Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

DTDfanBoy

I would suggest that the whole thing hinges on whether or not the onward connection was actually cancelled at any point, or your baggage not being checked all the way through was a result of a miscommunication within BA.

In my experience airlines do not cancel then reinstate flights at short notice.

A lot of BA's flights left Heathrow as scheduled on the 27th, therefore I don't see how they could claim at JFK that all outward flights at Heathrow were cancelled, which your initial post suggests they did.

It sounds to me that due to mismanagement of the situation your baggage was not checked through, which led directly to you missing your connecting flight, had the baggage been checked through, as it should have been, a 30 minute delay which was due to an EC would have played no part in you missing your onward flight

The reality of the situation is that for weather conditions to be counted as EC they have to affected the flights concerned, the Regulation states

"meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned"

The facts are that your initial delay was most probably caused by EC, but that delay was not the cause of you missing your onward flight, which was not affected by an EC. Your delay was caused by BA not taking reasonable measures to ensure you were able to catch your flight.

Have you contacted the airline yet ?

DTDfanBoy

Centipede100 wrote: »

By your own admission you were delayed 30 mins or so due to strong winds at LHR on landing and subsequently missed your onward flight by 15 minutes partly by having to reclaim your baggage. However the root cause of the delay in arriving at your final destination was due to the meteorological conditions affecting your landing at LHR.

In those circumstances I cannot see a valid claim for compensation as if you had landed on time the chances are that you would have made the original connection.

I get the feeling that you don't understand the significance of having your bags checked all the way through. To go through the connections route at Heathrow your baggage must be checked through, all BA flights ticketed with Heathrow connections take this into account.

If your baggage isn't checked through, as the case is here, you can no longer take the connection routes through Heathrow, that means instead of simply checking through Immigration and Security you have to collect luggage and pass through Customs, then queue again for check in and drop bags clear security etc.

Essentially it becomes impossible to make some connections ticketed by BA, if your luggage hasn't been checked through.

Vauban

And I get the feeling that you don't brook dissent, DTD

If the original flight was cancelled due to predictions of significant weather disruption, and indeed the pax was late on arrival because of the same meteorological phenomenon (ie a major storm over the south of England) I think it is extremely unlikely that the OP will persuade a judge that this is not ECs.

The OP might like to solicit a view from a NWNF firm, to see if they'll take it on. I bet you a pie and a pint that they won't.

DTDfanBoy

Vauban wrote: »

And I get the feeling that you don't brook dissent, DTD

If the original flight was cancelled due to predictions of significant weather disruption, and indeed the pax was late on arrival because of the same meteorological phenomenon (ie a major storm over the south of England) I think it is extremely unlikely that the OP will persuade a judge that this is not ECs.

The OP might like to solicit a view from a NWNF firm, to see if they'll take it on. I bet you a pie and a pint that they won't.

Had the flight to LHR been delayed excessively by weather I would certainly agree, if the flight from LHR was indeed cancelled at some point due to weather I would also agree.

I suspect that the OP's flight from LHR was never cancelled, and BA were simply trying to reduce load on there connections staff at LHR by processing passengers who were scheduled on flights that were cancelled.

EC can only be applied to the flight in question, the original flight was delayed 30 minutes, the outbound flight was not affected by any EC.

The question that needs to be answered is was a 30 minute delay responsible for the OP missing the connection, or was the fact that the OP's luggage was not checked through to the final destination an overriding factor ?

I think it's fairly certain that had the OP's baggage been checked through they would have suffered no delay to final destination.

I don't see how an airline could argue successfully that the baggage wasn't checked through due to the potential of an EC occurring on the onward flight. Every flight has the potential for EC to occur, the regulation only makes allowances for EC that have actually eventuated.

Vauban

Indeed. That's exactly the argument I would make. But I think that a court is still likely to conclude that, in the context of an approaching storm, the airline was reasonable and that weather was the principal cause of delay.

DTDfanBoy

Vauban wrote: »

Indeed. That's exactly the argument I would make. But I think that a court is still likely to conclude that, in the context of an approaching storm, the airline was reasonable and that weather was the principal cause of delay.

Agreed it certainly wouldn't be easy, but given that flight actually made it to the destination, and the subsequent flight departed without issue I'd certainly be willing to try my luck.

I'm keen to see what BA reply with, I'm fairly sure it will be the typical EC response though.

It would be great if you could keep us informed opinions4you, it sounds like there could be ale and pies riding on the outcome

monkeydust_2

Was coming home today from singapore to london via B12. Heres my pain (which is still going on as I dont have any luggage or house keys!)

- BA12 flight overbooked. I was flying business that was overbooked by 6 seats and a few in first apparently.
- They offered a re-route but from Singapore to Frankfurt (Singapore Airlines), then Frankfurt to London (Lufthansa) in Business with £125. I had to get home today so took this, the alternative was standby then getting risk or being denied and being stuck for a while.
- Anyway got to Frankfurt and they bumped me to a later flight even though I could have made the original one.
- Was supposed to land 5am, landed 9.30am.
- Luggage missing, hoping its on a later flight today filed a missing claim with Lufthansa

How much pain can I cause BA for trying to be greedy and overbooking me? The BA manager at Singapore says this happens often EVEN though their historical numbers they send management show that cancellations are almost zero i.e. everyone turns up for the seat they booked!

Appreciate the help.

MD

DTDfanBoy

Providing you arrived at Heathrow over 4 hours after your initially scheduled flight was due to arrive, you can claim $600 euro as you were denied boarding then re-routed.

Whoops missed the bit about you accepting the £125 compensation, did you volunteer to give up your seat ?? If so no compensation is payable

opinions4u

Thanks for the debate guys.

I'll approach BA next week and see what happens.

If we'd stuck to plan A we'd have been home on time, despite the weather. Because somebody panicked at JFK (and we acted on their intervention) we were delayed.

So while I anticipate a defence of bad weather, it doesn't seem to stand up to scrutiny.

But I'm not prepared to exaggerate or misrepresent the truth. What I've posted is what happened.

monkeydust_2

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

Providing you arrived at Heathrow over 4 hours after your initially scheduled flight was due to arrive, you can claim $600 euro as you were denied boarding then re-routed.

Whoops missed the bit about you accepting the £125 compensation, did you volunteer to give up your seat ?? If so no compensation is payable

THats what I was thinking but the BA manager at the airport advised me to claim! I have all her details of course.