Delay in conecting airport claim rejected

pharmachris

I recently had a flight from London (LHR) to Bangkok (BKK) with Gulf Air which was delayed over 6 hours in Bahrain due to the connecting flight having a technical problem. The ticket was purchased as London to Bangkok flight and not as two separate tickets and both flights with the same airline . The airline has rejected the claim as they say the second flight was not on an EU airline and it did not originate from an EU airport despite overall the journey originating from an EU airport. They have offered me 3000 airmiles as compensation.
Are they correct or are they !!!!!!!!ting?
Can anyone advise or had experience of a flight delay claim through a hub airport.

Chris

DTDfanBoy

Your flight departed from an EU airport (LHR) and your arrival at your final destination (BKK) was delayed in excess of three hours, I think you have grounds for compensation.


The Sturgeon judgment makes it very clear that it is the delay to final destination that counts. The Folkerts Judgment further clarifies the matter as this formed part of the judgment

given that the compensation in question is not conditional upon there having been a delay at departure



I can't help but wonder if you would be receiving the same advice ie you are not covered, if your connecting flight in Bahrain was cancelled completely.

If the airline has no obligation to compensate you for a delay in such situations, there must also be no obligation to re-route passengers in line with article 8, or any obligation to provide the right to care stipulated in Article 9 :eek:

DTDfanBoy

Centipede100 wrote: »

It matters considerably where the delay took place in terms of whether you have a valid claim under 261/2004 and in this case it appears the airline are correct.

Obviously you mean in your opinion as there is nothing in the regulation that suggests that is the case

Caz3121

DTDfanBoy - have you found any examples where the airline has paid out either voluntarily or by order of court for situations where the flight delay is wholly outside the EU?...

Vauban

Are we still having this exchange? Again?

DTDfanBoy

The key question here is does the flight fall within the scope of the regulation :

Scope



1. This Regulation shall apply:

(a) to passengers departing from an airport located in the territory

of a Member State to which the Treaty applies;

(b) to passengers departing from an airport located in a third

country to an airport situated in the territory of a Member

State to which the Treaty applies, unless they received

benefits or compensation and were given assistance in that

third country, if the operating air carrier of the flight

concerned is a Community carrier.









My argument is that is does apply as it departed from an EU member state. Your argument seems to be that it doesn't as it departed from a Non Member state.

I am suggesting that the regulation does not allow for multiple points of departure.

If you apply your reasoning to 1 (b) each individual flight must count as a different point of departure , any EU carrier operating a long haul flight from say AKL-SIN-LHR would not be responsible for any delay caused on the AKL-SIN leg as this leg clearly does not fall within the scope of the regulation.

That flight clearly departed from a non EU member state for a non EU member state. If, as you are suggesting, the point of departure varies with each flight surely the carriers would not be paying out so many claims when such situations occur.

If a point of departure is defined when each individual flight leaves, you could only be compensated if the delay occurred on the SIN-LHR leg.

Obviously this would also have to be applied to outbound flights regardless of carrier, a delay in SIN on a LHR-SIN-SYD route would also fall outside the regulations.

If there is only one point of departure, as I suggest, the regulation must apply to the entire journey. And if it applies to entire journey the Folkerts Judgment makes it abundantly clear that the delay does not have to occur at the point of departure

DTDfanBoy

Centipede100 wrote: »

Your analogy regarding a journey from AKL-SIN-LHR on an EU carrier differs in one very fundamental way from that of the OP in that it is on an EU carrier whilst the OP was on flights operated by Gulf Air.

Surely you can't be suggesting that if the OP was flying on an EU carrier they would have a valid claim ??