Emirates and EC-261 - knock-on delays
 

I have an ongoing claim attempt with Emirates for a delayed flight out of Amsterdam, leading to a missed connection, leading to a 24 hour arrival delay.

First, they claimed a missed connecting flight was not eligible for compensation, but then rolled over when I presented cases. The latest is that they've told me a medical emergency caused the delay, and rejected it based on this reason.

However, they specifically stated the delay was on the incoming flight. Everything I can find online states that knock-on delays are not considered "extraordinary circumstances". I cannot, however, find any solid cases to back this up, just a county court case in the UK in 2013.

Can anyone point me to any cases or official statements on knock-on delays?

It is an urban myth that knock on delays are not "extraordinary circumstances".

Rather, the facts of the knock-on delay are what matter. By way of example, one would expect that if this were KL at AMS, that there would have been a reserve aircraft made available at its worldwide hub. But, AMS is a smallish outstation for EK and thus not reasonable for multiple backup aircraft to be hanging around on the off chance that someone on the inbound has a heart attack or whatever.

Then, the question becomes why all of the caused a delay. Thus, if someone on an inbound flight to AMS required medical treatment, it is unclear why that would justify a delay. But, if the aircraft had to be diverted from away from AMS, then the analysis is different as well as the efforts to provision a backup aircraft (which might well have been further away and thus more delayed than what occurred in your situation).

While it is for EK to prove an extraordinary circumstance should you sue, it would make sense for you to figure out exactly what it is that happened.

The claims agencies, bottom feeders as they may be, are a good sounding board. As they only get paid if they win, they have a clear interest in not pursuing matters which they do not believe are winnable.

The whole thing comes simply down to the delay aspects of the flight from Ansterdam

What was the reason for the delay out of Amsterdam?

If the delay there was not extraordinary, then if you missed the connection and was >3 hours late arriving at your destination, you are entitled to compensation

If the delay was caused by the previous flight arriving late, then I don't think that the airline will have much of a case ; if it had to divert to another airport, it might do

Depending on which country you are in, it may be cheap and easy to initiate proceedings and make the airline prove its case - Emirates does seem to be very reluctant to pay out EC261 claims and I wouldn't trust everything that they are saying to try and get you to go away ( e.g. the claim about connecting flights when Emirates was the defendant in the case that provides definitive proof that it is )