orbitmic

Yesterday, my flight was delayed for over 4h30 due to a mechanical issue. The plane left, leisurely taxied, stopped, taxied, stopped for about 40 minutes until the first officer made an announcement that a fault had been detected, took us back to the gate, kept us onboard, and finally, after I pointed out to the crew that the app now showed a departure more than 2 hours later, let us all off at the B gates (asking us not to go elsewhere in the terminal) where small vouchers were handed to passengers not eligible for lounge access..

It is a very straightforward case of EC261. The delay largely exceeds the required 3 hours for the distance, it was due to a mechanical fault, which is a 'black and white' case of airline responsibility for the purposes of the regulation. BA did what it had to in terms of duty of care if minimally so (no vouchers for C pax and Y pax apparently got Ł10, which won't get you a huge amount for a 4h30 delay. Onboard bar was open but paid for for those who wanted to get something whilst stuck onboard, except just before deboarding (well over 2 hours after ETD, when glasses of water were finally handed out.) so no issue there. However, they certainly did not make any effort to alert passengers with regards to their compensation rights. Now, I know the drill, BA will explain that the information is available on their website, and information might have been available at check in counters, but entitlement to compensation was certainly not mentioned in any of the announcements made, nor visible at the gate where we reboarded, nor mentioned on that occasion when boarding was called, nor during any of the crew messages detailing the delay. I happen to think that this is probably not really the spirit of the law, and that where the regulation mentions a duty of information, what the legislator intended was probably that in a case like this, an airline would actually tell the passengers that due to the length and nature of the delay, they would be eligble for compensation and how to claim it.

Either way, it is clear that the vast majority of people on the flight had no clue whatsoever about that, and I have no doubt that most of them will miss out on the compensation rightly owed to them. Hence my question: what do you do then? Do you step in for the airline, and tell as many people as possible that they should claim because quite frankly, that is their right and it seems unfair that airlines count on customers' ignorance to lower their regulatory bill? Or do you shut up because this is none of your business and you are not there to sort out the world?

However silly it might seem, this felt like a genuine ethical dilemma to me (and since the BA forum seems to be keen on ethical dilemma threads at the moment, I thought I might as well add another one! . ) I did not create a placard or play revolutionary leader by shouting to people about their rights. However, I did specifically mention it to the one girl of 15 or so who was travelling on her own on the other side of the aisle and seemed pretty panicked and whom I thought would have no chance of knowing her rights otherwise, and to the elderly couple sat behind us who asked me if I thought that BA would pay for a taxi as it would be too late for their son to pick them up when we'd finally arrive. So I wonder how many of you good people would have told as many people as possible, said nothing and felt grateful that they know themselves, or like me gone for some hardly logical "in between" scenario of just telling specific people either because they befriended them onboard or because they "seemed" particularly vulnerable and ill-equipped to know otherwise, however impressionistic that assessment may be?

ds2016

I wouldn’t go banging on about it but would have no qualms about telling people in my immediate vicinity If it came up in conversation naturally.

T8191

In the first instance I would consider speaking to a senior crew member [particularly Flight Deck if available], explaining the situation and asking them to make an announcement. Otherwise, try to spread the word amongst fellow pax ... and I liked your targeted approach!

BA is really naughty in not making 261 clear to pax when these situations arise.

Worcester

The aim of the law was to get airlines to change their behavior by setting up incentives and disincentives. The more people claim the more the airline has the incentive to keep their aircraft well maintained. You could, therefore, be helping to save hundreds of lives.

Any minute now will be someone pointing out that all these claims will put up tickets prices (even though they can not cite any evidence for this) and we frequent flyers who know to claim anyway will be worse off. Personally, I prefer the socially responsible route.

A good example on corporate thinking can be found in the case of Grimshaw vs Ford not saying that BA would choose to be unsafe but they would make decisions based on their bottom line rather than the interests of passengers (as they do when choosing not to be proactive in informing people of their passenger rights).

corporate-wage-slave

I think the obvious thing to do is to simply invite any fellow passengers to come to FT to find out more. [And other websites exist, I guess].

And I would tell someone who looked concerned in this situation, without making a bad situation worse by disrupting things, but this sort of thing applies to many things in life. Very few people claim the married/CP transfer personal allowance, for example, but it is mentioned on the self assessment forms, websites, financial websites, Moneybox and so on. How many people do their EH111 or even know what it is?

It's not clear from the wording but if it was LHR T5B, there is a sign about EC261 on every gate, I checked fairly recently. But as with many signs it's not often spotted. BA introduced new and fairly clear mention of EC261 during the OLCI process a few months ago too, and again I don't recall anyone mentioning the change here. I guess you would prefer it all to be automated, which in terms of public policy is probably best, accepting that the cost of travel would slightly increase as a result of that. The down side is that with many airlines operating very close to the wire, and many travellers close to the wire in terms of what they can afford to spend on travel, that too has potential downsides.

TabTraveller

If I worked for one of the claims management companies' marketing teams I might devise some sort of easily carried pack of thin business cards detailing how to claim and containing a referral code which I'd send out to frequent travellers. In the event of a delay, the person handing out the cards would get a small cut of the claims management fee, most people would claim whilst sitting on the plane using their mobile, and the airline might take its obligations a little more seriously.

TabTraveller

Oh and pay the card hander out people in avios to ensure they do it

T8191

Thanks for that image, c-w-s. ^

I confess I've never noticed it, but then we tend to do OLCI on autopilot these days.

I wonder how many people actually notice, or remember, that during the stress of a delay? It certainly doesn't seem to absolve BA from taking proactive action once the delay occurs.

the storm fisherman

Although this is "not"a true comparison but it is close enough. I travelled up to leeds over the christmas period and was delayed by an hour and 2 mins, but all credit to Virgin east coast trains they did annonce several times with all details on how to claim delay repay and it seemed that it was genuine rather than that very tight fistness of the airlines.

nufnuf77

I have to say I was impressed on delayed trains in the UK, the announcement is almost always made when delayed on how to request compensation. Wish Airlines did this too.

IAN-UK

For what it's worth, I think your handling was spot on - i.e. you did what I'd have done

EsherFlyer

I'd have probably asked CSM to make an announcement (or ask flight deck to do so) reminding passengers to check their rights to compensation using the signage at any gate, or on the BA website.

It'd be a shame if BA thought of this already, and crew are under instructions not to do this.

subject2load

Tobias-UK

I can't think of a single airline that does!

As CWS noted above, BA does have a notice at the check-in stage alerting passengers of what their rights are should there be problems while travelling, unlike many other carriers.

Speedbird92A