Flight Compensation, can I claim

Ticky58

Flight booked with Emirates, March this year, from Birmingham to Sydney Australia via Dubai. We were 15 mins late leaving Birmingham and were not allowed to go to the gate for our connecting flight. After being detained for almost half an hour we were taken to a desk and told we'd missed the connecting flight (this was the last flight of the day to Sydney) and we'd be on a flight the next morning.

We were told to go and queue for a meal voucher and that there were no hotel rooms available so would have to wait in the departure lounge. We were given a customer feedback form to fill in to make a complaint, which I did when we got back, I was told that it had to be posted and that there was no email address. I've never had a reply.

The service from the ground staff was absolutly awful although I can't fault the cabin crew. I don't want to let them get away with this as not only did it ruin the start of our "once in a lifetime" holiday we paid for the first night in a Sydney hotel and didn't get there until after mid day (the following day) because it was less than 24 hours notice for the hotel we couldn't cancel.

Any advise would be really appreciated.

CobyBenson

How long was your connection? What stopped you from going to the gate for your connecting flights?

Subject to your answers, I suspect you've got the right to claim 600 Euros compensation.

leylandsunaddict

Why were you detained and stopped from going to the gate? More information is needed before anyone can hazard a guess as to whether you are due compensation.

Ticky58

Hi Everyone
Thank you for the replies, I realise now that I gave you so little information sorry.

The connection time at booking was 1 hour 35 minutes, I did question at the time if this was enough time and was assured it was. We weren't given any information as to why we were late leaving Birmingham, we were also held up circling Dubai for a further 20 minutes.

When we landed and got off the plane and into the terminal we only had about 35 minutes to get to our plane. We came through a set of double doors, a man asked everyone on the Sydney flight to step to the left, he kept us there untill everyone from the flight had cleared (more than 20 mins) and then he told us to follow him. We were taken to a service desk and told we had missed the flight (the last one to Sydeny) and would be on the first one out the next day (10.15).
Nothing was communicated to us about why we were kept at the door or why we weren't allowed to try and make the flight, knowing (now) how big Dubai is we probably would have had to run and Im not sure if our luggage would have made it but we would have liked to try.

Our original flight number was EK040 on 22.3.13 our connecting flight should have been EK414 at 01:50 but ended up being EK412 at 10:15

Many thanks
Ticky

CobyBenson

Hi Ticky,

The minimum connection time between Dubai and Sydney is 1 hour 15 minutes.

The connection time on your flight only provided a 20 minute grace period. Any delay over 20 minutes means you're pretty much guaranteed to miss the next flight.

Airlines sell flights like these because they look more appealing to passengers than having a lengthy stop-over.

Unfortunately the reality is that many passengers end up missing their connections because a small delay (of for instance 20 mins in your case) can lead to them missing their next flight.

The case of Air France SA v Heinz-Gerke Folkerts sought to put a stop to this practice by holding airlines liable for the full compensation amount.

Looking at the data for the 30 days prior to your flight I can see that the Birmingham->Dubai flight was late every single time. This means Emirates should have been fully aware of the situation and they have failed to take reasonable measures to avoid you missing the connecting flight.

In short, yes I think you can claim 600 Euros.

Ticky58

Thank you all for your replies, I'll start my claim today and let you know the outcome.

Kindest regards
Ticky

amusedindian

Hi Ticky58,

Were you able to process a claim?

Thanks, AmusedIndian

Caz3121

poster has not been online since they last posted - you would be better looking at the non-EU airlines thread