Newly Wed

Many years ago, Mr NW and I missed a flight to Kenya due to an extraordinary delay on the M25. Having left ourselves plenty of time with the aim of arriving at the airport around 2 hours before departure, the M25 was completely closed by an accident and we were stuck just outside Clacket Lane Services for the best part of 6 hours, arriving at LHR several hours after our flight had departed. We called BA several times enroute to try to get re-booked and were told there was nothing that could be done until we reached the airport. On arrival at the airport we were met with sympathy and put on standby for a Kenya Airways flight for later that day, and when that flight left full we were transferred onto the BA flight the following day. This is the sort of scenario that the CoC is aimed at although we were totally at the mercy of BA to help us out. Heavy London traffic and problems with hire cars do not, in my constitute events beyond a PAX's control.

Dave Noble

The wording is extremely similar to that used to EC261 for eligibility for compensation

Events beyond your control - unusual and unforeseeable circumstances which you cannot control and the consequences of which you could not have avoided even if you had taken all due care.
vs
event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken

If an aeroplane having a mechanical failure is not covered by such an exclusion, then a mechanical breakdown/flat tyre of a car would surely be in the same situation

mec72

Happened to me once and BA re-accomodated me with not issues. I was actually at the airport but only when I went to the visa/passport check I realized that I had left my passport in the drawer at work... My colleague was frantically trying to make it to the airport to deliver it to me but by the time she got there, I missed conformance by a few minutes. I was put on the next service with availability (which was on the next day), which I considered to be a very good outcome given that was a J ticket booked with Avios.

HilFly

Seems only fair to let the passengers use the same list of things that BA uses for extraordinary circumastances beyond their control. Snow, ice, wind, rain, knock on delays, poor planning, it's busy, traffic, strikes, didn't have enough equipment.......the list of BA excuses seems endless.

adrianlondon

Late arrival of incoming from the pub the night before causing a knock-on delay.

englisha

What about if you had a connecting flight on a separate ticket that was delayed? Could you try invoking this rule in that situation?

Dave Noble

Except that items such as mechanical issues have been ruled not to be exceptional circumstances for EC261 - when BA says no , then what?

I agree that it seems fair that what is exceptional when expecting compensation from an airline, that same would apply when wanting help for ones own issues

corporate-wage-slave

You can try but unlikely to be successful that often. If it's a longhaul to shorthaul the airport agents may give some leeway, ditto with status, but flights being 3 hours late isn't unusual / unforeseeable in my book. Essentially you are on you own here, you may have some comeback under travel insurance, it may be the check-in agent is helpful or only charges a change fee. It may be there is some low cost alternative (e.g. the Avios route) which means that self insurance is OK - if you save £100 each time then nine times it will work, one time you may end up paying £200 sort of logic.

cgtechuk

Wow thanks everyone for your replies

To clarify a few points everything was Avios, The original ticket, The replacement ticket which makes it a lot easier to swallow, I guess it depends who you get at the check in desk. They weren't interested even when the flght I was supposed to be on was in fact still on the ground and delayed lol.

I have put in a complaint about the lack of meal so will see what comes of that , be nice to get some of the avios back but suppose I also get their argument its not their fault my hire car chucked it but on the same breath it isnt my fault either as I took all reasonable steps , Booked a reputable company, Left plenty time either side etc I was just unlucky.

1Aturnleft

I was going to go all travel insurance on you in this situation but having just checked the small print of my annual policy, flat tyres and running out of fuel are specifically excluded in this situation. Other mechanical breakdowns and being stuck in traffic is deemed acceptable for making a claim however. Although for an avios redemption, the cash outlay for a new ticket is less than the excess.
Armed with all this info and if I were in your predicament I'd probably just suck it up and put it all down to experience. I'd stick an avios claim in for the lack of meal however because aircraft are catered ex LHR so there is no excuse here really.

flatlander

... and try to get the English callcenter (call the gold or silver number) not the Indian one who don't have a clue about putting notes on the PNR and won't do anything.

That was my experience 3 months ago; Ms F called and got an Indian who did nothing useful. I called the Silver line and got a Northern Briton who understood what was being asked and added a note.

Often1

Or perhaps she got an incompetent and unhelpful person while you were lucky enough to get someone competent and helpful. Neither having anything to do with race or national origin.

rcspeirs

Slightly drifting off topic, but flat tyres are much more inconvenient these days. Virtually all cars on hire fleets don't have a spare the days, just a tube of useless gunk that never fixes anything.

cgtechuk

In this case the car didn't have a flat tyre I just used the expression as that is used as that is what the rule is known round here as, The car did have issues though which prevented me getting back in time

Littlegirl

Not sure I understand why there was no food for you as out of LHR we always get topped up to the actual passenger load no matter when you purchase your ticket.

downroute is another matter, we cannot get topped up once the outbound sector has left LHR, so this can happen when not at LHR.

Stock permitting, we can now offer something from the M&S range where a meal has not been loaded.