rapidex

Slightly off topic,but I need a little help.Mrs rapidex was delayed out of BKK on her way home with Finnair.This caused her to miss her HEL-LHR connection and forced an overnight in HEL.She was delayed about 12 hours,and put in a claim under EU261 for 600 Euros,which Finnair acknowledged receipt of.

We have been ignored by Finnair since,and as Finnair do not participate in CEDR,we wish to send a letter before action.Anybody have an UK address for Finnair?They have lots of form on this matter,but the ticket was purchased in the UK for LHR-HEL-BKK-HEL-LHR so I assume the UK courts have jurisdiction.

corporate-wage-slave

Finnair use this registered address with Companies House:
Finnair OYJ
ONEUSTONSQ
40 MELTON STREET
LONDON NW1 2FD

This is a well known mail drop location, so I'm sure it won't be processed there. It was changed to this address fairly recently, 1 October 2016.

rjn21

The Branch registration address which has to accept service of proceedings (I think) is FINNAIR OYJ
Oneuston Square (sic)
40 Melton Street
London
NW1 2FD

armouredant

(deleted - beaten to it)

rapidex

Thanks guys.Time to poke a stick in.

Aztec_Flyer

Hi all,

A delay to a recent DUB-LHR (BA827/26Feb) resulted in a mis-connect to my onward flight to MCT resulting in a 5.5 hour delay to final arrival into MCT.

I submitted an EU261 claim and have received the below reply:

"Thank you for your email regarding EU compensation in relation to the above flight. EU compensation is not payable, as I will explain in this email and so the claim is denied.

Flight BA0827 was delayed on 26 February due to mandatory security checks, and a rotational delay to the aircraft used to operate the previous flight. The previous flight BA0826 was delayed in London Heathrow due to queues at the Flight Connections Centre. This is out of the control of the airline, and there were no reasonable measures that could have been taken by British Airways to avoid the delay.

Since the delay of the flight was caused by a rotational delay due to queues in the airport and mandatory security checks, as set out in Recitals 14 and 15 of EC Regulation 261/2004, British Airways can prove the defence of “extraordinary circumstances” therefore no compensation is payable.

Thank you again for contacting us."

According to expertflyer the delay code attributed by BA to the outbound flight was "ZO" which is an operational delay. No code seems to be visible for the inbound (the sector I was on).

I don't believe that queues at the FCC or indeed anywhere in the airport would be deemed "exceptional circumstances". BA elected to delay the sector to wait for those customers so this was clearly within their control.

The second point about operational delays on earlier sectors also falls well short of the "exceptional circumstances" threshold in my opinion given it was much earlier in the day and a replacement aircraft could have been subbed in at LHR if BA wished.

Is this just a standard EU261 "go away" email or would anyone be of the view that the above are "exceptional"?

Thanks.

navylad

I think in your case I would reply back to BA and ask them to review their decision. Should you continue to disagree, I would then take it external to BA.

corporate-wage-slave

No, this is wrong. Basically whenever a verbose explanation is put into the system, and it doesn't immediately match with the wording the agent is looking for (e.g. technical problems), they tend to cut and paste some rubbish into the reply. This strikes me as falling well short on the "extraodinary criteria", before we even get to the "reasonable" sub-clause. Either ask for a deadlock letter (for CEDR) or give the 16 days notice that you will take further action unless nnn€ is paid. However - and this is difficult to be sure about since I don't see the precise timings here - if you were only slightly late into LHR and missed conformance by a few minutes, it's not difficult to blame ATC delays.

Aztec_Flyer

CWS the timings were:

Scheduled:
DUB-LHR: 1720-1850
LHR-MCT: 1950-0705

Actual:
DUB-LHR: 1832-2023
LHR-DXB: 2200-0845
DXB-MCT: 1115-1230

Thanks.

nufnuf77

Thanks CWS that is indeed an excellent summary you prepared there. Out of curiosity, what value would you put/how would you go about estimating - a joker (and potentially a GUF2) if that has been used too?

SchmeckFlyer

Flying ANU-LGW-AMS, I arrived late at my final destination at 2030 rather than 1400 as scheduled. Boarding at ANU was substantially delayed due to a medical emergency involving a passenger who had boarded in POS. As a result, arriving late into LGW and with rather slow security caused me to miss my onward connection to AMS. Due to full flights the rest of the day, I was rerouted from LHR. As icing on the cake, my bags were "hopelessly lost somewhere in the airport" so was advised to continue onto LHR rather than wait and risk missing my new flight.

I figured compensation would not be awarded in this case as BA can hardly be held responsible for a medical emergency or for keeping the aircraft empty while dealing with said emergency. It also seemed genuine, as paramedics were called and I saw a passenger removed on a gurney attached to oxygen. So I assumed this falls into the category of extraordinary circumstance". However, the other half disagrees and thinks I should give compensation a go. If only to see if this would be considered out of the airline's control.

As a side note, BA staff were very good to me when dealing with the delay at Gatwick. Coming back from holiday I tried to remain zen and not worry too much. An agent escorted me personally to the gate of my original flight while trying to hold the aircraft on the phone. When that failed, I was quickly rerouted with no fuss with profuse apologies for having to go to Heathrow. Someone from customer service (not special services) escorted me all the way through immigration (long queues due to failure of computer systems) and refusal to let me jump the queue, then helped me deal with the bagage situation and made sure I quickly got onto the coach to Heathrow after customs. She was tethered to me for a good 90 minutes and had lots of interesting things to say about BA at Gatwick. Someone from bagage also personally went looking for my bag behind the scenes. And this was all 'normal' staff and nothing in the lounge or to do with special services or whatever.

UKtravelbear

There is nothing to stop your wife making her own separate claim should she wish.

Personally I'm with you in the not claiming for this camp as this was out of BAs control with the medical issue.

BA are of course responsible to pay for the National Express coach to LHR - that's if they didn't give you / the driver some sort of voucher.

armouredant

Medical emergencies are definitely extraordinary circumstances.

sueco6

Hi everyone.
My flight BA780 to Stockholm was cancelled today and I am rerouted meaning I will arrive around 7 hours late to my destination.
Does anyone know the reason for the cancellation (strike) ?? Important because I wonder if I am entitled to get any compensation...
Grateful for any reply, thx.

1210mk2

BA1321 12-Feb, 2 hour delay, missed my LHR connection on CX. Ended up on virgin 10 hours later. Anyone know reason for the delay? BA already taken 2 weeks with no reply on EU261 claim.