Missed flight due to time change - whose fault?

x3ja

Quite a while ago now, in September, my wife and I went to Morocco for 2 weeks. We bought the tickets through STA Travel and the airline was Royal Air Maroc (we booked the accommodation separately).

Whilst we were there the clocks were changed back an hour (apparently without much notice due to Ramadan). The following sequence of events happened:

1. We were unsure what this would do to our flight time. I assumed that it would be an hour later because when the clocks go back you get an extra hour in bed before going to work - leaving at 13.10 instead of the original 12.10.
2. We checked with Royal Air Maroc's local office where we were staying (Agadir) a few days before about the time of the flight. They confirmed it would be at 13.10.
3. We turned up at the airport at 11.00 to be told our flight was about to leave (11.10 take off) and we obviously couldn't get on it. We were directed to visit one of their local offices.
4. Royal Air Maroc offered us flights for us 5 and 6 days later (separate flights!) at significant extra cost when we visited another local office (this time in Marrakesh).
5. We ended up paying several hundred pounds for flights home the next day which we booked via the Internet in a local cafe.

When we got back we checked a few things and were annoyed to find that STA Travel had not sent us any emails regarding the change of time. In fact just before we left, on 30 August 2008, we had received an email linking us to a site confirming our flight times. We checked this site again on our return and it still stated the original time of 12.10.

So we wrote letters to both STA & RAM. The results of the letter to RAM are easy - nothing at all! Sent it to 2 addresses from their website and am yet to receive a response.

STA have at least been good enough to get back to us. They claim they sent an email on 27 August 2008 alerting us to the time changes. However, this was not received by us (also not deleted by accident or put in spam , I have checked the server logs and it was never received).

The main thing they mention is that you are advised to recheck 72 hours before departure. However:

• We did! But RAM gave us bad advice. Not STA's fault I guess.
• STA promise to contact you via email if changes to your itinerary occur before you depart the UK. They did not do this (although they claim they did) - we never received an email. It's my impression that it cannot be our fault that we didn't receive it as we didn't know it was being sent and that STA should have somehow verified that it was sent correctly (if, indeed, at all!)

So my main question is - do we deserve any compensation from anyone for the several hundred pounds of extra cost we incurred? My gut feeling is that we do, and that it's RAM who are mostly to blame, but that STA also didn't keep their promises to us. It's a shame RAM have not replied to us. Does anyone have any good tactics for getting in touch with the right people there?

Any advice much appreciated.

Moonchild

Can I clarify, as i'm a bit confused, and wonder if there is additional irrelevant information (not being rude, but just trying to clarify).

1) There was a schedule change to your flight, which meant it was now due to leave 1 hour prior to the time on the documentation you have.

2) This change happened before you left the UK.

If the above is correct, ask STA for a copy of the e-mail they claimed to have sent.

However, it appears you did re-confirm, but were given incorrect information? This is unfortunate, but might be their get out clause.

twelfthknight

Hi there
I've worked in the airline industry for 11 years. Sorry to hear about your situation but, so you are aware, your contract is with your agency. The airline's contract is also with the agency. Since the agency acts as a middle-man the airline would send notification to them, upon the understanding that they contact the passengers. On many ocassions the airline will not even have the passenger's contact details, hence the reliance upon the agency to have these details. An airline must contact a passenger regarding any schedule change at least 14 days in advance to avoid paying compensation, including to agency-booked passengers. The bit I'm unsure of (without checking) is that I can't rememebr if this is UK law or International law! Your first point of contact, in any case, should be the agency as you rightly have chosen. They should have some evidence of notifying you...if they have done. RAM would just refer you to them (if they bothered to reply). Best of luck!!

x3ja

Moonchild wrote: »

Can I clarify, as i'm a bit confused, and wonder if there is additional irrelevant information (not being rude, but just trying to clarify).

No problem - I'm sure I missed some bits out!

Moonchild wrote: »

1) There was a schedule change to your flight, which meant it was now due to leave 1 hour prior to the time on the documentation you have.

2) This change happened before you left the UK.

If the above is correct, ask STA for a copy of the e-mail they claimed to have sent.

The clocks changed by 1 hour, which was announced before we left (although we were unaware). STA say they were aware of it and they sent us an email on the 27th August (before we left) to inform us. I have obtained a screenshot of what they say is evidence from their system detailing the email that was sent. However it was never received, regardless of whether it was sent or not

Moonchild wrote: »

However, it appears you did re-confirm, but were given incorrect information? This is unfortunate, but might be their get out clause.

