Reimbursement when delayed flight resulted in missed connection

MrPez

We were delayed just over 4 hours coming back from a holiday. The delay meant we missed our connection from Gatwick to Glasgow.

Airline was British Airways who only operate a single flight from Gatwick to Glasgow on a Sunday and they offered a flight from Heathrow instead.

One of our party had been ill on holiday, is a pensioner and also waiting for a hip replacement. After all the travelling we'd already done, the prospect of travelling across London on the bus with all our luggage wasn't feasible so we opted for booking Easyjet flights from Gatwick to Glasgow ourselves (BA wouldn't do it for us). We declined the Heathrow flights.

I tried to claim for reimbursment for the Easyjet flights and BA declined on the basis of the delay not being their fault and said we weren't entitled to compensation. They didn't even comment on the Easyjet flights.

Are we entitled to refund for the flights we paid for?

elsien

What was the delay and who were you travelling with on that first leg of the journey - I.e., were they through tickets or two separately booked not linked flights?

MrPez

The delay was partly mechanical and partly due to a medical emergency on the flight before ours.

The journey booked was from Grenada to Glasgow (which was a single plane Grenada to St Lucia to Gatwick, then a connection from Gatwick to Glasgow). Booked with British Airways. We didn't book separate tickets or anything.

Grumpy_chap

MrPez said:

We were delayed just over 4 hours coming back from a holiday. The delay meant we missed our connection from Gatwick to Glasgow.

Airline was British Airways who only operate a single flight from Gatwick to Glasgow on a Sunday and they offered a flight from Heathrow instead.

One of our party had been ill on holiday, is a pensioner and also waiting for a hip replacement. After all the travelling we'd already done, the prospect of travelling across London on the bus with all our luggage wasn't feasible so we opted for booking Easyjet flights from Gatwick to Glasgow ourselves (BA wouldn't do it for us). We declined the Heathrow flights.

I tried to claim for reimbursment for the Easyjet flights and BA declined on the basis of the delay not being their fault and said we weren't entitled to compensation. They didn't even comment on the Easyjet flights.

Are we entitled to refund for the flights we paid for?

You probably are not entitled to a refund for the Easyjet flights.

BA probably should have provided the inter-connecting transport between Gatwick and Heathrow.  Did they offer this?
There are regular transfer buses that operate a bit like transfers between terminals in same airport, albeit longer.  I am, therefore, a bit confused by the reference to travelling across London on the bus.  Do you refer to trying to make your own way from Gatwick to Heathrow, or do you refer to the transfer services?  They scoot around the M25, no "travelling across London".

Given BA seem to have offered a solution with the transfer bus and the flight from Heathrow, the obligation on BA to book via another airline seems to be avoided.  Was the pensioner pre-advised as in need of support?  If not, BA cannot be expected to take that into account.

There may be a claim for delay for late arrival under UK261 but this will depend on the detail of the mechanical issue and the medical emergency as to whether BA are liable and could have avoided / mitigated.  It may well be that they could not have done so.

MrPez

Appreciate the reply.

BA did offer travel to Heathrow but they said this was by bus. I didn't know this was a specific airport transfer bus, I guess that's on me.

No, support at the airport wasn't pre-advised, although seats with increased leg room were bought for this reason. Not that we will have any way of verifying that. Oh well.

Okell

@MrPez -  you might be better advised to be posting on the dedicated flight delays board:   Flight delay compensation — MoneySavingExpert Forum

HillStreetBlues

MrPez said:

I tried to claim for reimbursment for the Easyjet flights and BA declined on the basis of the delay not being their fault and said we weren't entitled to compensation. They didn't even comment on the Easyjet flights.

Did you claim compensation or expenses? as they are handed differently.

MrPez

I asked for delay compensation, which was declined and I accept that.

I also requested reimbursement for the cost of the additional flights we booked due to the missed connection. I didn't ask for anything else, eg food. 

mdann52

It's worth taking this to CEDR, as it may well be reasonable under the circumstances to reroute on a different airline, especially if there were mobility or other concerns that would have presented an issue with changing airports. The CAA guidelines are avalible at https://www.caa.co.uk/publication/download/18744 and are well worth a read.

At the very least, BA should owe you reimbursement for the original London-Glasgow flights

eskbanker

Grumpy_chap said:
Given BA seem to have offered a solution with the transfer bus and the flight from Heathrow, the obligation on BA to book via another airline seems to be avoided.

I don't think that this is the case - the airline is obliged to offer rerouting "under comparable transport conditions", so introducing an additional leg by bus is arguably not comparable, or is at least less so than the option of using another airline's direct flight.

The CAA clearly believes so, in paragraph 4.3 of its guidance document, which envisages alternative airports to be offered only where there isn't an option from the same one:

In circumstances where there are no re-routing options under Article 8(1)(b) on its own services, or those of an alternative airline, on the same day as the original flight and via the same route, the CAA’s view is that the airline should next identify re-routing options available on the same day as the original flight but involving (a) the use of alternative airports located in close proximity to the original departure and/or arrival airports on both its own services and those of alternative airlines; (b) the use of alternative indirect flight routes on both its own services and those of alternative airlines; and (c) the use of alternative modes of transport

It also quotes the inherited EU guidance:

when using another air carrier or an alternative mode of transport for the part of the journey not completed as planned, the total travel time should, if possible, be as reasonably close as possible to the scheduled travel time of the original journey in the same or higher class of carriage if necessary

Therefore, if BA refused to book OP (and the rest of the party) onto an alternative direct flight, I'd suggest constructing an argument back to them along those lines and escalating to CEDR if BA don't play ball....

MrPez

Thanks guys. 
Couple of bits of information to add (sorry, should have included above). 
1. We received a refund of £3.77 per passenger a while ago. No correspondence came with it, so no idea if that may be the refund of the flights we didn't take. 
2. The total journey time with the easyjet flights was slightly longer in the end. If we had booked as soon as we got to Gatwick it would have been much quicker but because we spent time looking into the options suggested by BA the early easyjet flights were full and we eventually took a later one and got back to Glasgow around an hour later than we might have had we gone via Heathrow. We still felt that preferable to going across to Heathrow though.