Originally Posted by
tspill
I put a claim in to Aer Lingus. Their response was that it is not their responsibility, but American Airlines as the operating airline for the flight that caused the problem (are they right in this?).
They actually do seem to be correct there; I don't have any relevant case law to cite, but this statement is from the
Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 :
§2.2.3. Application to operating air carriers
In accordance with Article 3(5), the operating air carrier is always responsible for the obligations under the Regulation
and not, for example, another air carrier which may have sold the ticket. The notion of operating air carrier is presented
in recital 7.
Aer Lingus, although they sold you the ticket, are therefore not under any obligations to you under the regulation due to the AA-operated MCO-PHL flight being delayed, causing you to miss your EI flight.
Because Regulation 261/2004 clearly indicates that it does not apply to non-community carriers (such as AA) except on flights that are within or departing from the EU, AA is absolutely not at all under any obligations to you under EC261/2004 for the delayed MCO-PHL flight.
It might be worth highlighting here that - unless you have a very good reason for picking such a routing - I would generally advise against such connecting itineraries; particularly when something goes wrong outside the EU, you have little or no recourse to the type of consumer protections you would have had you instead departed from MCO on a European airline. And given that AA were doing the rebooking - I'd have asked them to rebook me on a London-Belfast flight, rather than being dropped back to Dublin. The worst they could have said was "No" - and there was every chance they'd have just rebooked you onto a BA flight to Belfast without quibble.
Whether there is some law/regulation applicable in the US - particularly for the apparent downgrading (though my fear is that they somehow assume, or will argue that, you "accepted" the downgrade) - I do not know.
Originally Posted by
tspill
We had additional expenses for a meal in London and we had to rebook our bus from Dublin to home in Belfast.
One final point - the fact that you missed your bus and had to buy a new ticket would not have been covered under any circumstances; even if EC261/2004 applied, any airline's duty of care to you under that regulation ends as soon as you arrive at your destination and there simply is no scope for them to have to reimburse you for missed tours/transport/other onwards tickets; that might, however, fall under the ambit of your travel insurance.