US Airways flight delay compensation help

SDG31000

I was due to fly to Orlando, via Philadelphia, from Heathrow Airport on Saturday 16th April at 12.20pm. However my flight from Heathrow was delayed for 6 hours due to a technical problem. During this time we were told to go back to the main terminal to eat as they were not sure how long the delay would be. We were offered no vouchers for this. As the delay was so long we missed our connecting flight at Philadelphia and the next one which was the last flight of the day. Along with a lot of other passengers we were told that they couldn't find any hotels for us and that we were booked on a flight on Monday 18th April. After a phone search of over an hour we finally found a hotel with rooms available in New Jersey and spent a considerable amount of money getting there. After wasting two days of our holiday in NJ, we spent even more money to get back to the Airport and eventually got to Orlando 43 hours later than planned.
We have emailed US Airways to ask for our expenses back, (over $400), and compensation for the delay. They have said that they won't re-emburse us and have offered us $200 in US Airways vouchers each instead. These we won't be able to use as we don't have the money for the rest of the cost of the flights.
I know what we are entitled to under EU law, but don't know what we are entitled to under US law or if we are covered under EU law as the flight and delay were there.
Can anyone help please?

dzug1

As the flight originated in the EU you are entitled to EU law coverage. Had it been your return flight US law would have prevailed.

And I'm not sure where EU law stops - Philadelphia or your final destination.

Under US law you have no entitlement that I'm aware of

dawyldthing

it might be covered under your travel insurance i think, it depends which you took out and what the small print says

mali786j

Our flight was delayed over 9 hours from Charlotte airport to London Gatwick in May 2011. Travelling with 3 young kids and no assistance or food voucher from Us Airways it was my worst flight experience ever.

Flight was due 6pm, but then delayed till 9pm. Later we boarded around 9.30pm, however the flight didnt leave until 4ish in the morning the next day. YES - we were stuck inside the plane all that time! Due to airport being closed around 10/11pm I think with no airport security, we couldnt leave the plane and get any food either. The delay was due to technical fault and they kept saying, "should be sorted in next 30min" all that time and then around 1.30am we had also a passenger who needed emergency medical treatment, maybe due to the long delay.

Anyway complained to US Airways and aksed for compensation, but they replied with $100 voucher, to be used on their flights when booking next. And they think I will travel with them again?

Huey

The Charlotte - Gatwick route is apparently a nightmare. Last month I was delayed by 48 hours coming back to LGW from CLT with US Airways. They dealt with it very poorly (I could go on, but I won't). I am grateful we weren't on the plane until 4am like you were Mali786j. We were supposed to fly at 6:25, left the aircraft at about 11pm and got to a hotel at about 1-2am.
I say the route is a nightmare because the girl serving us in the hotel we were put up in on the second night saw our meal vouchers and said, "Oh, vouchers! US Airways is it?" "Yes" we said. To our surprise, her next question was, "So, Jamaica or Gatwick?" It turns out that those flights seem to get delayed almost every week, like clockwork.
I'm in the process of trying to get compensation for that delay. If they try and fob me off with $100 voucher, they'll be getting a polite but firm, 'try again'. In (or flying from) the EU you would be entitled to several hundred Euros of compensation:
w w w .moneysavingexpert.c o m/travel/flight-delays
(can't post links as a new user, so delete the spaces from the above url)

This isn't the case in, or flying from, the US:
airconsumer.dot.gov/publications/flyrights.htm#delayed
...unless you're bumped because the flight was overbooked by the carrier. I am surprised that the US lags behind Europe so far in terms of passenger rights on this matter.

This sort of delay isn't covered by travel insurance. They're the first people I called. They'll cover about £20 a day for a meal and a phone call, something like that.

To the original poster (SDG31000), I agree with dzug1, you ought to be entitled to compensation. The delay from Heathrow was the cause of the problem. See the first link above. I'm not sure how connections work though. Any compensation might not cover the philadelphia to orlando part of the flight if that departed on time - its essentially the travellers responsibility to be there for the flight. If the connection was with the same carrier and booked with them at the same time as the first leg, perhaps that's different...again I have no idea.