luxoitalia

Hi everybody.
On the 26th of November I had an overnight delay in LHR with BA57 to JNB. I claimed via BA website for the €600 per person but after more than one month I had no answer to my request. I am a Gold member and I am wondering if is normal to wait this long.

Thank you

Tobias-UK

What was the reason for the delay?

simons1

Not normal, but it happens.

Worth chasing again using the webform on the BA website. Or you could try Twitter. If no luck after 14 days just go to MCOL rather than continue wasting your time on it.

luxoitalia

Tech reason.

Boeing Fred

Would like some advice on our situation, which was handled very badly on the day.

Waiting for flight from BAH-LHR (0150 departure) and watching the arriving aircraft on Flight Radar circling around (fog related) before disappearing off to the Northwest eventually landing in KWI. We were told aircraft was going to refuel in KWI then head back to BAH around 0400. New departure 0530.

Around 0300 we were told flight was now cancelled but we could be re-routed on the previous day's flight that also diverted to KWI the day before. This departure time was now 0915. We needed to get home so we volunteered to be re-routed on this flight and had to surrender our boarding cards and passports to the lounge agent and BA agent would return our passports and new boarding cards to the lounge after an hour or so. 0400 no news, 0500 no news, 0600 no news, 0700 no news, 0800 no news, 0900 aircraft finally lands from KWI. Around 1000 told by lounge staff to rush to the gate where our boarding cards and passports would be. Got to the gate which was carnage. Had to insist on going through secondary security screening despite them insisting we couldn't as we had no passports or boarding cards. At the desk it was a joke, no passports or boarding cards were there. A first round of cards and passports arrived. We were family of four, only two lots arrived. Next lot arrived and we were all complete. Went through and were bussed out. We were the last lot to get on and they must have left 50 pax behind at the gate as the door was shut and we pushed back at 1220.

We got going and 5 hours into the flight the Skipper comes on saying they have run out of hours and we were diverting to CDG for crew change and refuel. Landed in CDG at 1716. After crew change and refuel we departed at 1843 and landed into LHR at 1900. So almost 13 hours later than we should have. Original delay on original flight was due to fog, however the crew on the rerouted flight had their call times changed in KWI, the mess at the departure gate delaying the flight further and then the diversion to CDG. Anyone think the EC261 comp would apply in this situation?

Otherwise apart from the luggage not making the flight, eventually arriving over 24 hours later damaged beyond repair! And having pretty much no catering loaded in J or child meals loaded. All a separate claim, it was a great flight.....

Any advice appreciated?

navylad

I think this would very much be a grey area, I would request it- giving a detailed report with as much information as you can to BA and see what they say. Ultimately, however, it was a factor that was outside the control of the airline that instigated the issues although handled badly, I suspect that DOC only plus a token Avios gesture will be what comes of it.

Ultimately, you may wish to pursue this through arbitration or judicial review, but it probably isn't going to be worth it for something which would only aim to provide some clarity on the regulations rather than being out of principle.

corporate-wage-slave

It was certainly a very poor experience but in that list the only component which is clearly in scope for EC261 is the gate hassle. If that aspect alone added 3 hours then you seem to be eligible. From London you may have had wider coverage but essentially this looks like weather / ATC to me.

Boeing Fred

The extended delay at the gate waiting for passports and boarding cards effectively delayed the departure of the flight to the point that the crew ran out of hours to get the flight all the way to LHR which necessitated the diversion to CDG to change crew. So effectively a knock on effect. Still worth a punt?

corporate-wage-slave

Possibly, yes. I can't believe BA will agree and just send you the money, but if you get as much data, times, background etc as you can, and if you have a lot of persistence then you may get somewhere. Essentially you are in the process of carving out the "extraordinary circumstances" aspects and timings from the rest, and though I don't want you to have a false sense of optimism here, nevertheless logically I can see this being arguable.

Skimanant

Any opinions on this?
First flight cancelled, due to fog on 29 Dec. I can understand that. Rebooked on evening flight. Waited in airport all day, and was then cancelled. A bit questionable as weather better. Booked onto flight next day. Flight next day also cancelled. Weather much better ( one of the few cancellations that day), so suspect plane on wrong place or crew issue. The actual aircraft flew other flights that day from the same airport.
Can I claim for the last of these delays?
We then finally flew in the evening on the following day (4th time lucky!).

navylad

I suspect not, if the fog had displaced the plane for the subsequent flights even though the weather improved, the route cause was still extraordinary circumstances of the weather. Glad you got the flight eventually however and obviously you still got duty of care.

UKtravelbear

I assume you mean MCOL. Judicial Review is somethibg totally different and only applies to reviewing government decisions!

navylad

small j small r

simons1

Options are MCOL, or arbitration through CEDR.

The CAA will not consider the complaint if the airline is a member of an arbitration scheme and there is no such thing as "judicial review" regardless of capitals or not.

I doubt either of the last two cases have much mileage, BA will probably fall back on dislocation caused by extreme weather - in the Bahrain case the poster might have an outside chance of an argument if it really can be proved that the crew call time was unreasonably delayed earlier in the day. However I think we would likely find that was in turn caused by the previous day's issues when flights were diverted around the Gulf due to fog.

Globaliser

Whether written as "Judicial Review" or "judicial review" (and it's much more common to see the latter), the term has a specific meaning. It does not have a generic meaning of "a judge will take a look". As UKtravelbear says, it's a procedure that's completely inapplicable to cases like this. Using this term is liable simply to cause confusion.