Flight delay compensation, all other non-EU airlines

Sunjackal

Hi, I am currently in the midst of a journey that originated from London Heathrow to Singapore.

However, the flight involved a change in Doha - which has been delayed for 3 1/2 hours.

Qatar have provided us with a complimentary meal, but stated that they're not obliged to provide any other compensation.

Does the fact that the connecting flight is Doha to Singapore exclude us from EU law - given that we departed for the beginning of our journey from an EU airport.

Any advice would be appreciated, as I have read many articles but nothing that really covers this particular scenario.

Kind regards,

George

JPears

If you bought a single ticket with Qatar, unless the reason for the delay is an EC, you are probably due compensation under reg 261/2004.
this was decided in the court of appeal - Emirates v Gahan.
Emirates have been applied for leave to appeal but it has not been granted yet. So it is law.
However, you will have to wait until your final ARRIVAL time at Singapore, not your departure time.

Sunjackal

Our flight is QR946.

The assistant explained that the delay is caused by the fact that our departing plane is actually an inbound flight from Adelaide - but it hasn't arrived yet. So they've basically booked us on to a flight that doesn't even arrive until after our scheduled departure time.

I presume that this isn't considered an exceptional circumstance?

Thanks for the response,

George

jpsartre

Sunjackal wrote: »

I presume that this isn't considered an exceptional circumstance?

That depends on why the incoming flight was delayed.

Sunjackal

That's the strange part.

It's not scheduled to arrive in to Doha until 04:50am - so it was impossible that it would have been there for us to depart at the scheduled departure time of 01.55.

Surely they don't intentionally leave an entire flight stranded, though?

JPears

Are you sure its not just delayed or is this the routine flight time?
If the latter than you will possibly have a stronger case as you have not previously been informed in the change to your timetable.

Looking into, what may have happened is they are having to use the plane from Adelaide/Doha for your flight as an alternative - perhaps they normally use another plane from a different incoming flight. There are 2 Qatar flights earlier, one severely delayed by 3hrs and one cancelled incoming to Qatar. So they have taken an operational decision to use a different aircraft?
Interestingly the flight from Adelaide left quite a bit earlier than scheduled, presumably to minimise your delay?
So compensation,under current EU/UK law is probably due.
Expect Qatar to make claiming difficult but keep us up to date.

jpsartre

Could there have been a schedule change that you missed?

JPears

Especially if you booked through an agent.
Either way, the onus is still on the airline to ensure you have been informed.

fifeken

It looks like it arrived 3 hours 20 minutes late in to Singapore, so that satisfies the conditions for compensation. Depends on the reason for the delay now.

Nookiedv

I was due to fly back to Gatwick on Saturday with Westjet but the first of three flights were cancelled so they moved my flights to Sunday. That was all fine as I had somewhere to stay on Saturday night. However, I was due to be flying from Gatwick back to the Isle of Man on Sunday with Easyjet and because my flight was cancelled I had to pay almost £100 to change my Easyjet flight to the next day. I took out travel insurance with Aviva before my trip, but who should I try to claim this cost from? Westjet or my travel insurance? Thanks.