Compension for flight delay

Legacy_user

My daughter and her best friend are studying in Beijing and were supposed to come home for a belated Christmas today on a British Airways flight. The flight left Beijing at 12pm local time and after 1 hour the pilot told the passengers he was turning round because there was a problem with one of the windows in the cockpit.

After getting back to Beijing the girls had to wait around for 4 hours before being told that they couldn't get another flight until 9.50 local time tomorrow. Now they have been put up in a hotel but surely they are entitled to more compensation for a delay of 22 hours. This is delay means one less day at home with us and even worse jet lag as a result of all this messing around.

Does anyone have any idea what the norm is regarding compensation.

pennylane99

personally I would just be thankful the pilot decided to turn around and everyone is safe.....

lottee

I would imagine that as long as the airline paid for the hotel - which it sounds as if they did, then it will be down to an insurance claim. Presuming of course they took insurance? There is normally a section regarding missed departure/travel delay etc. TBH, don't really think jetlag will come into it.

System

pennylane we are all extremely grateful that the pilot was able to get back safely.

However BA make a fortune every year from millions of passengers worldwide and out of the huge profit they make surely can be expected to maintain their aircraft correctly. Given that an aircraft is a huge pressurised flying tube I would have thought that making sure the window seals were sound and weren't going to blow out would be a priority and part of their general maintenance routine.

The pilot indicated that there was a problem with the seal in one of the cockpit windows and 300-400 passengers spent about an hour worried to death and wondering if they were going to get back to land. Then they had to endure several hours being passed from pillar to post before the ground staff could confirm when they were actually going to be able to get home.

Checking flight arrivals this morning I have found that the girls had yet another delay of 2 hours before the flight took off. Hopefully this time it will arrive in Heathrow.

Amys

They will not be, the regulatiosn state that where there are exceptional circumstances the liaibity fo the airline is to provide the hotel and meals. If it were not a EU airline they would not even have had that. It is better that the pilot was safe, and they could not have forseen a problem with the window.

mystic_trev

No they won't and I can't understand why you think they should. As for BA profits - that's got nothing to do with compensation.Anyway - they'll be severly dented, paticulary with the Fog delays and cancellations before Christmas.I'm a frequent flyer, and occasionally these things happen. As another poster has said, if they have a claim then it'll be from thier Travel Insureres.

iceman_2

Pam17

BA do maintain their aircraft correctly, trust me. I'd be careful making accusations like that on a public forum if I were you. Anything that goes wrong with an aircraft is much more likely to show itself when airborne as the aircraft is under much more stress. And as in your case you didn't actually suffer a decompression then there probably wasn't actually a problem, the flight crew were (quite rightly) playing it safe.

Sam_Bee

I had the same thing with a flight bizarrely from London - Beijing with Air China. We spent 2 hours dumping fuel before making an emergency landing with loads of fire engines chasing us down Heathrow's runway.

My thoughts didn't turn to compensation - it was entirely 'thank ****' we're on dry land and safe and sound.

I'm comforted by the fact that in the UK we have the most stringent air safety laws, prohibiting any unairworthy planes from even USING UK airspace. Witnessed maybe by the Phuket Air Jumbo sitting in the middle of Gatwick at the moment....

These things happen, not worth wasting time or emotions on.