Sorry, indeed should have been clearer.

Flight in the end was 5 hours late. After around 2 hours we were off loaded, and told there would be an additional 3-4 hour delay to get a new aircraft ready, new crew etc etc.

So around the 2.5 hour mark I made the decision to be offloaded, and put on the next days morning flight.

Sorry, I meant two entirely separate things, i.e. one being route-specific things, and another being variants. I have no idea if BA would do a specific check on variants but I know some airlines do.

Saying 5hat, it appears to be immaterial in the relevant flight because apparently it was the same crew after all.

I recently had two 10+ hour flights in World Traveller Plus where both had broken entertainment, the first only had sound in the right channel with the left either being feedback or silence (it wasnt the headphones and all the cabin crew could do was reboot the box) and the second, games were unplayable as the controller was broken and wouldnt turn left or right.

Is it worth/should I be asking for some form of compensation for this? On the one side it seems like relatively small things, but on the other, they charge enough that they should be providing working equipment. If so, what type of compensation would be typical?

Hello slidey, this is probably a better thread for you to look in / post in:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...tion-what.html

I encountered this situation this past Sunday (Nov. 18, 2018), I was flying BA-operated (AA ticketed, econ award flight) LIN-LHR-LAX. It was already a tight connection (~1 hour) but the flight crew didn't take off from LIN on time, citing overcrowding at LHR and that "everyone is delayed." We sat on the tarmac for a good 30 minutes before being allowed to take off. We then flew into LHR and deboarded fairly quickly. At the gate, I was surprised there wasn't an escort for my tight connection, as there were several of us heading to LAX. I run for the gate. At the security check line, I was stopped and told that it was too late to get on my flight, and told to turn around and go to BA customer service.

BA customer service had auto-rebooked me for the flight going out tomorrow, but I asked for help to try to get on an earlier flight. There was an earlier AA flight with a connection at JFK, but the agent advised that I probably wouldn't make that one either, given that it closes in 20 minutes and it was in a different terminal. So I accept the next-day rebooking, and get hotel and shuttle vouchers for Holiday Inn T5. I arrive in LAX next day a full 24 hours late.

I tried 3 sets of customer service and gate agents to try to get documentation (military excuse) of the delay. I was refused every step of the way. The first couple were empathetic and I heard mutterings of "cancellation" when they looked at the records, and told me that they aren't allowed to print anything out. The second set of customer service agents also told me that they couldn't print anything out, and that I should just screenshot documentation from a Google search. The third set of agents (gate agents) looked at everything, was ready to print it out, then told me it doesn't seem like it will help because there's no documentation of the delay and that I'm better off contacting BA customer service online for documentation.

I think my next step is applying for the 600 euro compensation via the BA website. I also incurred some minor other expenses during the delay (a meal, extra cat sitting services, and my Lyft home from the airport, ~$100). I'm not 100% certain that I'm eligible for compensation because I'm uncertain whether my situation was an extraordinary circumstance. I'm also not sure if I should apply for just the 600 euro compensation or also apply for the minor other expenses. Of course I'd rather just get the full 600 euro compensation.

ETA: I'm not 100% certain, but I thought the original LHR-LAX flight was supposed to be an a A830 but on Monday, we flew on an older 747, with more than 90+ seats open. Could this also be an overboarding situation to move pax off of a full flight?

It wouldn't be the latter, since IDB would then kick in for sure, at 600€ a pot. In any case for the recent LAX swaps from A380 to B747 BA called up point to point customers and made them offers.

For the issue from LIN to LHR, if you ask here within 48 hours, we can see the full dispatch notes of the flight in question, though they aren't always that informative. Now if we use high level information, and I'm having to guess the flight timings here, but I'm guessing you were on BA577 from Linate, which was scheduled in at 14:25, to connect at 15:30 for the LAX departure. And on Sunday you arrived at 14:58. You needed to be at the Flight Connection scan point for 14:55, so there was no way you were going to make that connection. All the later LIN flights were between 24 and 48 minutes late, so I think the ATC congestion was going to be a factor here, and therefore I can't personally see you getting Article 7 compensation here. There is a heap of other evidence of delays at that time (e.g. EuroControl's Twitter feed states that there were moderate delays due to aerodrome capacity issues).

You could ask anyway, just in case I'm wrong, but I'd be surprised if you get anything other than an apology. For the other expenses, you best talk to your travel insurers for the consequential losses (cat sitting) but for the meal you should be able to claim that and the taxi may be claimable if there were specific reasons behind that.

Wow, thanks for the fast reply @corporate-wage-slave. I will try anyway, I guess, but it's good not to get my hopes up. I wish I had known ahead of time that you can see the full dispatch notes! Anyway your guesses of the flight timings is correct.

I might not be eligible for any kind of delay reimbursement from my Citi Prestige card, which I used to purchase the flights, because based on recent reports on missed connection delays, the insurer may likely claim it was just a 30 minute delay (min. delay is 6 hours to trigger travel delay insurance).

I would like to share my experience with BA. Had a flight booked on 787-900 to MSY New Orleans from LHR London in August. Flight was cancelled with 72 hours notice. The substitute flights were non-direct, via ORD Chicago arriving more than 5 hours earlier than scheduled. Under EU rules this would be entitled to €300 compensation per passenger.

When I tried to claim against BA they cited extraordinary circumstances to do with Trent 1000 engines. I persisted and they refused to budge. I have since issued a small claim and am in receipt of their defence. They are citing unexpected flight safety shortcomings due to failure of engines during inspection required by airworthyness directive issued 4 months prior by Rolls Royce. Which they refer to as a hidden manufacturing defect.

