Hello!
I've been reading a lot but I'm still struggling to figure out what I am entitled to. I booked a multi-city flight with BA.
The departing leg of the trip had a take off on September 17th from SAN and was expected to land in SAW on September 18th at 13:45:
SAN -> ORD via BA 5552
ORD -> LHR via BA 294
LHR -> SAW via BA 602
The flight from ORD to LHR was delayed, no reason given. This caused us to missed our connecting flight at LHR which resulted in the following itinerary:
SAN -> ORD via BA 5552
ORD -> LHR via BA 294
LHR -> SAW via BA 602
LHR -> STR via BA 918
STR -> SAW via TK 7751
The STR -> SAW flight was scheduled to land 17:35, close to four hours after the originally scheduled arrival time. I don't have any history on when we actually arrived, but I don't recall it being earlier than the expected time.
The return leg of the trip had a take off on October 10th from AMM and was expected to land in SAN on October 10th at 17:05:
AMM -> LHR via BA 313
LHR -> SAN via BA 273
The flight from AMM -> LHR was delayed. This was due to the pilot's decision to fly around the Israel/Gaza conflict that had broken out a couple days before. The same flight on the 8th and the 9th did not do this, though. This resulted in us missing our connecting flight to SAN at LHR. BA put us on a flight to SAN as shown below. This change would have gotten us to SAN on October 10th at 23:57
AMM -> LHR via BA 313
LHR -> SAN via BA 273
LHR -> SEA via BA 049
SEA -> SAN via AS 1129
Unfortunately, the flight from SEA -> SAN was delayed. The reason I heard other passengers say was the plane had been struck by lightning on the incoming flight. That flight was set to depart at 16:10 but ended up departing at 19:47 and we landed 3 hours 41 minutes late in SEA. This in turn made us miss our SAN flight in SEA and had to spend the night in SEA. We ended up arriving in SAN on October 11th at 09:45, more 16 hours and 40 mins later than originally scheduled.
I originally filed only for compensation for expenses incurred due to lodging in SEA and meals. I also filed a claim for the specific delay from LHR -> SEA. BA agreed to reimburse me for the lodging and meal expenses, but declined the delayed compensation claim saying:
Your claim's been refused because BA0049 on 10 October 2023 was delayed because the aircraft that was due to operate your flight experienced a lightning strike whilst operating the previous flight. As a result of this, mandatory inspections had to be carried out. These generally take around four hours and have to be completed before the aircraft can operate. During the inspections, damage to the aircraft was found, which meant repairs had to be carried out and the aircraft had to be changed as the original aircraft could not operate. We take all reasonable measures to avoid disruption to a flight and we always consider if there are any other alternative solutions before we make a decision. The delay was out of our control and caused unforeseen disruption to our schedule.
After reading the start of the thread, I believe I am entitled for compensation on both flights as our expected arrival times at the final destination were many hours than originally scheduled. Both flights were booked using Chase Travel and all flights were managed by BA.
Myself and a family member were impacted by both of these delays, so I think it may be a significant sum of money we could be entitled to. Worth noting that I live in the USA and am USA citizen while my family member lives in Mexico and is a Mexican citizen.
I would appreciate any guidance on how to proceed.
Thank you.