Missed connection due to original flight delay (Virgin Atlantic)

kaysdee

Hello,

Hope someone can point me in the right direction as very unfamiliar with the process and haven’t travelled for many years.

All flights booked as a return EDI to GNV with a connection in ATL via Virgin Atlantic.
Delta was the carrier.

My daughter, solo traveller (17, will be 18 on the day of her return flight) flew yesterday and missed her connection as the flight from Edinburgh was delayed, which was only notified a few hours before departure.

EDI-ATL original dep 12.05, arr 16.00

She boarded apx 12.45 but has 5 rebooking emails from Delta as they kept saying “we’ll be leaving in 20 mins”, before finally taking off at 16.02 and arriving 19.31 local time.
The reasons given during the announcements was to do with an issue with the fuel paperwork.

Connection ATL- GNV was originally dep 18.18, arr 19.30

As she missed this, Delta rebooked her on dep 22.16, arr 23.22 (after originally telling her she’d need to fly the next day and spend the night at the airport! They then found her a standby place)

Originally reached out the Virgin at the time to ask them to rebook her connection but they said they couldn’t as the next flight was unavailable and simply said to speak to Delta to resolve when she landed.

Is she able to claim long haul compensation for both parts of the journey, so £260 each flight, even though the second flight was technically not delayed but rebooked due to a missed connection? And this should be done via Virgin Atlantic?

Flight 1, 3hr 30 delay
Flight 2, 3hr 52 delay due to missed connection (does she still claim this under delay rules even though her original connection flight wasn’t delayed itself? Just wondering what to use when it asks flight numbers and departure times, etc)

Thanks so much for any pointers/clarification

400ixl

I believe the delay is measured in getting to the final destination only. So would only be one claim, provided the delay was within the control of the airline.

Caz3121

no separate claim for the second flight for a couple of reasons
1) standalone Internal US flights are not covered by EU regulations
2) you cannot claim for a flight delayed you if you were a no-show (failed to be at the gate on time)

There is one claim for the journey based on delayed arrival at final destination. As this was under 4 hours from the timings then potentially £260 compensation however this will all depend on the reason for the delay from Edinburgh. The operating carrier is the one that you claim from, as Edinburgh to Atlanta is operated by Delta, the claim is from Delta

kaysdee

Brilliant, thank you both.

They didn’t have delay compensation the last time I flew so this is all new to me. I’ll get her to sort this all when she gets back.

As upset as she was at the time, I bet she’ll be gutted it wasn’t delayed those extra 8 minutes for the +4 hours value - actually, her flight was due to land 23.30 and it came in early. 

Her first experience of solo travelling and she was so stressed. Thank goodness they had onboard Wi-Fi so I could keep in touch.

Thanks again.

DullGreyGuy

kaysdee said:

They didn’t have delay compensation the last time I flew so this is all new to me. I’ll get her to sort this all when she gets back.

As upset as she was at the time, I bet she’ll be gutted it wasn’t delayed those extra 8 minutes for the +4 hours value - actually, her flight was due to land 23.30 and it came in early. 

Her first experience of solo travelling and she was so stressed. Thank goodness they had onboard Wi-Fi so I could keep in touch.

Also be thankful that you bought a continuous ticket... many these days get lured in by "self transfer" (and various other names) tickets which are much cheaper but are two separate tickets so when your first leg is delayed and you miss your connection you are totally on your own to resolve it (plus your more likely to miss it as you always have to collect your luggage, go through immigration, check in with your next airline and clear security again.