wijibintheair

Morning all.

A friend of mine arrived on BA from JNB yesterday (Saturday night's flight out of JNB - BA54 I believe). There was a young passenger who got sick on boarding the plane in JNB, turns out to be a nut allergy. Eventually it was decided that she should not fly, so she and parents deplaned and their baggage then needed to be off-loaded. Flight took off a little late, but made up some of the time en route to Heathrow. The plane landed just after 07h00. All's fine at this stage. However, then the delay began with the luggage. It appears as though when the bags were off-loaded in JNB that some mistake was made with replacing the luggage containers back on the plane. The end result was that the crew in LHR had problems accessing the luggage (I don't know the exact details but by all accounts quite a mess), and eventually the luggage came out around 11h30. My friend said she was going to complain to BA and ask them to cover the cost of her missed transport and new costs involved in getting to her final destination, and did I know where to start.

I honestly have no idea what the answer would be in this situation, and would ask all of you if you have any idea of what she should do? Thanks in advance for any advice.

corporate-wage-slave

Tricky one this. It's not covered by either EC261 or the Montr�al Convention. I think she could certainly ask for some gesture here, but unless she had status I doubt they would cover her costs here. Usually if baggage return is badly delayed BA give the offer of sending it on later by courier, so that's the usual remedy here. I was about to suggest she contact her travel insurers but I suspect that is out of scope for most insurance too.

Often1

There is no compensation as that is measured from the time the flight arrived (as measured by the first cabin door opened for passenger offloading). Baggage delivery delays are not covered.

The first place to turn for delay costs would be travel insurance as that would simply reimburse in cash equivalent the extra costs. However, few policies will cover separate ticket costs if that is what OP is speaking of.

BA may also choose to provide some small customer service gesture. But, that is discretionary and likely to be tied to status and cabin class and not much.

For the benefit of others, depending on where I was headed, I would simply advise BA that waiting is not possible and provide information for BA to deliver the bags in due course. I suspect that those passengers who asked had that arranged.

rog747

edited

I would put in a claim for all your lost expenses plus some decent gesture of good will,

Personally I would have left my bags there and just gone home, and let BA send them on...BUT some folk are not privy to that and stuck it out and waited and waited....

Best of luck - I would have been fuming....

Often1

This is incorrect. There is nothing murky and the peanut allergy is a red herring (or perhaps a fish allergy).

EU law on the point is clear (generally to the passenger's advantage). The flight arrived when the cabin door was first available for passenger offloading. Thus, even if there had been no allergic kid and the cargo doors had jammed on arrival, there is no compensation due under the Regulation.

The scenario you describe makes no sense. If the passenger had an onwards connection, he would not have been delayed by a delayed bag. Perhaps the bag would not have made the connection, and it would then have been for the final delivering carrier to deliver it. But, EC 261/2004 would not apply.

Best to stick to the simple and clear route of asking BA to make good on the expenses (which are consequential and it will not do) , but likely provide some smallish gesture such as a few avios.

UKtravelbear

cosmo74

I would put in a complaint to BA though the online form about the time that it took for bags to be delivered (the rest is all irrelevant). Include the amount she had to spend on her new travel arrangements and say that she would like to be reimbursed for these. If the "missed transport" is a pre-paid local taxi or a local train fare, I'm sure they will offer some level of Avios (if she wants cash she could try and push for this although may be unsuccessful), if it's actually another flight or a long distance train then BA might try to wash their hands of the whole thing and suggest she claims on her travel insurance.

wijibintheair