corporate-wage-slave

Unfortunately this gets a bit messy. Lightning strikes have their own special set of casework in this area, and the summary is that checking for lightning strikes is allowed, so long as it doesn't take such a long time due to the airline saving money. The relevant cases here were due to an extended delay getting an engineer to the aircraft concerned since the airline didn't have a local facility and had to fly an engineer in. The wheel change is almost certainly good for compensation. As ever, it's not the departure delay that matters, it's the arrival delay and if that didn't hit 3 hours you aren't gettting anything anyway. If it was over 3 hours then perhaps you should claim anyway, but I wouldn't assume you will get the compensation, it may go down to looking at BA's detailed report on the issue.

JPMND

If my flight has been cancelled with less than 7 days notice and I have been moved to a flight departing the night before I believe I am due the cost of my hotel, taxi and meals under duty of care but do I also get any compensation under this ruling? All wording seems to reference delays

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, you have the right of care, usually if the flight is brought forward that doesn't generally suggest a hotel stay, but your personal circumstances may require it, potentially. If you mean that you had booked a hotel for the original date and it's no longer usable, then no, that's in the "consequential loss" category covered by your insurance or self insurance. But for the change then yes that would usually trigger compensation, but at 50% of the delay rate - this always applies if you arrive before the scheduled time. Various other details apply, but that's the general position in the absence of specifics.

LCSinTexas

I hate to bump this, but I am hoping anyone with the access to check the reason for the delay of BA140 DFW-LHR on 27Nov could share the info.

Thank you.

LcS

denhaagflyer

Question on delay compensation: four hours delay on BA559 today, FCO-LHR. After boarding in FCO, captain explained that there was initially a delay of two hours when plane came from Manchester but then another one hour was added b/c of staff shortage at LHR (she did mention Covid-related sickness). Well, we finally touched down at 22:25 in LHR, but doors did not open until 23:23. Explanation: first no stand available and then again staff shortage (no ground staff to meet the plane). With scheduled arrival time of 19:10, total delay is over 4 hours. Now, the important question: can BA refer to extraordinary circumstances? Is staff shortage due to Covid sickness extraordinary?

On a positive note, great crew during the flight, very apologetic! And we made the last HEX, with three minutes to spare. So just out of curiosity: would BA pay taxi fare if no more public transportation available? I have never had this, so just wondering....

PlaneSpeaking

The only extraordinary circumstance here is why BA got rid of so many crew which should answer your question. Manchester is irrelevant in my opinion and yes, if you incurred additional expenses as a result of the delay and which you couldn’t avoid, you should be able to reclaim them.

george77300

Originally booked on the 1925 back EDI-LCY.

A while ago they changed the flight to 1655 to LCY. (Over 14 days prior so nothing - allowed rebooking both sectors though). We swapped the outbound and confirmed the 1655. Now worked better for London commitments. So was a blessing.

Now T-12 days (so within 14 but not 7) they have changed back from the 1655 to 1925. So rather than a cancel and rebook they’ve technically changed the timings of the 1655 by 2.5 hours rather than the flight number. This to trigger a time change and not cancellation as per the EC261 rules? Hence meaning no comp? Is this correct. Unless the flight gets further changed/delayed?

Having read all the regulations I’m a little confused on the nuances between “time/schedule change”, “delay” and of course “cancellation and rebook”. Arguably all 3 have the same affect, but treated differently for a 2-3 hour change within 14 days but not 7?

KARFA

if you are informed of a time change between 2 weeks and 7 days before the flight, then you are not in scope for compensation unless the new times mean depart more that 2 hours before the original time or reaching your destination 4 hours or more later than originally scheduled.

i would say you are not in scope here.

george77300

That’s what I thought. But technically they’ve cancelled and rebooked me on the later flight and swapped the flight numbers around to create two time changes instead. And had they done the former and treated as a cancellation within 14 days and would be in scope? Call me a cynic, but BA have done that on purpose. I’m almost impressed.

denhaagflyer

thanks - no additional costs, was thinking more of the 250 euro each of us should be due! But saw in the other thread, that most people think that it would be a huge fight to make them pay.

