cheryl.walker76

We flew LAX to LHR on the 31/10/2022 flight arrived slightly behind schedule but we were not parked on a stand and instead the plane was somewhat abandoned airside.

One coach arrived quite quickly to offload the first 45 passengers (obviously those at the front of the plane in business class) but as we were second row from the back it took almost 3 hours to get us of the plane.

we were queuing in the plane aisle for hours waiting to disembark along with the frustrated cabin crew who were complaining that we should not have landed without a stand. We missed our connection and queued a further 2.5 hours in the “rebooking” line. We eventually arrived home 7 hours late.

before I send my moan to BA does anyone have any experience of landing on time but taking hours to disembark? Will BA dismiss this as exceptional circumstances?

It was pretty grim all that queuing after a long flight!

CKBA

Years ago a similar thing happened on our BWI-LHR flight, albeit with a shorter (but still frustratingly long) time to disembark. I got 10k avios almost immediately. Unfortunately EC261 compensation relates only to when the door opens, not when you can actually leave the aircraft, and I suspect that BA would claim it was out of their control (presumably the buses are the airport's).

GuyWMD

I assumed the busses are a BA operation. Given the branding and uniformed drivers. May well be wrong.

mikeyfly

I would not send a moan, but a claim for EC261 compensation if you arrived home seven hours late on a true connecting (I.e. one ticket) itinerary. However, we’ve had terrible storms Tuesday / Wednesday this week which could have been a factor outside of the airline’s control

The _Banking_Scot

Hi

I belive that buses and stand allocation at t5 is BA not Heathrow Airport regards

Tbs

Duck1981

Don't moan, send a EU261 claim in and leave the emotions aside just stating the facts of your missed connection and consequently late arrival. My wife had a similar issue with TK where she missed her connection in IST as they were at stand but could not leave the aircraft and after a bit of back and forth TK agreed to pay out (four emails where they a) initially rejected the claim b) wanted to pay a 100EUR travel voucher c) increased to a 500 EUR travel voucher d) finally agreed on a 500 EUR voucher which can be exchanged into cash)

Bullswood

Yes, do claim. I suspect that even without the connecting flight, you have grounds to claim if you weren't cleared to disembark more than 3hrs after scheduled time of arrival. The arrival time is usually taken as door opening but in this case evidently you were not permitted to leave.

Commission Notice — Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004:

"3.3.3. Measuring the delay at arrival and concept of time of arrival

The Court has concluded that the concept of ‘time of arrival’, which is used to determine the length of the delay to which passengers on a flight have been subject if arrival is delayed, corresponds to the time at which at least one of the doors of the aircraft is opened, the assumption being that, at that moment, the passengers are permitted to leave the aircraft"

If your connecting flight was part of a single journey, I'd also certainly claim UK/EC261 for the entire journey (we got Euros 600 each for SFO/LHR/ZRH) if you arrived sufficiently late at final destination. The exclusions (if you miss your connecting flight due to delays at security checks or if you do not respect the boarding time of your flight at the airport of transfer) apparently don't apply.

In both cases it would be up to BA to prove why the late disembarkation was extraordinary circumstances when buses and gate allocation are within their control (difficult to see how if premium cabins were allowed off).

cheryl.walker76

Thank you so much for this - You are correct stand allocation is BA’s responsibility at T5, Heathrow kindly published a document to this effect earlier this year. I will submit a claim as suggested and will certainly point this out on my form. As we landed on time I don’t believe weather is a factor. Just appears to be poor planning. Many passengers on our flight had connections and the crew said they could not prioritise offloading those passengers first - it was first on - first off, I don’t think I’ve ever been made to feel so second rate having shelled out £5k for flights before!

wutlol

FWIW (and I know this doesn’t guarantee anything) I got stuck on a YVR-LHR BA flight just long enough at LHR to roll over to 6 hours of total delay (we’d been late getting out) and BA gave us the maximum amount for the delay, despite some of the plane getting on the first bus and making it to immigration/arrivals/connections.

LondonAussie

That's pretty terrible if the crew didn't inform you of the expected delay and allow you to return to your seat rather than standing uncomfortably in the aisle?

cheryl.walker76

The problem was the information being given to the pilot and the crew was either non existent or wrong! The pilot made several announcements saying now we were on the ground he had no power to do anything! Buses were just appearing randomly throughout the 3 hours. The crew themselves were making phone calls to arrange childcare etc as we landed on time they assumed they would be home in time to pick up kids/pets etc and even they were saying they had no idea why this had happened.

thanks to all the replies I will definitely submit a claim, we were a family of 4 (it was actually my sons birthday that day so any compensation and he will get an extra pressie).

ISTFlyer

Was this flight an A380, I had a similar incident at LHR last week where we waited 55 minutes for a stand due to a delay on the aircraft that was supposed to be pushed back where there were no other A380 gates available as well as no hard stands available as well. The delay was also caused because the aircraft that was supposed to leave had an issue with the pushback process where the tug got stuck during the process. Eventually some of the passengers missed their connections ( there were a lot of passengers terminating their journey in London ), I didn't walk extremely fast or slow but my 2h15min connection was reduced to 45-50 minutes ( Terminal 5C -> 5A transfer ) where I was at the gate 30 minutes before departure and boarded with Group 4 and a few minutes later the gate was closed.

cheryl.walker76

No it was just a BOEING 777-300ER

VisaGlobalEntry

Was this the 7pm departure from LAX by any chance?

cheryl.walker76

Yes it was