I got a call on my way to the airport that the last of my connecting flights Lusaka to Lilongwe (on Ethiopian as Emirates don't fly there) has been postponed from Friday to Tuesday (and instead of being direct was now going to involve a change in Harare). As I have a class to teach on Monday this clearly wasn't going to work and so corporate travel agent had found a routing that required about 18 hours in Lusaka overnight and was about £30 more.

The ticket was a single through ticket (MAN DXB LUN LLW) with a similar return (but with 3 days in LUN). Travel agent didn't know who if anyone would pay for hotel (but said Emirateswerent going to pay) and as the thoughts of faffing about hoping a hotel would be booked plus the additional cost of a visa ($50), taxis etc in the rush (checking was closing in 40 mins for the first flight) I opted to go via joburg on two overnight (economy) flights with 15 hours in Dubai (daytime with lounge access as I am silver and chance to meet up with a friend), 6 hours in JNB, and £240 price difference.

Would someone have been liable for my accomodation had I gone for the overnight in Lusaka? Have i lost chance of insurance (which kicks in after 12 hour delay) paying something?

I'm not sure I did the right thing (but arriving IN Lusaka without anything sorted wouldn't have been good either). If they'd phoned earlier (even half an hour) then I would have stayed at home an extra night and sorted something better out.

The ticketing airline if there's no earlier connection and depending on their internal policies, but good luck getting through their bureaucracy. Truly a hit and miss situation. I'm assuming the ticket was issued in EK stock? Doubt you could've convinced them to provide accom in LUN, they rarely do it in DXB even for Y pax.

in my opinion def not EK, as the schedule change was not from them. doesnt matter on which ticket stock it was issued, responsible airline is the airline which causes the delay/schedule change etc

however, will be very hard to get anything as Ethiopian will tell you, you have to go to EK as it is their ticket and EK will tell you go to Ethiopian as the changed their flight

Is anybody legally responsible? Possibly. It would take the argument that OP is on a single ticket departing the EU and that Ethiopian cancelled, albeit a segment on a non-EU carrier between two points outside the EU. That would generate cancellation + duty of care compensation (hotel). OP could use the cancellation compensation for taxis and the like.

But, OP chose not to do that, so will not obtain anything from Ethopian and EK isn't responsible at all (not the operating carrier of the cancelled segment).

Even had OP accepted the original reroute with the three day enroute delay, it would likely have taken an action in the UK (easy enough to get Ethiopian into court) to wring anything out of them.

Best place to turn here is to travel insurance. If you make journeys such as this where multi-day reroutes are in the cards, this type of coverage is relatively cheap and very handy. It would likely have covered some flat sum without a question and that would have covered fare differences, taxis and the like.

I think it depends on how EK sold it. If it was a codeshare and ticketed with an EK flight number then EK is responsible. If not, well then it'd be complicated.

why should they be responsible even if it is an EK flight number as long as they are not the operating carrier (they do not have codeshare flight numbers with Ethiopian anyway)?

Agree that for the OP travel insurance is the best bet, but in terms of liability, Article 19 of the Montreal Convention does state that liability is with "the carrier" - although I suspect you would have to litigate against both EK and ET to test the point, which is probably not worth the time and the effort.

I think on balance, ET should be on the hook for any damages, if any, given they were the carrier making the changes (presumably, EK got the OP where they were meant to on their part of the contract).

If you were to include an EU261 claim on the basis of an ex-MAN departure then I think there is more chance that they (EK/ET) would litigate the point to resolve the issue of whether flights between two points outside of the EC on non-EC carriers are within the scope of EU regulations just because of an ex-EC departure point (specifically, imho, whether the Folkerts case and the Schenkel case are compatible; Folkerts saying the whole trip was one "journey" and Schenkel saying that each sector is independent). The Schenkel case involved EK, so they are willing to take it all the way to the ECJ!

It was all getting complicated which is why I took the decision I did to stick with what emirates could do at the airport rather than getting to Lusaka and having to mess about with visa, hotel etc. when I arrived in Lusaka after a 17 hour journey. Work will pay so I'm not bothered. Not sure what insurance will or won't do but clearly a 4 day postponement when there are flights every day wasn't going to work. Does put paid to the buy a single ticket and you'll be ok question though.

It wasn't emirates who caused problem but it sure as heck wasn't me! I suspect as has been already said Emirates will say get money off Ethiopian and Ethiopian will say get it off Emirates as it wasn't our ticket.

Out of 5 trips to Southern and South eastern Africa in last 18 months I've had significant problems on 3 of them...

Montreal Convention won't do anything here. No loss of life or limb. No loss of luggage. EC 261/2004 doesn't apply as it applies only to the operating carrier and so that was EK on the xEU segment.

Had EK been delayed and that caused a misconnect, it would have been the ultimate delay which would have been used to calculate compensation, but that isn't what occurred here.

This is no way calls into question the value of a single ticket. It simply calls into question the mistaken belief that somebody will always pay for your hotel if you are delayed. That is a purely EU (and Israel) thing unless it's due to a circumstance within the carrier's control such as a mechanical.

In the vast majority of the world, when things go wrong, they go wrong. If it costs money, it costs money. If it's a risk you can't afford to take, you insure it or don't travel.

Multi-segment tickets across multiple carriers to destinations with limited frequencies are prone to problems even today.

I think there could still be potential liability under Article 19 of the Montreal Convention:

http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/air.carriag...montreal.1999/
https://www.iata.org/policy/Documents/MC99_en.pdf

But then I think EK or ET could introduce arguments for it to require litigating (was it really a delay, or a cancellation of service causing a passenger to be delayed; were all the hotel arrangements etc. consequential losses etc. etc.etc.) and that's after they pass the buck between them!

I do agree that the EC 261/2004 claim would be a stretch.

Hadn't even thought that EC 261/2004 would apply but if I did think then there's no way (I'm still trying to get money from emirates from 18 months ago for a delay ex MAN that CAA say is eligible) because its not an ex EU flight that's the problem.

Would gladly (well almost - depends on the airline) travel on a single carrier (and do that on Emirates for some of my destinations) but with some of my African destinations it's not an option.

The big problem (and I'll be taking this up with our corporate travel agent) is the lack of notice I had of the change (and I know they had longer because the very helpful guy on the Emirates ticket desk at MAN told me he suggested they might like to call me) - if I hadn't been on my way to the airport and check in wasn't closing in 40 mins after I had had the problem explained at the airport I would have had longer to look at options which probably would have been stay at home and get a different flight and do the JNB connection but having set off I just wanted to get going (and a 5am start wasn't that appealing).

It was 6.15 on Friday evening and the agent who had booked the ticket wanted to go home so passed me on to their 24 hr help desk and the 24 hour help desk said they only had 10 mins before the 2 hour cut off (?) and so they would have to speak to Emirates rather than doing it on the computer and it would just be easier (for her for sure) for me to sort it at the airport (which as we were 5 mins away at that time seemed reasonable but in hindsight was a cop out).

What is technically correct & legal in Eu (or USA or another developed country) is not likely to happen in Africa. No one individual will make a decision or accept responsibility. Such is the way in Africa (and other less developed countries).

You made the right decision