EC261 Compensation Claim Question
 

week and a half ago, I was flying from Seattle to Milan, Italy on a flight booked with Virgin Atlantic Rewards Points. The flights were Seattle to Paris (Operated by Delta) and Paris to Milan (Operated by ITA Airways). The flight to Paris went fine with no issues. The second flight AZ315 from CDG to LIN was boarded, deplaned and then eventually cancelled due to a mechanical issue with the plane.

We were rescheduled on flight AZ311 which had us arriving at Linate at 23:13 rather than our 20:35 scheduled arrival time. As a result we missed our next flight (on a separate booking through ITA airways) which departed at 22:25. When I asked the airline about the connection they said that someone would be at the airport in Milan to help us with arrangement with our misconnection.

When I got to final airport, it was basically abandoned for the night, and I called customer service and was on my own for Hotel and Rebooking my flight. At this point I am pretty sure I am owed EC261 compensation, as my scheduled flight was cancelled without notice for a non-extraordinary notice. However, ITA Airways is saying that I need to file the claim against Virgin and Virgin is claiming that I need to file the claim against ITA airways.

ITA Airways when I try to file a claim is saying they will not accept a claim with at non 055 ticketnumber, which all I have is the 932 ticket number issued from Virgin Atlantic. They are also refusing to acknowledge the ITA PNR that I obtained through booking and that ITA airways was emailing me from. At this point I could use some advice.

Who should the claim be filed against? (I am assuming ITA airways as the operating Airline)
How do I get a 055 ITA airways ticket number when even my boarding pass has the 932 ticket number?
Can I claim expenses for the misconnection in Milan due to the ITA cancellation (I am assuming the answer is no)?

Also any other advice would be great. Thanks!

Sorry I can't help you as far as your claim procedures are concerned. But you didn't have a connection in Milan. You had a separate ticket from Milan to an unidentified destination, and you arrived in Milan after your flight had departed.

I didn't think it would be considered a connecting flight in Milan either, but when I talked to Virigin they thought that even though it was a separate booking I had a claim for the missed flight. While I don't think that is was accurate, I threw it on here anyways. Regardless, I believe I have a claim for the last minute flight cancellation and the late arrival, which should cover the majority of my expenses anyways. I would really like to file it on my own rather than resort to one of those services that takes a Massive chunk of the compensation, but I don't see a way to file it with ITA airways if they don't recognize their booking code or the VA ticket number.

There was no misconnection at LIN but a no-show, unfortunately for you. That is the risk when booking separate tickets. You won't get anywhere with that.

ITA should be on the hook for your EC261 claim, the fact it was a VS ticket is not relevant.

I confirm that under EU Reg. 261/04 it is the operating carrier that is liable, not the ticketing agent/entity. So you need to stick to ITA for comp. for cancellation of AZ315

There is no ITA ticket No. There is only one ticket No. and starting with 932 as VS issued the ticket. You could try to enter it as 055-xxx. to see if the system will allow you to proceed and then in the text write the ticket No. starting with 932.

As for the hotel and rebooking costs, these are on you as you were on separate tickets. You may have better luck with your travel insurance to get reimbursed for these expenses.

A sub 2 hour connection on separate tickets may not be eligible for travel insurance, as they would otherwise deem it too risky. One of the insurances I have through my credit card requires 6 hours minimum connection time for it to be covered.

That is horrible. My travel insurance requires that MCT is adhered to. Admittedly, I have never tested this (if my travel insurance take the same position when traveling on separate tickets; on the other hand there is no exemption for traveling on separate tickets).

I didn't say I use it, and I don't, it just happens to be on one of the cards.
MCT is there for the airlines, basically not allowing someone to book a connection where they'll definitely need to be re-accommodated. In the case of same tickets, the airline is still responsible, the insurance just needs to pay out for hotels in the case of an overnight caused by a cause not covered by the airline. With separate tickets, the insurance also needs to cover new airfare, which is an increased liability, hence the increased time requirement. It does suck, but I also get it, since we all pay for the insurance, I'd rather not be paying an increased premium (in one way or another, such as through CC AFs) to cover others airfare as well as hotels.

It's always good to read the fine print of the insurance you have just in case you need it, that extra few minutes could save you a lot of pain down the road.