jackylek

Hi

My return flight was delay from HKG-ZRH with LX, by 1h 30min, this result I lost my connection to OSL. But I was rebook via FRA with LH, but when I arrive at FRA that flight was gone. And was rebook again to a SK flight and the SK also late bcoz of waiting for pax. This result I came to Oslo over 7hours after the original time.

I flew in Y and holding Senator card.

Do I have right for compensation ?

Thank you for any information!

airoli

They way I read them, EU passenger rules (261/04) say that if your arrival at destination (OSL) is delayed by more than 3 hours, for reasons within control of the airline (is this the case?), you are entitled to rerouting along with care (art. 6). If the rerouting, which was offered, results in a delay of over 3 hours, you are eligible for compensation (art 7). For your journey, HKG-OSL, this would be EUR600.

There is, however, a caveat: Given thta Norway is not an EU member, this EU rule only applies to the extent that Norway has accepted it into local law. (Switzerland, for instance, has fully adopted said rule.) Regardless of the involved airline (LX), it does not automatically apply, as your journey is from an non-EU place (HKG) to another non-EU place (OSL).

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer - go read the text yourself to be sure.

jackylek

Thanks for your input!

This is the confuse part, since this was a return part of the ticket. And Norway like Swiss is a EEU partner and do adopt the EU rules. But my concern is that they rebook many times my ticket and claim that the respons is with LH or SK .

RedChili

EC 261/04 is not entirely clear about what compensation, if any, is due when a missed connection means a rerouting and a delay.

Article 7(1), which Airoli refers to, and which lists a compensation of EUR 600, specifically says, "1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall receive compensation amounting to:..."

Article 6, which talks about delays, does not refer to article 7 at all. I.e. a simple delay does not mean that you're entitled to any compensation.

Both article 5 (cancellation), and article 4 (denied boarding), refer to article 7.

So, this depends upon whether a consumer organization and/or a court of law would consider a missed connection and rerouting to be a simple delay, a cancellation, or denied boarding.

I would contact Forbruker Europa (www.forbrukereuropa.no) and ask them for their opinion.

Centipede100

EC 261/2004 in conjunction with the Sturgeon judgement (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...7J0402:EN:HTML) mean that delays in excess of 3 hours in arriving at your final destination (OSL) entitles the passenger to the same scale of compensation in Article 7 as would be the case if the flight had been cancelled.

As the flight was HKG-OSL, the compensation tariff is 600 euros. Presumably the original operating carrier was LX which therefore falls under the remit of 261/2004 as does Norway which has adopted 261/2004 along with a number of other EU Regulations.

8420PR

This ruling has been rejected by a county court in Hamburg (Germany), and the UK High Court has referred the isssue back to the ECJ (so no more cases can be heard in UK until the ECJ responds). I don't know the status in any other countries.

I am sure you would have to go to court to apply for this compensation, and any court with a little bit of common sense would reject the compensation claim leaving you with a big legal bill.

Personally, I think it is reasonable to accept a small delay as part of the process of flying thousands of miles round the world, especially where connecting flights are involved.

Centipede100

I am surprised that a CC in Hamburg has found in favour of an airline when a passenger has claimed compensation following the Sturgeon precedent especially as it was a Geman court that was directed to find in favour of Herr Sturgeon but bow to your knowledge of this case. Do you have a link to this?

I am also very aware of the legal challenge issued in the UK. This however has no bearing on the OP as their country of residence I assume might be in the Nordic area. Do the Nordic countries operate a court system similar to that of the small claims track in England/Wales? It seems likely so I don't know why you assume it would leave the OP with a 'big legal bill' as these types of court are designed to ensure justice is served relatively inexpensively.

The OP doesn't automatically have to proceed to court anyway as their first claim is on the airline itself before court action wouldm even be initiated.

