Ryanair denied boarding

ripofflondon

eskbanker said:

saajan_12 said:

bagand96 said:

Also for future reference, flight times for both takeoff and landing are logged in a number of publically accessible places which can be accessed after landing. 

From my understanding the delay is measured based on when the doors open at the gate, not when the wheels touch down. Reason being, that's when you can actually get off, and this could easily make a 15 min difference. I'm not sure if there's always a reliable record of this time, and have personally seen this be several minutes after the landing time stated on Flight Aware for example, though I didn't think to film as its not something I'm accustomed to doing. However theoretically how should a passenger prove the doors opening time?

FlightAware does show gate departure and arrival, as well as take-off and landing times - the impact of taxiing is shown on the right hand side in an example from this afternoon, although I think their data is only accessible for a short period without subscription:

Hi all.

Dunno if anyone will see this thread and it is not my wish to reopen a past discussion about me being denied boarding.  

Reason for posting:  Something occurred to me after seeing this article - www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9x8w4r26nko and the something is that it makes mention of the flight ARRIVING 2.5 hours later than scheduled - but this thread says a flight has to arrive >3 hours later for UK/EU 261 compensation to trigger as opposed to DEPARTING >3 hours later.  
Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts?  
M

Alan_Bowen

You are confusing two different issues. The case dealt with a flight that was cancelled one hour before departure, the rule on cancellations says that if cancelled within 14 days of departure and there are no exceptional circumstances then compensation is payable. The 3-hour rule applies to delayed flights that arrive at the gate more than 3 hours after the scheduled time, in this case, it is the cancellation of the original flight that triggers the right to compensation

ripofflondon

Alan_Bowen said:

You are confusing two different issues. The case dealt with a flight that was cancelled one hour before departure, the rule on cancellations says that if cancelled within 14 days of departure and there are no exceptional circumstances then compensation is payable. The 3-hour rule applies to delayed flights that arrive at the gate more than 3 hours after the scheduled time, in this case, it is the cancellation of the original flight that triggers the right to compensation

Aha, thanks for that Alan.  V helpful.  

Out of interest, would flights from Spain to the UK being cancelled in Jan 21 either 'because of COVID' or with no reason being given be classed as exceptional circumstances?  

eskbanker

ripofflondon said:

Out of interest, would flights from Spain to the UK being cancelled in Jan 21 either 'because of COVID' or with no reason being given be classed as exceptional circumstances?  

For an airline to use the defence of exceptional circumstances in order to avoid making compensation payments, the onus is on them to clarify specifically what those circumstances were - obviously nobody can judge whether exceptional circumstances applied if no reason was given, and "because of COVID" isn't a reason in itself, i.e. it would depend on whether that related to generic timetable amendments announced well in advance, or something pandemic-specific affecting crew on the day of a flight, for example, and then there were other factors such as government-imposed travel restrictions, etc.

An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/5

The issues of how Covid impacted on compensation rights were complex and dynamic, so for a flavour of them, read through threads from that time on this board:

Coronavirus travel help & info — MoneySavingExpert Forum