Discover airlines (Lufthansa group) refused compensation - what now?

katpix5

Hello. I logged a compensation claim via Lufthansa for a flight operated by Discover airlines. My first flight was late departing meaning I missed a connection, was rebooked and got home over 10 hours later than scheduled. Journey was over 3500km. Discover has replied to say that I am not eligible for compensation:

After careful review, we regret to inform you that we cannot approve it.

Please let us explain the reasons for our decision:

We apologize that the flight did not operate as scheduled. Even with all of the effort we make to always maintain the flight schedule and avoid waiting times, we unfortunately cannot fully rule out occasional delays at the airport. Congestion in airspace or restrictions by the authorities may lead to delays from time to time and can affect subsequent flights in the aircraft’s rotation that cannot always be made up. Unfortunately, this was the case regarding this flight due to the previous rotation 4Y54 on <Date>.

I've checked the passenger rights on the Lufthansa website and they point out scenarios which were not the case in my instance. "You are entitled to compensation if your arrival at your destination airport is delayed by more than three hours and the delay cannot be attributed to extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided by taking all reasonable measures. Such circumstances include poor weather conditions, political instability, strikes, security risks and unexpected deficiencies in flight safety."

Does anyone have any advice on next steps? Should I reply calmly stating the above extraordinary circumstances did not apply? Should I threaten small claims court action? Can anyone see any reason why I wouldn't be eligible?

bagand96

It sounds like they're saying that it was an ATC delay, although they don't specifically say it. If it was ATC then the airline would not be required to pay compensation. 

katpix5

Thanks for this @bagand96... do you know if there is any way I can validate this ATC delay? I was notified 9 hours before departure that the departure would be later than planned, which makes me think this is not an ATC related delay at my departure airport. The inbound flight was a bit delayed (28 mins) but they still had 1h20 to turn the flight around which I would have thought would have been enough.

bagand96

There's no publically available record of ATC delays.  You can go back to Lufthansa/Discover and ask for a more comprehensive breakdown of the reasons for the delay, as you doubt their explanation. They probably won't provide one.

At that point you can decide if you want to proceed, which would either be with legal action or Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  In either process the airline will be required to provide evidence to back up their claim of circumstances beyond their control.

The ADR body for Lufthansa Group is: Schlichtungsstelle für den öffentlichen Personenverkehr - söpTEST

eskbanker

katpix5 said:

Thanks for this @bagand96... do you know if there is any way I can validate this ATC delay? I was notified 9 hours before departure that the departure would be later than planned, which makes me think this is not an ATC related delay at my departure airport. The inbound flight was a bit delayed (28 mins) but they still had 1h20 to turn the flight around which I would have thought would have been enough.

ATC delays can be anywhere, so don't need to be specifically at your departure airport to qualify as extraordinary circumstances for compensation purposes, and ATC restrictions will sometimes be imposed in advance according to forecast weather conditions (or maybe other reasons), so early notification doesn't in itself cast doubt on the explanation.

There are sometimes insiders posting on here, so if you share more detail of your itinerary and date, then you might find that someone can offer more specific guidance about potential root causes of delays....