Patrick74

Hi @ll, I'de like to understand some reason behind airline's procedure when it comes to dispatch pax from their own delayed connection flight.

We were booked from ZRH to PTY via MAD with the same airline. The flight from ZRH to MAD was over two hours delayed, so we called the airline's hotline to ask if the connecting flight would wait for us. From now on, the operations should have known that there are pax worrying about their connecting flight. We also asked the crew inflight. We were said to not to worry, all will turn out fine.

There was no assistance waiting for us in MAD. We rushed through that airport on our own and arrived at the gate 15 minutes after the scheduled departure time. The plane was still there, but boarding was closed. The staff already knew about us and handed us new tickets for another flight, which departed seven hours later via LIM to PTY. Over 20 pax were affected. In the end, we arrived at our destination 15 hours later than planned, without luggage.

In the aftermath we learned that our original flight from MAD to PTY departed with a heavy delay for unknown reasons, 90 minutes after we arrived at the gate. There would have been plenty of time to let us in.

Question: What could be the reason from the airline's point of view that the operations acted like this? Why could/would they not use the circumstance of the anyway delayed connecting flight to reopen boarding for us in MAD? Consider, that MAD is their main hub, where they have their own staff at the terminal.

StartinSanDiego

What airline was it?

Patrick74

Air Europa

guv1976

Did the circumstances of the delay on the ZRH-MAD flight trigger compensation rights under EC 261/2004?

Edited to add: And a belated welcome to FlyerTalk!

Patrick74

Thank you 😊. That's all settled on maximum $, no worries. I just want to understand the mindset behind their decisions.

Patrick74

[QUOTE=guv1976;35987392]Did the circumstances of the delay on the ZRH-MAD flight trigger compensation rights under EC 261/2004?
Oh, and yes, technical issue forced them to replace the aircraft in MAD before flying to ZRH, hence the delay.

erik123

The reason is that you were offloaded, your bags wouldn't get on the flight, and you were booked on a new flight. Their priority is getting the plane and boarded passengers on their way before the crew times-out. This is normal.

Depending on the reason for the delay ask for compensation. But basic and ask for reimbursement. There is also a duty of care for the time you were at MAD airport (food/drinks).

Patrick74

Compensation is already settled to the legal maximum. I understand the airline's priority when their flight's departure is on time, but the MAD - PTY flight was standing at the gate for nearly 90 minutes after our arrival. Crew time was running anyway, so why didn''t they use this "opportunity" to get 20+ pax boarded? Btw, our luggage has not been loaded in our replacement flight to Lima, they delivered it with their next flight MAD - PTY 3 days later.

ft101

Load figures would have been signed off and paperwork completed with you offloaded. This would include safety critical things like fuel loaded. They aren't going to redo all this even if there was someone available to do it.

StuckInYYZ

Likely? After you were offloaded they onboarded other people (standys, misconnects, etc.). If they tried to offload the onboarded passengers to "reboard" you, they would have had a complicated nightmare (who gets to be reboarded, are the standbys and misconnects to be compensated, how long would it take to go through the luggage to pull those luggage and possibly try to load your luggage). It's a PR and logistics nightmare. One set of upset passengers instead of two. (And the associated compensation that would have resulted).

SK AAR

Outside the US pax on standby are not so common. For a flight MAD-PTY it would be extremely unlikely to have 20 pax on standby (unless the previous flight was cancelled or significant IRROPS at MAD this day or the previous). There might have been some ID pax (staff, crew etc) which have been accepted on the flight due to no-show but normally only 1-2 persons.

Anyway, once the gate is closed and the paper work is done/finalised it is close to impossible to board the flight. It is really immaterial how long the aircraft remained at the gate before taxing to take-off; it doesn't mean that ground staff can "re-open" a flight and board no-show pax.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

Spot on and in addition, the GA would have finished closing out the flight on their side and would be assigned to another flight which would be at another gate.

Patrick74

Understood, I was not aware of that. So their desicion was already made while we were somewhere btw ZRH and MAD. Thank you for the insight.

The GA was still at the gate. A poor shy girl. Probably to hand us the new tickets while we were watching the plane standing outside. We treated her friendly, don't worry :-)

Davvidd

Once the paperwork is done and doors closed and signed off it is almost impossible to redo the whole thing. It is not only GA but the load control, dispatch, loaders and equipment and baggage staff etc. It could be also be also slots. Tech delay is obviously unavoidable but it surprised me that they did not wait for 20 plus pax but in this case I think it has got to do with slots mostly if the same crew were operating. That said I have known airlines to wait if the pax numbers are big and if they have no issues waiting for the pax to arrive.