You also proclaim without any foundation whatsoever that "any court with a little bit of common sense would reject the compensation claim". On the contrary, other than in the UK currently, I would assume that any court based in the EU or Switzerland/Norway/Sweden would follow the precedent case law in this matter.

Whether you think it reasonable to accept a small delay or not (presumably without compensation) is frankly neither here nor there. The OP is entitled to the rights and protection afforded under the law not by what you think is reasonable (which may or may not concur with applicable law).

jackylek

Well the Norwegian court is the last place to resolve this issue. Before that we do have a consumer court that will handel this case. But if they do favour for the passenger, the winning chance in a court will be very high.

Normally I wont complain if It was a few hours late, but is more then 7hours and involve a lot of running and transfers. Not fun after more then 14hours in a plane.

Swiss did know that we will have strong headwinds and we flew average 750km/h from Hong Kong to Zurich , and we was boarding the flight early and all the pax was onboard way before departure time, but somehowe we were delay departing from the gate. And the traffic and weather in Zurich and Hong Kong airport was normal.

sindjic

I would think they will only give you some award miles...

8420PR

Here is the only information i could find with google, but I remember a more detailed article.
http://www.businessandfinance.ie/new...sp?itemID=1605

I am no legal expert, but I think there are areas where the law is black and white (such as denied boarding due to overbooking), and grey areas in between (such as €600 compensation for delays and any delay involving a missed connection).

I would be interested to know any success stories where the cancellation compensation has been provided in cases where a connection has been missed, resulting in a delayed arrival at destination. Do you know any?

-Heathcliff-

It was a bit of a legal tug-of-war with UA, but in the end my travel companion and I did receive EUR 600 each in compensation for a heavily-delayed (more than 20hrs) FRA-IAD flight, resulting in missed connections and an arrival at our final destination some 42hrs past schedule. They also reimbursed our expenses for an involuntary overnight stay in Toronto.

United insisted, however, that they felt they were under no legal obligation whatsoever to pay any of it and did so purely out of good-will in order to lay the matter to rest.

Centipede100

Thanks for the link to the case. I note that the flight delay dated from 2007and the case may well have been heard prior to the Sturgeon judgement of November 2009 or Sturgeon wasn't brought into play by the claimant in which case I'm not surprised by the judgement.

I haven't looked for specific successes for delays but you may find a number here: http://www.flightmole.com/forum/index.php

jackylek

Hi all

I just got a email from Swiss Customer Service, and that my case has been send to the Claim Department.

Now is just sit back and see how long and the result from CD in Swiss.

But as I heard theard from other collegue that had the same problem, said that LX/LH/OS will say bcoz of the weather. But they will consider a good will since they will take care of their TopFLyer .

My questions is that when Swiss already knew about this headwind was on the route that night and they even board early but stilll miss the the gate-dep time by nearly 40min. , and as many has mention before the connection time in Zurich is very tight I had only 50min. for the connection.

I will post the response from LX as soon I get it, but just for the record im very happy flying with LX , but I hope they will increase the connection time in the future.

Swiss Tony

Sorry to hear of your woes. However, presumably rather than see everyone punished with longer connection times at Zurich, you can just book yourself longer connections there instead???

This situation sounds like a freak occurrence. The airline can't account for the wind speed which was obviously very high that night.

My money would be on you receiving a gesture of goodwill from LX, not EUR600 in cash.

jackylek

Hi Swiss Tony


The only problem with my connection, is that Swiss only fly 2times a day to Oslo, and the next flight is 16.30 , so would you like to sit and wait ?

Swiss aircraft is only stand on a remote in HKG from 17.30 to 23.59 , why couldnt they fly earlier so we would arrive in Zurich 30min-60min earlier or so ?

Even the wind that night is strong, but havent we depart the 40min later then timedepart from the gate , we wouldnt be 1h 30min late.

But you are right I have look for a new solution, and I think flying out with Swiss and back with LH via Munich gives me more time for the connection flight. But as I mention I prefer to fly Swiss.