PlaneSpeaking

I don’t agree. BA would have to prove that Covid was responsible for every stage of the problems you faced. I’d certainly take them on if I was in the same position and then refer to CEDR or MCOL if they refuse but if you’re happy to lose a percentage to commission, just get one of the flight delay claims companies to do it. Bottonline are good and they have an online checker to see if your claim is likely to be successful so you’ll know straight away if there’s extraordinary circumstance at play. Let us know how you get on,

elephantflyer

I'd like to share my experience and welcome any advice on my flight yesterday LHR-AGP.

Original flight 07:45 Monday 20th December. 2 adults + 1 infant in CE. OLCI completed 21:30 on Sunday, no problem. Email received at 22:30 - flight has been cancelled. New flight offered at 11:10 Monday, CE. No real problem for us. Changes accepted in MMB. OLCI completed for new flights.

Arrived at T5 zone G around 07:30 on Monday. Check in agent sent bags and printed BPs. Only at that stage, I noticed that seats were in row 22 – odd for CE, I thought, but you never know – but on inspection realised that we were booked in a flight the next morning, in ET.

Checkin agent clearly hadn’t noticed either that flights were the next day. Went to find supervisor who came to speak to us, told us that all flights to AGP that day were cancelled. Requested rebooking via MAD and agent called up and secured rebooking, the LHR-MAD leg in ET and MAD-AGP in CE. Arriving 17:00 the same day.

Only later on I saw that BA had emailed on Monday at 05:51 stating that flight had been cancelled. New flights offered 21-12 07:00 in ET. This was the flight that we were automatically booked onto/checked in to, but this second time I had never accepted the alternative flights offered when the original was cancelled.

Customer Experience Lead was helpful/sympathetic, apologised for mistake and escorted us through FW. Return flights on 2nd January currently unaffected!

I want to claim for the downgraded leg and general hassle however, I wonder how and to who I should direct this, and on what basis, as it’s a rather odd situation. These were cash flights. Also, is it normal that the system would let you check in at the desk for a flight leaving 23 hours later? And should I wait until we have successfully completed the return leg to raise a claim?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

coleslaw

I flew JFK-LHR-CDG a few weeks ago with an intentional long connection in London (~8 hours) to allow me to leave the airport and run some errands that needed to be done in person. My JFK-LHR flight ended up getting delayed by ~6 hours meaning that I wasn't able to leave LHR before my onward flight to CDG (which was the last available flight of the day). I'm now going to need to do a separate trip to LHR (and deal with not being able to go back to CDG after...) and was considering putting in a claim for delay compensation.

I'm assuming this won't be successful, since the delay was on the first segment and my arrival at the final destination (CDG) was on time, even though my reason for routing via LHR was to have those hours in LHR to go landslide.

corporate-wage-slave

Under EC261 I can't see how you have a claim. From a journey management perspective this comes across as single trip with a departure and a single arrival. If you had booked it as two trips then it may have been treated differently but that brings risks of its own. I doubt you even have a claim under the Consumer Rights Act since BA will still treat this as a USA-France trip and they didn't sell it to you with a side trip built in. I can't see how BA would pick up the extra trip to London. Your best chance would have been to ask at LHR to be rebooked to a later CDG service even though it would have been the next day.

coleslaw

Thanks - that's what I figured. I did ask to be rebooked to the following day and was given the runaround - it was an AA ticket, so BA directed me to speak to AA who told me to speak to BA. I also considered just ditching at LHR, but I had a bag checked through to CDG and at the time it seemed like it would be a big faff to offload, get my bag, book a new ticket the next day, get a hotel, etc. In hindsight, with all of the new travel restrictions, that may have actually been the path of least resistance...