Yes, we did reconfirm and were given incorrect information by RAM (they said the flight would be 1 hour later, when indeed it would be 1 hour earlier)

twelfthknight wrote: »

An airline must contact a passenger regarding any schedule change at least 14 days in advance to avoid paying compensation, including to agency-booked passengers. The bit I'm unsure of (without checking) is that I can't rememebr if this is UK law or International law! Your first point of contact, in any case, should be the agency as you rightly have chosen. They should have some evidence of notifying you...if they have done.

That's useful information - thanks. In this case they claim they attempted to notify us via email but we did not receive it. I wonder if their attempting to contact us (despite it being unsuccessful) would be enough to satisfy their legal responsibilities. Any ideas?

duchy

I'm a little confused. The clocks changed by an hour but your flight changed by 2 hours ?

milkybars

If I get this correctly...

Original flight time 12:10
When clocks go back an hour, your body thinks its 7am when it's really 6am. But the flight time would still be 12:10 (your body would feel like it was 13:10 but a correct watch would read 12:10).

So had you turned up at the airport two hours before your flight (I'm guessing this from the info in your original post) then you should have arrived at 10:10 (by a correct watch, body thinking its 11:10) and would have made your flight.

When you say you turned up at airport at 11:00... was that 11:00 by a correct watch or an unchanged watch?

x3ja

Let me see if I can be a bit clearer about it

• The scheduled time of the flight, according to the tickets, was 12.10pm.
• The clocks changed back one hour at relatively short notice (after the tickets had been issued) and this affected the scheduled time of the flight.
• When we were told this (once we were already in Morocco), I assumed the departure time would change to 1.10pm (1 hour later), which was then confirmed by the local RAM office.
• However the departure time had actually changed to 11.10am (1 hour earlier).

Our watches were set correctly as the time change occurred 2 days after we arrived, so it was just a case of us & the RAM office wrongly interpreting how this would affect our flight time.

Let me try to explain another way how we made the mistake.

• When the clocks go back in the autumn, you get an hour extra in bed (because you have 1am-2am twice).
• The opposite is true in spring when the clocks go forward - you get an hour less in bed (because you skip 2am-3am).
• I tried to apply the same logic to the flight - assuming that because the clocks had gone back, we would have an extra hour in bed. (Although actually by this logic, we should have assumed the flight would still have been at 12.10, not 13.10, but that gets really confusing!)
• However the opposite was actually true - we had an hour less.

Do those make it any clearer? Maybe it just adds to the confusion!

It's really hard to explain, but I don't think it matters about the specifics because the time change was planned before we left for our holiday and STA should have contacted us. They claim they sent us an email, but we never received it. So the question is; regardless of how the time change was misinterpreted, do we deserve compensation because STA failed to notify us of the local change in departure time?

twelfthknight

Hi,
Sorry I'd not been on for a few days. Regarding whether an email is enough legally, I'm not sure to be totally honest. What I do know is that we, as an airline, send an email out to people booking online first. But I don't know if thats enough. I can check with our Customer Service manager who will definitely know the legalities of it as he's been with us over 15 years etc, but this won't be until Monday.
My gut reaction is that as long as they can prove they've sent it, then thats notification enough. However, a key thing will be WHEN they sent it....was it inside or outside 14 days prior to your departure?
Many thanks

x3ja

twelfthknight wrote: »

Sorry I'd not been on for a few days. Regarding whether an email is enough legally, I'm not sure to be totally honest. What I do know is that we, as an airline, send an email out to people booking online first. But I don't know if thats enough. I can check with our Customer Service manager who will definitely know the legalities of it as he's been with us over 15 years etc, but this won't be until Monday.
My gut reaction is that as long as they can prove they've sent it, then thats notification enough. However, a key thing will be WHEN they sent it....was it inside or outside 14 days prior to your departure?
Many thanks

That would be great if you could clarify - thanks!

They claim the email was sent on 27 August. We left the UK on 31 August and were due to return on 12 September. I guess it depends on which date you take as to whether it was within or outside the 14 days...

Voyager2002

x3ja wrote: »

That would be great if you could clarify - thanks!

They claim the email was sent on 27 August. We left the UK on 31 August and were due to return on 12 September. I guess it depends on which date you take as to whether it was within or outside the 14 days...

The relevant question is, whether the email was sent 14 days before the flight whose time was changed. Any other flights you were taking are not relevant.

Rikki

If our clocks go back here by 1 hour GM time doesn't that mean a country that is 1 hour ahead becomes two hours ahead.

So if your flight is at 12pm (Morocco time) and you are 1 hour ahead in Morocco, Your 12 pm flight is now at 11am their time.

Or am I completely wrong?