- While it cannot be argued that safety is important, the issue I have is that the flight should have been cancelled more than 14 days out thus not requiring them to compensate passengers at all. The airworthyness directive stated that Rolls-Royce expected 90% of the engines inspected to fail. Therefore there is a 10% chance an engine will pass so the chance that both would pass is 1%. (1/10)^2. Therefore undermining the defence of "Unexpected flight safety shortcoming".

As to citing that the engine troubles are a hidden manufacturing defect, given the time that had lapsed since the Airworthyness directive it's hard to define it as hidden 4 months later. Also several small claims cases have tried to define a hidden manufacturing defect and have found this defence can only be used if it's a defect that immediately impinges on flight safety. As the airworthyness directive had a set compliance time, BA would have to prove that it was put to inspection on the threshold of flight cycles on the outbound, or that the return flight would put it in breach of the threshold, otherwise the aircraft is deemed safe to fly by the AD. I would suggest the short nature of the cancellation was due to commercial reasons rather than anything else.

I will keep you updated but if you don't hear from me then it's likely that they've settled.

Thanks very much, I hope this works out for you, and I hope you have looked at the CEDR findings up thread, since I think that will help you here. And welcome to Flyertalk and the BA , forum, seagull88, by all means keep your oar in the rest of the forum too.

Missed connection
 

Hi, posted in a different section and was told this is the right place - hope you can help!

Over a month ago I traveled NCL-LON-BUE with BA. The NCL-LON flight was delayed and while on the plane he crew cabin told us we would miss our connection and we should go to the desk to arrange re-routing, etc.
We did this and were put on a 6am flight via MAD; we finally arrived to BUE 14hr late.

I filed a claim with BA, who got back to me saying:
a) "the flight was delayed due to rotation of the aircraft which prevented the aircraft operating as scheduled. Under EU legislation, I’m afraid we’re not liable for a compensation payment in this situation."
but also:
b) "although the flight was delayed, you still landed with 60 minutes to connect to your other flight, the minimum connection time for this connection is also 60 minutes."

I am not sure where they get this 60min figure - according to flighAware we landed at 9:32pm and arrived to the gate at 9:47pm. I know we didn't make it into the terminal until after 10pm. The LON-BUE flight was at 10:25pm.
It is true we didn't try to make the connection, but I had been told I should go to the BA desk immediately to make sure we were given alternative arrangements and given accommodation etc. I was with my 6yo son and wanted to get this sorted asap.

I am going to write to BA asking where the 60min figure comes from but was also wondering about their first excuse re. the rotation of aircraft. My understanding, although I might be wrong, is that they are still liable in this case? If so, how should I word it?

Many thanks!

(also, out of curiosity - if you miss your connection because you were late - would they provide accommodation for the night at their expense?)

The rotation argument is nonsense. Unless there were exceptional circumstances, however even then I believe delays on previous flights are not a valid reason.

Anyway remember it is BA responsibility to provide proof. So just write a simple letter just stating the facts.

Our flight from NCL was delayed and we arrived at x, which was y late. As a result we were told by CC we had missed our connection to Buenos Aires departing at z and reported to connections desk as instructed where we were rerouted via Madrid and arrived c hours late.

I submit my claim for EC261 compensation of €600 plus the following duty of care expenses[list].

If BA fob you off then get a deadlock letter and go straight on to CEDR. Keep all your notes of what happened, who said what and when as these will be helpful.

If you were late for a flight it's generally your problem/cost. If BA cause you to miss the flight it's their problem/cost. You can see why they have a tendency to get confused.....

Now can I just check where you went to here? Is it to the desk immediately to the left of Flight Connection scan point for entry into T5? So a fairly short distance after the airbridge? It looks to me that if you arrived on an NCL flight at 21:47, you needed to go through that scan point by 21:50 to make the flight, and I'm guessing at least one person on your flight managed that. So you only just missed it. Moreover the desk on the left could have rung up, or advised you to go through the checkpoint, unless perhaps you were queuing up a long time at that desk (unlikely at that hour). Really the crew should have spotted this and moved you to the front of the aircraft since you must have missed the cut-off by seconds here. If you went somewhere else, then kindly clarify since that may change the line of argument.

I more-or-less go with simons1's response, my version would be to stick to the few key facts mentioned, 4 sentences should handle it. But add in something like "the response given earlier is not correct and therefore I will take this to CEDR unless you are able to review this. If you are unable to review this, kindly indicate that this is your final response so that I can take the matter to CEDR before the 8 week time limit under the deadlock provisions".

The rotational issue was simply incorrect unless there is something more to it, and the 35 minute cut off was avoidable had the cabin crew thought it through a bit more. For the benefit of anyone else really, it's best to raise this here within the first 48 hours - we could have dug out the records more and found out where the delay was, which could have been much earlier in the day.

I have a virtually identical complaint in with CEDR at the moment, and am about to update CEDR so they can move on with the complaint. If you don't mind, I may add some of your observations to my complaint. If you're interested, my thread about this is: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...sept-16-a.html

Post 1295 is your friend. The airline has known about the defects since Oct 2017 so cancelling a flight at 72 hours notice is not reasonable.

Many thanks simons1 and corporate-wage-slave

Ok, I must admit that I am not too sure where I was, but I know it was not the BA desk you mention.
When we came out of the bus into the terminal we were left on what it seemed like a one way corridor, there was no one there to help (as I was expecting) so I followed the crowd. There was probably a split at some point, but I know I didn't take the 'connections' route (as I had been told several times during the flight that I would not make it) so I must have just followed the way out?
Re. your comment about the crew - I asked them whether there was any chance I could make it if I run, and whether they could make the plane wait for us, etc, but they were adamant I would not make it. They even told me which flight they would put me on instead.

Sorry, not sure I follow the issue re the 48hr?