Originally Posted by
sehgalanuj
I did quite a bit of reading on this topic, and the established case law is that even if the original delay was due to extraordinary circumstances, the follow on does matter. But, what happens is that the amount of delay caused by the extraordinary circumstances should be subtracted. If the leftover is still over the threshold, then compensation remains due.
Which still puts your case into the "does not matter" category, every case have to be weighed on its own, "extraordinary circumstances" does not give the airline blanket immunity to just do whatever they wish, but in some cases there is just no way within their control to get passengers to their destination within 3 hours once "extraordinary circumstances" happen.
I think even with CDG being their home base, finding an alternative aircraft and moving all pax over would have taken longer than 2 hours, where as for example rerouting passengers with onwards connecting flights could still be doable in a way that allows them to get to their destination on time, this could have been done as early as T-48
I personally find KL/AF to be fairly decent in not pulling the "extraordinary circumstances" card but this is indeed a bit of an unusual case, I would personally take it up further through mediation, at the very least to get an unbiased, free, legal opinion
Originally Posted by
sehgalanuj
- Two days before departure AF extended the flying time by 1hr, making the arrival 23:50, because as per their phone call to me they were going to fly a longer route due to not flying over Pakistani airspace.
I would consider this to be a very important piece of information, if they decided already 2 days prior then it's not extraordinary in any way, these things happen all the time in recent years due to various conflicts which are impacting routes to Asia for EU carriers, IMHO this is fully "operational reasons"
Originally Posted by
sehgalanuj
Also, yes, I come across as not too kind (keeping it PG for the Internet audience
) for trying to pursue an EC261 compensation for something just 2 mins above the threshold. But, I also ask, would they be willing to compensate me if we arrived just 2 mins under threshold?
I would have done exactly the same