I flew on 28 Apr AZ 603 JFK-FCO, connecting on 29 Apr to FCO-BCN on AZ 74 (45 minute planned connection time, which they sold me on one ticket).

JFK-FCO on AZ 603, scheduled departure at 17:40 ended up departing at 17:56 and arriving at 08:48+1 according to FlightRadar24. As AZ 74 departs at 9:00, I obviously could not make that flight. For comparison, DL 182 (JFK-FCO) departed at 17:57 and arrived at 08:15+1. For some reason, although AZ 603 normally takes between 7h45 - 8h05 to arrive, my flight took 8h53 on 28 Apr.

I was rebooked onto AZ 76, thus arriving 4h57 after my scheduled arrival time (15:47+1 vs. 10:50). I was refused alternatives to move me onto other flights by VY, IB, and even an additional connecting AF flight that would have gotten me there earlier. I had even asked about LH and KL alternatives but those would've gotten me to BCN at a similar time as AZ 76 so I didn't push those points.

The rejected reason was for "air traffic control reasons" however I do not see why the significantly northern route they took vs. the usual routings of +/-3 days or even vs. DL (we went north into Greenalnd and Iceland) would have been ATC restrictions -- it seems to this layman that route was the flight plan ITA filed. Adding onto this the inflexibility of the Customer Team rebooking me onto alternatives that would have gotten me to BCN earlier, is why I put in the EC261 claim.