is all about protecting the customer's interest, plus he or she may have had some PNR printout saying "you are on BAnnn", then BA may have been on the hook here, somewhat unfairly perhaps, assuming the judge was minded in a conflicted set of arguments to go to the Regulation's underlying bias.