SK AAR

Admittedly, the WAW-FRA segment is the big difference here compared to the ECJ matter C-451/20, Airhelp Ltd v Austrian Airlines AG where the ECJ held that a OS itinerary Christinau -VIE-BKK was outside the scope of EU Reg.

I'm not convinced that a WAW-FRA segment makes the entire itinerary subject to EU Reg. 261 when origin and destination are outside EU. Just my cents.

thbe

That doesn‘t matter. Every segment with an EU airline and every segment departing from an EU airport is under protection of EU261. In this case (PEK-WAW-FRA-JFK; PEK-WAW on LO) EU261 applies for every single segment and for the whole ticket.

Of course it‘s also possible, that a segment on a non EU carrier and not departing from the EU is under the protection of EU261. E.g. WAW-PEK-HKG with WAW-PEK on LO and PEK-HKG on a non EU carrier. In this case PEK-HKG is also under protection of EU261.

thbe

According to C-451/20 you are right and EU261 won‘t help the TO.

red star

I wouldn‘t hold my breath on this one. It concerns the old, unsolved question of mankind that is: What is a flight? Now, pretty much everybody would answer : getting on a plane, going up, going down, get out. Not so much in the light of reg. 261/04. The confusion about what a flight is started from day 1 of it‘s introduction since the reg. delivers quite a bunch of definitions on things but none on the mentioned core question.
However, the ECJ seems to follow the idea that a „flight“ under reg,261 is meant to be the whole itin. Otherwise 451/20 wouldn‘t make any sense at all because both segments stand alone would fall under 261 (inbound on Eu-carrier, outbound from EU and EU-carrier). And 261 does not provide any specific law for intra-EU flights/segments.

Fabo.sk

Of course "flight" can only refer to itinerary, otherwise you would get delayed on the inbound by an hour, missed your connection, and you'd be SOL because you no-showed.

There's a reason FFPs talk about "segments" or "individual flights" and not just flights.

udlonggg

I wish I read this thread before...just got an email saying that I cannot check in. My route is PKX-WAW-JFK

SK AAR

Ok/good luck! Do keep us updated how this turns out.

For a PEK-WAW-JFK itinerary EU Reg. 261/04 will not be applicable according to ECJ judgment C-451/20, Airhelp Ltd v Austrian Airlines AG where the ECJ held that a OS itinerary Christinau-VIE-BKK was outside the scope of EU Reg.

hugolover

What's the reason shown why you can't checkin? Screenshot please.

ny110010001

Are they still doing this?! Don't want to rush to judgement that it is the same situation as me, but it could be... If you did confirm that the reason is because of award booking, please let us know. As for me, no real updates but I am not giving up. I'll also post further updates.

moondog

Breach of contract is a bigger deal than EC261.

udlonggg

I think they still doing it. I had a ticket on Jun 22 PKX-WAW-JFK ticketing by Aeroplan. After that email I had to cancel that ticket.

moondog

Why didn't you push back on them?

notquiteaff

What did the email say? Can you post an anonymized version here?

weero

I strongly agree with moondog - not being able to check in 23 days ahead of schedule isn't a reason to give in to the airline.

You can secretly make alternative arrangements but don't let the thugs off the hook!

Cindy666

Thanks ny110010001 for starting this discussion. I was recently in the same situation with LOT Polish Airline, and this post has been very helpful to me. Want to share my experience here, in case it can be helpful to others.

Result first, the ticket was honored. However it took tremendous amount of effort, which I believe is pretty unfair for someone who holds a confirmed ticket and expect a hassle free flight.

Here is the story. I booked a reward business class ticket through Aeroplan for a family member, route PEK - WAW - JFK. Three weeks ahead of departure, I received an email from LOT Polish Airline Beijing Office, claiming the booking was invalid and the passenger would be denied boarding. I contact LOT Customer service to explain this situation and to confirm the status, and as expected they replied booking was confirmed. It does seem that the Main Office has no idea of Beijing Office's action.

Then I emailed Beijing Office for a reason, instead of giving an answer, they started to question how I get my ticket and where my reward mileage is from. So I explained (my own credit card points transfer, Aero plan reward booking, etc), and insisted on them to provide a reason. Guess what, no response. Luckily, the family member that I booked ticket for lives in Beijing, so she personally went to the airport polish airline counter and get a contact number. On the phone, they claimed the way of booking this ticket is "illegal", even though the main office confirms status if valid, they don't take the channel as legit, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

It did not seem going anywhere with the bilateral communication with LOT PA Main office and Beijing office separately. So I pulled together a long email in both languages( English and Chinese ), recap the whole situation and attached all the points transfer and reward booking confirmations, send to both main office and Beijing office to ask them to resolve the inconsistency internally, and let them know that I will file complaint and take legal action if boarding was denied with a confirmed booking. Later on followed up with Beijing office with a phone call, finally they agreed they will sort it out. Next day, no question asked for boarding. It was a pretty exhausting process.