Greg_Morris

08.01. MUC-LHR-MIA

Good evening gents,

so i had a curious case today with BA and i was not able to reach anyone who could advise me on requesting compensation and inform me what happened, herein the story:

I was on a connecting flight with BA from MUC-LHR on the 08.01. scheduled to depart 1045 local time. Unfortunately there was almost a 1,5hr delay due to snow though the flight attendant had a list of passengers that would not make their connection and i was not on that list, so far so good.

Upon arrival i rushed to Terminal 3 being delayed by painfully slow and intense security, having a mile jog to the final gate which was still open and received passengers. The flight to MIA was delayed by an hour as well.

Once the lady at the counter scanned my boarding pass it gave a red signal and upon my inquiry if i my seat was changed she denied. After calling her manager they found that i was not registered on this flight although i had the correct boarding pass.

Forward to me approaching customer service they further mentioned according to the computer system i was booked on LHR-MIA at 0900am London time which is obviously impossible. She could not find any reason for it and i was given a Hotel voucher and rebooked to the morning flight a day later.

Additional:
The checkin lady in MUC upon my request for emergency seat advised me that economy was fully booked or overbooked and i had good chances to being opped up due to my sapphire status.
She did change my seat to a middle row bassinet seat on the upper deck which was the best option at the time.

Might the lady in MUC have screwed up?
Was there a serious computer glitch?

As far as i gathered i would be eligible to receive 600€ compensation. Appreciate your advise if this is correct and what the correct and most efficient course of action would be.

Many thanks,
Greg

scillyisles

my suspicion would be that he missed conformance and therefore was offloaded.
Others will be able to detail more accurately the conformance details but in essence at LHR you have to get through security a certain time before the scheduled flight time irrespective of if the flight is actually delayed.

eefor jfp

OP, conformance is probably the issue here, as scillyisles mentioned (you have to get through security within 30 minutes of the original flight time or your seat is cancelled, even if you actually make the flight). Duty of care was provided (hotel and meals). The issue is whether or not a weather delay will allow you to claim compensation under EU261. The answer is usually not.

Washington DC

This was T3, he wasn't stopped at the terminal so satisfied all requirements for boarding. Someone shifted his reservation, maybe trying to be helpful, but moved it to a flight in the past.

Time to claim EU261 for IDB.

Filthy Monkey

Yes, definitely no conformance issue in T3. If the OP presented himself for boarding in time, he should not have been denied. Definite case for EU261, although BA will try to claim weather issues.

rossmacd

There is no conformance criteria in T3.

The OP's seat was given to someone else. Time to claim IDB.

littlefish

Ok.
BA949 MUC-LHR arrived T5 at 13:02, just over an hour late.

BA209 LHR-MIA (the A380) was due to dep ex-T3 at 13:40. It actually departed at 14:40.

We do not know what time the OP arrived at first BA contact at T3.

No doubt those with knowledge of processes and such can add in what the OP could have done.
For me, not sure here. I'd expect my connection to have been 're-booked' by the computer and I'd have been on the blower PDQ after landing at T5 and finding the 209 was delayed.
I understood no conformance per se at T3.
Not sure alternative routings to MIA after the 209 (the last of the four direct JBA flights of the day IIRC).
But when, strictly, is the deadline to present yourself at the gate? would 20 mins prior to revised departure suffice?

rossmacd

Got in before me, but completely agree!

corporate-wage-slave

It looks like IDB to me. You may have to work it a bit, BA don't like paying IDB, but this precise scenario was the subject of a Court of Justice of the European Union case, and IDB was deemed payable (by Iberia, at it happens). More details in the EC261 thread in the Dashboard which gives the precise steps you now need to take.

Greg_Morris

Thank you for the responses so far.

To add more:

I arrived at the gate shortly before 1400.
The screen for this flight was marked "flight closing" though once i arrived at the gate there were still about 20-30 passengers to have their boarding passes scanned and board the plane so i assume i was not late, not considering conformance here if that would matter.

The odd thing as mentioned was that even the gate agents and customer service agents were confused that they could not find me on that particular flight at all, instead they found me on the 9am flight LHR-MIA.

What is the best way to claim IDB and how to react if BA wants to blame the weather for it?

henkybaby

My guess is that the computer offloaded the OP before any human being ever looked at the booking.

IF feeder flight delayed THEN connection no longer possible NEXT offload the pax

Unfortunately doesn't take delays on your next flight into account. If that flight was oversold, they may have already given your seat to someone else so nothing they can do at the gate either.

BA will (successfully) claim weather as cause of the delay of your first flight and argue that you were justifiably offloaded. This I give little chance for compensation.

LTN Phobia

It sounds to me that the arrival of the OP's MUC-LHR fell well below the MCT for T5 to T3 and therefore the OP was offloaded (automated process, possibly?), possibly while he was in flight.

MUC to LHR appears to have arrived at 13:08.
I assume the LHR-MIA OP was booked on was the one scheduled to depart at 13:40. That would have left 32 minutes to get from T5 to T3, through the security and to the gate. That's well below the MCT and most likely below what is realistically achievable by a human being.

I assume that BA (or its computer system) worked on the assumption of LHR-MIA being on time at the time of the offload (or a lesser delay with which the OP wouldn't have made LHR-MIA in time).

So, my thinking is that by the time he got to the gate, he had already been offloaded because the delay to the MUC-LHR flight the OP was on would have rendered the connection impossible.

Greg_Morris

Sounds perfectly reasonable, still does not explain why they found me on an earlier flight at 9am rather than 1330pm. I assume offloading due to mentioned reasons at least would be clear to the agents to enable them to give me a clear reason?

Washington DC

If it was done by computer, why did they shift him to the morning flight?

You'll need to claim EU261 online via ba.com - making sure you're clear what you're requesting (only needs a couple of sentances). If you don't get what you want, post here and we can advise - BA are well known for not following the law in these sorts of situations as they try to save cash wherever possible.

henkybaby

Maybe they just misread the date... You got that information from a human being after all. Probably they found you on the 9AM flight for the next day.