flight delay - multiple airlines involved

crex

We'd booked Edinburgh to Johannesburg through Air France. The schedule was Edinburgh to Amsterdam (KLM), Amsterdam to Paris (KLM), Paris to Joburg (Air France), arriving Joburg 08:55 local time.
Before departing Edinburgh, we were informed that some flights at Schipol had been cancelled due to freezing fog, including our connecting flight to Paris. I quickly contacted KLM, who rerouted us through Nairobi instead of Paris, the last two legs operated by Kenya Airways. Our new arrival time in Joburg was then 10:50 local time.
After arriving in Nairobi on schedule, we boarded the flight to Joburg. But after a long wait on the tarmac we were disembarked due to a technical fault with the aircraft. There followed a long wait at Nairobi. We finally departed much later, and the Kenya Airways flight finally landed in Johannesburg at 17:00. Having had an original booking to arrive at 08:55, this delay caused us considerable extra expense and inconvenience.
So my question is - in this scenario, who, if anyone, is the correct avenue to follow up with a flight delay compensation claim? Air France, KLM and Kenya Airways are all part of Sky Alliance, if that makes any difference.
Thanks for reading to the end!

Grumpy_chap

crex said:

We'd booked Edinburgh to Johannesburg through Air France. The schedule was Edinburgh to Amsterdam (KLM), Amsterdam to Paris (KLM), Paris to Joburg (Air France), arriving Joburg 08:55 local time.
Before departing Edinburgh, we were informed that some flights at Schipol had been cancelled due to freezing fog, including our connecting flight to Paris. I quickly contacted KLM, who rerouted us through Nairobi instead of Paris, the last two legs operated by Kenya Airways. Our new arrival time in Joburg was then 10:50 local time.
After arriving in Nairobi on schedule, we boarded the flight to Joburg. But after a long wait on the tarmac we were disembarked due to a technical fault with the aircraft. There followed a long wait at Nairobi. We finally departed much later, and the Kenya Airways flight finally landed in Johannesburg at 17:00. Having had an original booking to arrive at 08:55, this delay caused us considerable extra expense and inconvenience.
So my question is - in this scenario, who, if anyone, is the correct avenue to follow up with a flight delay compensation claim? Air France, KLM and Kenya Airways are all part of Sky Alliance, if that makes any difference.
Thanks for reading to the end!

Is there any entitlement to delay claim?  The root cause appears to be weather at Amsterdam and a re-route to avoid that impact.
What extra expense and inconvenience did you incur?

Ayr_Rage

My personal opinion, AF/KLM did all they could to get you to your destination on the same day.

The tech issue with Kenya Airways was unfortunate but you still arrived on that same planned day.

Did Kenya Airways offer you anything after the aircraft went tech?

crex

Is there any entitlement to delay claim?  The root cause appears to be weather at Amsterdam and a re-route to avoid that impact.
What extra expense and inconvenience did you incur?

Well I’m asking here to try to clarify it. The MSE article suggests an entitlement to compensation if over 3 hours late. I agree that the weather at Amsterdam only made us 2 hours later than scheduled. The aircraft fault at Nairobi made us 8 hours later than scheduled.
There were 6 of us travelling. The delay meant we could no longer reach our intended final destination the day of arrival, but were too late to cancel our accommodation and dinner booking. We had to.book an overnight stay in Johannesburg instead.  So we are a fair bit out of pocket, and I’d want to follow it up if I can. Thanks 

crex

Ayr_Rage said:

My personal opinion, AF/KLM did all they could to get you to your destination on the same day.

The tech issue with Kenya Airways was unfortunate but you still arrived on that same planned day.

Did Kenya Airways offer you anything after the aircraft went tech?

Thanks. You are right about AF/KLM, and I did indeed arrive (much later) the same day. I didn’t think these were the critical points in determining flight delay compensation, but I’m not an expert.
Kenya Airways offered a bottle of water to a lot of very frustrated passengers stuck at Nairobi.

bagand96

EC261 is specific in that any claims are against the operating air carrier, regardless of codeshares/ticketing etc.

There's no claim against KLM because the delay was due to weather, and in any event they rerouted you within the allowed timescales.

The only avenue against an operating air carrier is Kenya Airways.  I expect their view will be that EC261 won't apply because they're not a UK/EU carrier and they were not operating from the UK/EU on that flight.  I'm not sure if the fact your journey and ticket started in the UK would mean you are entitled to compensation.

Your travel insurance may cover you for losses depending on the policy.

eskbanker

bagand96 said:

The only avenue against an operating air carrier is Kenya Airways.  I expect their view will be that EC261 won't apply because they're not a UK/EU carrier and they were not operating from the UK/EU on that flight.  I'm not sure if the fact your journey and ticket started in the UK would mean you are entitled to compensation.

We discussed a similar scenario in an old thread, in which a precedent case was cited that would hold Kenya Airways liable to pay compensation here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6389008/shared-code-airlines-passing-the-buck