Should compensation be extended?
#16
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#18
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It’s routine for ATL ATC to tell pilots of inbound short haul flights to hold at origin for 10-25 minutes during high congestion times and everyone who flies there schedules accordingly to make on time arrival numbers work
#20
Original Poster
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LHR to FRA.
20 minutes late landing. But this is really irrelevant as building time into the actual flying time is cheating. If departure is 11.00 it is not unreasonable to expect that to happen.
No bubbles when taxiing alas (particularly in Y)
20 minutes late landing. But this is really irrelevant as building time into the actual flying time is cheating. If departure is 11.00 it is not unreasonable to expect that to happen.
No bubbles when taxiing alas (particularly in Y)
#21
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there would be a huge volume of complaint.
So so why do Airlines, particularly at LHR get away with it?
#22
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You seem to want to have it both ways. On the one hand you say that departure delays are routine and thus air carriers can account for them. But, when they do account for them, you complain that they are "cheating."
So, which is it? You cannot rationally have it both ways.
The bottom line is that you arrived 20 minutes after the time you were scheduled to arrive. You have not told us from where you departed or where you arrived. But, in any event, EC 261/2004 does not provide any compensation for delays of 20 minutes for any Type of flight and thus BA will not be doing so in your case.
So, which is it? You cannot rationally have it both ways.
The bottom line is that you arrived 20 minutes after the time you were scheduled to arrive. You have not told us from where you departed or where you arrived. But, in any event, EC 261/2004 does not provide any compensation for delays of 20 minutes for any Type of flight and thus BA will not be doing so in your case.
#23
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I have to say that to FRA a 20 minute delay overall counts as "on time" to me, given that FRA isn't exactly immune from congestion. In fact I probably wouldn't even notice that. Maybe you're right, and we should be setting our expections on punctuality more forcefully. I fear it may require the number of LHR flights to reduce and therefore the cost of flying to go up, in overall terms. I also thing that BA are very punctuality focused, in so far as their internal processes are concerned. And in terms of pressure on staff to get a quick turnaround even if it leads to some passenger discomfort (e.g. waiting on the the airbridge). But that all stops when ATC come on to the scene, they have the near impossible job of keeping everyone flying in an airport running at 97% plus capacity.
#24
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I was just thinking that if EC261/2004 provided compensations for delays of 20 minutes, then the fares would have to go up to allow for it
#25
Join Date: Jan 2008
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How do you know that what you suggest is a delay is not built into the schedule? The time of departure is irrelevant. All that matters is the delay at your final ticketed destination. If that departure delay translated to an arrival delay of 35 minutes, it would not meet even the minimum delay for a Type 1 flight under EC 261/2004. I can't imagine that BA would voluntarily pay any compensation, let alone even a minimal customer service gesture.
#26
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Children is unique among rail operators into London. It’s trains run on short journeys, with a simple route network and don’t interact much with other train companies. . If they can’t run on time no-one can.
#27
Join Date: Oct 2015
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I sympathise with the sentiment but I suppose given the greater engineering and physical demands inherent to manned flight they had to draw the line somewhere. Should that line be moved, maybe? I don’t know. Perhaps once the airlines have become more efficient in response to EC261 the EU might tighten the screw a little?
There are obviously tolerances involved 🤷🏻.♀️
#29
Join Date: Feb 2016
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You're talking two major European hub airports in LHR and FRA. Congestion during normal daytime hours is to be expected. Even with slots, weather has to be ideal for it to all work from an ATC perspective. If you don't slot to ideal, you miss opportunities when it is ideal conditions regarding runway geometry, wind, convective activity etc. When you have weather, the system has to scale back to compensate. The users all want to fly at the same general timings to offer the most competitive product. Yet, that creates problems for anyone that's not first out of the chute. At IAH, which is a very UA dominated airport, NK started flying in and out at off-peak times from UA's daily pushes which are designed to connect passengers through the hub. The last UA flights to leave their gates would often be in a line 20-30 deep for departure because they're all trying to leave within 20 minutes of each other and the pavement can't support that. Meanwhile Spirit will come and go with no line because they're not stuck to that hub and spoke schedule.
#30
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I have to say that to FRA a 20 minute delay overall counts as "on time" to me, given that FRA isn't exactly immune from congestion. In fact I probably wouldn't even notice that. Maybe you're right, and we should be setting our expections on punctuality more forcefully. I fear it may require the number of LHR flights to reduce and therefore the cost of flying to go up, in overall terms. I also thing that BA are very punctuality focused, in so far as their internal processes are concerned. And in terms of pressure on staff to get a quick turnaround even if it leads to some passenger discomfort (e.g. waiting on the the airbridge). But that all stops when ATC come on to the scene, they have the near impossible job of keeping everyone flying in an airport running at 97% plus capacity.