Missed connection due to pre-booked assistance not arriving.

slopemaster

Hello

This isn't actually about a claim for compensation, but I though people here might have some answers.

My first flight was delayed due to the Microsoft issue - obvs not the airline's fault - but made up time and got in only 25 min late. This gave me a very tight connection time (1 hr 20) but it should have still been possible. However, my pre-booked assistance did not arrive (in spite of multiple reminders to staff) until 10 minutes before departure time, when boarding had already closed.

Next flight is the following day, so I will arrive 28 hours late at my final destination and have extra costs for hotel and car hire. Also I had to stay overnight in an expensive airport hotel.

It seems to me that, though no compensation would be payable because of "exceptional problem" as partial cause, the airline should have covered the hotel.

They not only refused, but initially tried to charge me full price for rebooking as I was a "no show".

I understand that assistance is provided by the airport, not the airline, and it seems this is a grey area - can find no mention in EU rules. However, it also seems to me that the airport services are in effect subcontractors of the airline, who my contact is with. Surely the airline agrees to get me there?

My ticket was booked with Lufthansa and all three flights have LH flight codes - but, to further complicate things, 2 of them turn out to be codeshares and only the first was operated by Lufthansa - hence problems in rebooking.

I will be contacting Lufthansa to try to get the hotel reimbursed, but  does anyone know what sort of legal leg I might have to stand on?

Westin

“…it also seems to me that the airport services are in effect subcontractors of the airline, who my contact is with”

You don’t mention the transit airport but special assistance services are normally subcontracted out by the AIRPORT rather than by an airline.  For example at London Gatwick a company called Wilson James takes care of all the handling of passengers with special needs. No matter if you fly British Airways, Air India, EasyJet or TUI.

Could the failure of the special assistance team being late in collection also be down to the well published IT issues many faced yesterday? Perhaps the handling company had no access to records of who to meet - or possibly just over stretched with lots of unexpected late and cancelled flights.

I do recall someone (possibly this forum or another) reporting that they missed a flight from Bristol due to lateness of the special assistance company. I think it was Swissport in that instance but could be wrong.   They contacted that company after the event to claim back the knock on expenses.   Perhaps you could establish who the contracted party was and make contact with them.  

Yesterday was a truly horrid day for many and the resulting problems not really being something that can be attributed to the impacted airline/bank/shop/rail company/NHS/chemist/hospital etc….

Hoenir

Westin said:

Could the failure of the special assistance team being late in collection also be down to the well published IT issues many faced yesterday? Perhaps the handling company had no access to records of who to meet - or possibly just over stretched with lots of unexpected late and cancelled flights.

In such circumstances. Pre-booking would become irrelevant. Be a case of firefighting. Allocating available staff to the next most appropriate job. Assisting as many passengers as possible. Not helped by planes being allocated gates at the last moment. 

slopemaster

Yes, yesterday was certainly exceptional circumstances. The special assistance people did have me on their system, but I take the point about delayed flights and gate changes throwing everything into chaos.

I have contacted them direct, and will also contact the airline.

(I wanted to contact the assistance provider anyway as, although I was !!!!!! off they didn't turn up in time for me to catch my flight, the person who did finally turn up was super-helpful with the rebooking and recommending hotel etc., so I wanted to commend her.)

But,this is a situation likely to recur even without the exceptional circumstance. I have already once previously missed a connection because of this, and often been close to doing so. I was wondering whether the airline has any responsibility for the assistance services (although not provided by them) as it is booked through them, and without it  they aren't getting me from a to b, which is what I'm paying them for. Because if not, it's a huge risk every time I  travel, and I don't imagine it would be covered by travel insurance.

swingaloo

We use assisted travel when we fly but to be honest I think you need to give more than a 2 hour window for transfers. 

Last time we had to transfer we had to sit on the plane for quite a while waiting for the wheelchair assistance and bear in mind you are usually last off the plane as well.  By the time you have gone through all the system and been taken to your next gate 2 hours is easily eaten up.

Hoenir

slopemaster said:

I have already once previously missed a connection because of this, and often been close to doing so.

Then that's a warning to allow more than enough time for the transfer.  Too many variables for anyone to guarantee that something won' go amiss.