Cancelled Flight - Verify Reason for Cancellation and Compensation?

airchie2

Hi guys,

I had booked for myself and family to go visit family in Brazil in Sept of this year.

The flights were from Aberdeen - London - Sao Paulo - Porto Seguro.

The flight from Aberdeen was cancelled and BA stated it was due to adverse weather in London.

However, the flights from Aberdeen to Heathrow a few hours before and after ours were not cancelled and a family member in London said the weather was fine.

I questioned this and asked for any evidence the flight was "cancelled due to Air Traffic Control restrictions caused by adverse weather conditions" as they claim but they said there's no way to confirm.

The flight was:

BA1303
Aberdeen - Heathrow (London) Terminal 5
5 Sep 2024
19:15

Is anyone able to check if air traffic control did put restrictions in place that day?

Thanks in advance,

jimi_man

Hi. The weather (for flying) that day was poor and there were quite a few cancellations - virtually all of which were WEAN code (weather related, no compensation payable). There were flow rate restrictions from ATC due to Cumulonimbus activity and consequently services where there were numerous flights (short haul flights) were cancelled. 

So I’d say that their reasoning is believable. 

airchie2

Thanks for that Jimi_man, much appreciated.

I guess I'll have to let them off this time.

Out of curiosity, where can you access this information?

Westin

“family member in London said the weather was fine”

Not wishing to be disrespected but this is not how the aviation world gets its weather.

Looking back on the records I can access, it does seem that on 5th September there was heavy rain moving through to day into southerly parts of the U.K. with risk of cumulonimbus cloud. This was to impact LGW/LHR/STN/LTN/SOU/BRS, so all the major airports in the south. It is the cumulonimbus cloud often creating the unknown as this is the cloud that can give hail, thunder and lightning. Warnings in place for these airports until 20:00z.  As a result air traffic flow restrictions were indeed put in place. LHR is already busy so any ATC restrictions can quickly create delays or cancellations.  Airlines just being told of a need to cut arrivals/departures by xx during certain periods.

I think the reason you have been given by BA for the cancellation is very credible.

Caz3121

There were a lot of weather related cancellations on that date.
This post from FlyerTalk has the list of cancelled departures (including the aircraft due to operate your flight)
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36504458-post2760.html
What happened to your journey in the end?

jimi_man

airchie2 said:

Thanks for that Jimi_man, much appreciated.

I guess I'll have to let them off this time.

Out of curiosity, where can you access this information?

I’m a Flyertalk member and it was posted on there. 

airchie2

Caz3121 said:

What happened to your journey in the end?

BA rebooked us with KLM on a flight that left around 18 hours later. As luck would have it, KLM bumped us up to premium economy for the Amsterdam to Sao Paulo flight. Sadly they also left our luggage in Schipol and we didn't get it until we'd been in Brazil for 3 days. Nicely, they agreed to pay us for the costs of the clothes we had to buy etc, sadly, their customer service was useless and couldn't provide a means for transferring them the info they asked for and then abruptly closed the case. (Got a separate post up about that here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6563733/klm-lost-our-luggage-agreed-to-refund-costs-then-never-did#latest)

Was good to get back to Brazil to see the wife's family again. Sadly was only for 2 weeks and nearly a quarter of that was chewed up with cancellations and baggage issues.